​Planning is key to everything you do when it comes to marketing. That is why having a content calendar should be part of your content marketing strategy. This tool can help you to plan marketing content for up to a year, saving you time and energy.

Best of all, you don’t need to purchase a special app or a printed calendar to do this. You can simply create a spreadsheet in Excel or a similar program to serve as your content calendar. The goal of creating this calendar is to simplify your marketing strategy.

Here are X tips on creating a content calendar:

1. Set a Date
Before you create any content, you should determine when you want to publish it. You can schedule content ahead of time using tools like the blog scheduling feature in WordPress. However, having a set date of when you want to publish the content can determine when you create it. It can also allow for time to make edits as part of your review process.

If you’re someone who likes to make long-term plans, you can create a content calendar for the entire year. However, if your business requires more flexibility in its marketing content, you can create a calendar for each month. Either way, you can anticipate what content needs to be created and act accordingly.

2. Assign Tasks
One challenge of managing a team is knowing who is doing what and when. If you have a team of multiple writers or other content creators, a content calendar can help you to assign tasks related to content creation.

Add the author’s name to the entry on the calendar or spreadsheet for the piece of content they will be creating. The author knows exactly what they need to create and when it needs to be completed.

3. Mark Progress
If the content you create needs to go through a review process, your content calendar can be used to mark its progress. This way, you can get a better idea of how long it takes for a piece of content to be created, reviewed, and published.

Let’s say that you work with an outside client who needs to review the content. You can have a status called “client approval” to indicate the content was sent to them. Then, once approved, you can mark the content as “approved” in the calendar or spreadsheet.

4. Choose Topics
Knowing what to write about is a challenge that has faced writers for generations. With a content calendar, you can list what topics you’d like to cover in your marketing content long before you ever sit down to write.

You can even create a theme to follow for a set period of time. For example, if you’re a wedding planner, you can write a series of blog posts about Valentine’s Day weddings during the month of February.

5. Decide What Content to Create
Once you’ve decided on topics you’d like to write about, decide what types of content you want to create. You can add this as a column on your content calendar to plan for the amount of time it takes to create longer pieces of content like white papers or eBooks.

This can also help you with repurposing content in the future. Say that you want to create a video based on a blog post you did in the past. You can space those pieces of content apart so that it appears fresher to your followers.

Need a Content Calendar?
It’s never too early or too late to create a content calendar. You can plan for as long or as short a time as you need. If you want to create a content marketing plan, including a content calendar, we can help. Contact Links Web Design for a free consultation today!

Links Web Design is a digital marketing agency in Bangor, ME, and Fruitland Park, FL.