Chibi
Chibi
If you own or manage the website in a large company, you would often come across these questions.
Today, I’m going to introduce “Content Calendar” which can answer these questions.
- What is a content calendar?
- Why do you need a content calendar?
- Tips and How to
- Tools
- Template
It’s definitely worth reading If you work for digital marketing in a company.
Heysho
Contents
What is a Content Calendar?
Content Calendar is a file that you can see the schedule and the history of your activities for website contents creations and promotions.
It’s also called Editorial Calendar.
It usually includes the following information.
- List of Events, Promotions, Activities
- Work Progress Status
- Marketing Channels(SNS, News Article, News Letter etc)
- Program Owner
Why Do We Need Content Calendar?
If you just run your own website by yourself, you wouldn’t need this.
If you work for a company and are trying to increase traffic and sales through marketing activities, it’s best to regularly check the list of activities and understand what’s going on with your business.
To make sure if your plan is released in time
There are a lot of events and opportunities to take advantage of and you can check if everything is covered and released in time.
We can also check if the marketing channels are active and promoting the new content regularly.
Content Calendar can make it easier for everyone to share the upcoming events, especially if you are working for a larger size of the company or working with some vendors.
You can share the file with Google Sheet URL then anyone can align what’s going on for the next few months just by clicking the link from Google Sheet.
Overview the Activities
You can check the balance of your content type by overviewing the content calendar.
For example, you might realize that you are posting about Case Study articles like 5 days in a row.
Heysho
How to Create a Content Calendar
Process
Here is one example to create a simple content calendar.
First, make a draft on Excel or Google Sheet, and see what columns are required.
- Step 1: List up all the events/campaigns to have an idea of how to group the list.
- Step 2: Think about the publish frequently. This would make you decide how to design the calendar to be daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Step 3: Fill out the column for publish date.
The most important thing is to be simple and easy to use.
There are a lot of tools for Content Calendar but if you are a beginner and don’t know how to manage it, it would be best to start by Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel.
Plan Editorial Contents
The biggest advantage to have a content calendar is to organize your editorial content.
Editorial contents are the key to gain your brand loyalty and it’s always good to stay organized and consistent with the publishing schedule.
Some companies even plan 1 year in advance.
Heysho
Plan Promotional Contents
You can plan your promotions, campaigns, or new content for your business.
- When are you going to share this new page on Facebook?
- Should we promote this campaign by News Letter?
It would be nice to check with the file to see if you are making the best decision to promote the new content.
You can place the plan for editorial and promotional content in one place and make it easier to distinguish by applying different color-code, rather than separating the sheets.
Bucket Your Content, Promotion Ideas
If something like a trending topic or new ideas comes up to you, you can place the ideas on the content calendar.
It doesn’t have to be specific when to publish or what to do, but it’s good to keep it in the file so that it doesn’t get forgotten.
Tools
If you work for a small-sized company, Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel will do a good job.
If you work for a large-sized company, it might be good to use a digital tool such as Asana, Trello.
Here are the popular tools for a content calendar.
- Google Spreadsheet
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Calendar
- Coschedule
- Editorial Calendar （WordPress Plugin）
- Basecamp, Trello, Slack, Asana
Template
Here are some templates available for the content calendar.
- Free Editorial Calendar Templates | Hubspot
- How to Build a Content Calendar (Plus a Free Template) | Convinience&Convert
Conclusion
There are a variety of methods and templates.
Heysho
