The Benefits of a Content Calendar

With the new year upon us, now is the perfect time to take a strategic approach to the content you want to create and share.

All media organisations have a well-planned and thought out media calendar that guides their editorial for the months ahead. There’s no reason why an organisation producing their own content shouldn’t do the same. in fact, it’s a crime not to have an outline of what content will be produced and when it will be published.

As mentioned previously, answering questions is a great content idea driver, however some simple planning will allow you to stay on top of your content.

There is no right or wrong way to set up a calendar, but doing it will ensure that your blogging is a lot easier and you won’t be struggling to come up with ideas week in week out. A simple table with listings for each month will give you a big picture view of what to focus on month-by-month.

This calendar will also make your Social Media and PR activity much more strategic too.

What you should identify in your calendar:

General Dates:

• Major Sporting Events: eg Melbourne Cup,
• Religious Events/Holidays eg St Patrick’s Day/Easter
• School Holidays/Seasons eg First day of Spring/
• End of Financial Year

 Trade/Industry dates:

• Conferences/Expos/Conventions/Seminars – are you attending or presenting?
• Events
• Award Nominations
• Networking opportunities

Your business-specific dates: 

• Product launches
• Key sales periods
• Reports
• Travel dates and locations

Identify what types of content you want to produce before, during and after these key events.

A good calendar will help you make sure content is ready to go well-before you want to publish.

You do not have to create content for each of the general dates! Your business may have nothing in common with the Melbourne Cup, but being aware of it will ensure that you’re not posting a big news item to your blog just after 3pm on the first Tuesday of November when pretty much all of Australia is watching the race.

Some of your dates won’t necessitate a blog post, perhaps all they will need is a social media update?

Types of Content:

• A one-off blog post or a series.
• Photos/Videos
• Case studies
• Infographic
• Company news and announcements

As well as identifying the types of content in your calendar,  additional information will make the content creation process a lot easier down the track.  For each content item, you can also note:

• Blog post title
• Social media platforms
• Target audiences
• Keywords
• Image(s)

“Failing to plan is planning to Fail”

By identifying key dates, content ideas, content types and additional content information, your content won’t be a headache and will be easier to produce and manage.

Have a great year.

Cheers,

Sam

Inlumino Communications is a PR, content marketing, and Social Media consultancy servicing clients from a variety of industries.

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