Whether you sell products or services, having a blog is an essential part of a good marketing strategy. Content that is engaging gets more views and signals to search engines like Google that your website is continually updated and relevant. If people are reading your content on a regular basis, they’ll be more likely to go to you when they decide to make a purchase.
However, maintaining a blog can seem daunting. With our tips, you’ll be able to successfully develop your content calendar and get into the rhythm of posting valuable content to your website.
Set Goals
The first step in creating a successful content calendar is setting a goal. You should have goals and plans for your blog. What do you want to accomplish? How often can you take the time to write meaningful content?
When it comes to setting goals, you’ll want to make sure that they’re reasonable and obtainable. If you don’t have time to publish content daily, don’t set yourself up for failure. Make sure your content calendar goals are reasonable and easy for you to accomplish, especially when you first get started.
Create a Template
There are many different editorial calendar programs that you can use to build out your blog calendar. Options like Monday, Airtable, and Trello are great options, depending on your budget. Within these programs, you should set up a template. A template will show a bunch of different information for each piece of upcoming content, including the:
- channel in which your content will be posted (if you post heavily on social media, you may want to have a social media calendar as well as a blog calendar)
- topic
- title of the blog post
- author, if you have content creators
- date and time in which it will be posted
- follow-through option that can be checked off when the blog has been posted
Using this information for each blog post will help to keep your content organized, making it easier for you to post on time while also planning out future content at the same time.
Focus on Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is a great way to build out your website with content that is always relevant and frequently searched for. Having timeless content is a great way to fill in gaps when you fall behind on your schedule or don’t have timely content ready to post.
Evergreen content that’s ready to go can save you in a pinch. Evergreen content is also great for boosting clicks to your website, as it’s often content that’s heavily searched for.
Always Improve Past Content
While planning out what you want to post each month, you should also incorporate the improvement of past content. Improving your previous content should include updating statistics, building links out further, and updating the content so it’s more relevant.
Plan Out the Year
No matter when you start your content calendar, you should always plan out far in advance. Think about the different topic categories you’ll post in and how frequently you want to write about each content. For example, say you write for a healthcare clinic that treats a variety of different ailments. Think about how much you want to write about each ailment within the year. Divide those amounts by the month to get your monthly topics.
You can then build out those topics every month to make sure they’re timely and relevant.
Decide Your Publishing Frequency
When you start planning out your blog calendar, you’ll want to decide how often you want to post content. Think about how much time you have available to write blog posts each week or each month. Be reasonable in this and take into account whether or not you have writers to help you or if you’ll be doing all the work on your own.
Consistency is more important than quantity per month. Posting consistently once a month is much better than failing to post four times a month.
Be Creative
And most importantly, you should be creative when it comes to creating your content. Write about topics that are important to you as well as topics that you think your audience will relate to and enjoy.
Your creativity and passion will show through in whatever you write, so make sure you’re working hard to create content that you love.
Hire a Content Marketing Agency
If all of that seems too overwhelming, that’s totally fair. If you don’t have the time to focus on creating blog content each month, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it at all. It’s an essential part of your marketing strategy that just shouldn’t be ignored.
So if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, you may want to consider hiring someone to manage and write your content for you. To learn how we can help your business succeed in the online market, contact us online or at 407-712-0494.
