Nowadays, planning and scheduling a content marketing strategy is essential for an effective project. Why? Because without it, you would essentially have a bunch of good ideas that would never see the light of day.
For many companies, organizing their content using an editorial calendar has been the perfect fit for a compelling marketing strategy. In fact, an editorial calendar is a perfect tool to coordinate content creation, editing, and publishing, with internal and external authors, all while keeping everyone informed on the status of your company’s content strategy.
So, now you’re asking yourself: should I consider adding an editorial calendar to my strategy? If the answer is yes (and we bet that it is), you’ve come to the right place. We’ll show you how to create a well-defined editorial calendar with clear roles and responsibilities, that will help you maintain a steady content production all the while communicating in context with your teammates.
The digital era
Sure, you’ll find a bunch of spreadsheets online and they will help you keep your work organized. But if you’re ready to level up, using a tool like Instagantt will help you take your game to the next level. Why? Because it allows you to keep your ideas and key topics in place, assign tasks to your teams, maintain a consistent flow of work, and most importantly, visualize the outcome of your strategy. Do you work with multiple teams, departments, and even remote or external workers? Not a problem, we know exactly how to handle it. By building an editorial calendar you will be keeping everyone synced on their activities by showing them a clear picture of the workflow.
Plan away
Begin by typing your ideas. Each task represents a piece of content you need to tackle. Follow by assigning a few sub-tasks: Author, Title, Topic Type, Image Design, Deadline and Publishing Date. Next up is assigning who’s doing what. Don’t forget your Social Media channels and assigning your best Community Manager to the task.
Always meet your due dates
Get a real perspective on your publishing strategy by drawing your dates on the chart. This way, you’ll know exactly what your team is working on, what’s ready for publishing and what’s already been published (in other words, what your readers are reading). Type each task down; trust me, this will help you follow the track of every idea: from fresh new content options to a hype editorial piece.
Certainly, you’ll be a pro in no time. Use different colors for each type of content and each of your different social media channels, or use colors to identify which one of your team members are responsible for the next task.
Make sure nothing falls through the cracks
By working with tasks and subtasks options, you will be aware of what the next chore is. Thoroughly navigate through your tasks, such as social media posts times, by using subtasks as checklists.
Once you start using an editorial calendar regularly, you will notice how your team’s organizational skills will improve greatly, how your reader’s engagement will grow, all the while easily tracking the success and effectiveness of your content strategy.
