4 min read
“We all want quick fixes and wins. That’s human but short sighted. Successful content marketing demands a long game mindset. Keeping fit and training requires persistence. Building a big brand is a journey. So keep going as there is no other way. Content marketing demands persistence.” — Jeff Bullas
You’re a great content creator yourself or have an efficient team of content creators sitting by to give a voice to your brand. You understand your audience and know exactly what kind of content you should generate to keep them engaged.
But what good is all this if you don’t have a concrete plan about how, where, and when you’re going to push your content so your audiences can consume it in the most effective way?
Whether you publish your content on your business website, blog, or use social media marketing as the tool to market your content, you require a proper and clear roadmap so that whatever you publish hits the bulls eye.
That’s exactly why you need a content marketing calendar as the starting point of your content marketing strategy. As easy and straightforward as this task may seem, it involves taking into consideration a plethora of factors so your end result makes an impact.
Keep reading for a few actionable tips to build a content marketing calendar that works!
1. Set Your Goals Right.
- Determine why you want to publish your content online. What do you expect your current consumers and prospects to do with your content?
- Establish beforehand whether your content is intended to spread your brand voice, generate new leads, fetch more relevant website visits, or gain organic traction
- If your content marketing goals are not clear and precise, your entire strategy will go for a toss. Setting proper objectives will help in determining the kind of content you’re going to produce, its frequency, and where it would be published.
2. Determine Where You’re Going to Publish.
- If you’re a seasoned player in the business, you’ll know exactly where your audience consume most of their content. However, if you’re a new kid on the block, you’ll need to conduct some research on which channels your audiences use most.
- That will give you a fair idea on whether you should make an article live on your website blog or post videos, images, reels, etc., to market your content on social media platforms.
- Once you succeed in determining the right channel(s) to market your content, customer engagement and brand awareness will naturally follow.
3. Figure Out Important Days for Publishing Special Content.
- This is an important step in creating an actionable content marketing calendar. In order to determine this, start with all the important dates in the calendar year—holidays, festivals, trade fairs, seminars, etc. Make sure your content, no matter what format, goes live without fail on these important days.
- Also, determine the seasonal content you might need to publish within the year. This may include anything such as festive discounts, educational webinars, corporate workshops, and so on.
- This step will give you a clear estimation of the upcoming workload and will allow you to line up your resources ahead of time.
4. Decide the Publishing Frequency and Set Deadlines.
- Once you figure out what kind of content you want to generate based on your customer preferences and business goals, the next step is to determine how frequently you’re going to publish it—daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc.
- Put in your content details date-wise in the calendar and make sure that the schedule is followed religiously.
- Also, it is important to make it time-bound. Set deadlines for every piece of content on the calendar and ensure that the piece is ready with all the edits and amends at least 24 hours before the deadline to avoid last-minute hassles.
5. Monitor if Your Content Marketing Goals are being Accomplished.
- Merely publishing content on a regular basis is not important. It is also equally important to take stock of whether it is doing its job well; whether it is doing what it is supposed to do.
- Apart from monitoring engagement on various social media marketing platforms, make optimum use of tools such as Google Analytics, etc., to learn how your audiences are responding to your content.
- This will give you a very clear picture as to whether your current content marketing strategy is working or whether you need to revise it and make an all-new calendar.
“One thing is certain: if you don’t keep an editorial/content calendar, the content doesn’t get done.” — Joe Pulizzi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute
If you believe in the power content holds in shaping your business and your audiences’ behavior as a whole, then get started on creating a content marketing calendar now!
However, let us tell you that you don’t have to do it on your own. IKF is a digital marketing company in Pune that can help you accomplish your content marketing and social media marketing goals effectively. Contact us now or call us at +91 88888 66110. You can also send us an email at sales@ikf.co.in.
Ashish Dalia is the CEO & Chief Digital Marketing Strategist at I Knowledge Factory Pvt. Ltd.
Ashish Dalia is the CEO & Chief Digital Marketing Strategist at I Knowledge Factory Pvt. Ltd.
