The content calendar is one of the most useful tools in the field of marketing because, in addition to making your day-to-day work easier, it will help you plan your publications for social networks or any platform much more efficiently. These calendars can have different formats: from simple spreadsheets to tools or applications specialized in content management. In any case, the main objective of these calendars is to offer a guide for the creation and distribution of content for any company or brand.
Benefits of Using a Content Calendar
- Organization: it allows you to include in the same document content in different formats, from blogs to updates for social networks and keeps the focus on content creation and publication.
- Consistency: the frequency of publication is essential to attract audiences and generate engagement. This facilitates user participation and the creation of a community.
- Strategic focus: helps the team to align content with specific brand objectives. Having a global vision of publications will allow you to create much more effective and efficient strategies.
- Originality: Repetition and thematic overexposure is one of the biggest mistakes a marketing team can make. In addition, thanks to this content overview, you can always have your publications at hand and organize them according to different communication goals.
- Collaboration between teams: another major problem within many marketing teams is the lack of collaboration. Working on the same document facilitates communication between professionals involved in the creation and publication of content for a brand.
- Analysis and restructuring: content calendars allow you to track and analyze the performance of your content on a regular basis, which will help you improve your SEO positioning and modify your strategy according to its results.
5 Simple Steps to Creating Content Calendar
Now that you’re in the know as to the multiple benefits of this tool, the idea of having a content calendar to help you to create and publish content is probably very appealing. Let’s look at how you can create one for your business in five simple steps.
- Set out your objectives. As with any marketing strategy, the first step is to clearly define your marketing objectives and how the content you publish will help achieve those objectives. This will allow you to create content that is relevant to your brand and appealing to your audience.
- Analyze your audience and platforms. Once you have determined the interests and needs of your audience, we suggest you explore the market: access the different social networks and investigate what and how accounts with content similar to yours publish. Note down structures, types of content, styles and even topics that you can curate later and include in your networks.
- Create the calendar. Although there are several formats, we recommend that you use a spreadsheet. Divide it weekly, monthly or annually and determine the frequency of publication in the different networks you have decided to include in your strategy.
- Develop content. Generate specific ideas for your publications, making sure that each of them is aligned with your objectives and your audience. Include for each of them the date and time of publication, the social network where it will be published, the copy and audiovisual content, as well as the tags and links in those cases where they are necessary.
- Share and analyze. Publishing content is not the last step. It is worth tracking each publication and paying attention to the interaction that each of them generates with the brand. Based on these results you can adjust your strategy and your future publications to improve your results.
Remember that consistency is the key to a successful strategy, so we encourage you to start using this tool to organize and publish your content. If you need help to elaborate and develop a marketing strategy that will allow you to achieve your goals, contact The Salmon Factor team. Our professionals will help you devise a marketing plan that adapts to the specific needs of your brand.