Advantages of Creating an Editorial Calendar

 

Why bother with an editorial calendar? I can assure you it will make your life easier if you do!

I have just been working with a client who has written a series of great blog articles. However, we have had to sort out an editorial calendar as one blog often referenced another. This meant that getting them published in the right order was vital for the series of blogs to make any sense.

It’s important to start thinking of yourself as a publisher as you develop a content strategy. Publishers have everything planned out in advance based on the yearly cycle as well as their product cycle. They know in advance exactly what type of content they need to create and produce for the month of February, and why. If you think more like a publisher, you’re going to be much more successful in your content strategy implementation.

Ability to Create a Theme

By creating an editorial calendar, you can develop an overall theme for the year, or the quarter, based on the products and/or services that you’re promoting, as well as the time of year. Planning in advance makes it easier for you to be prepared and come up with the ideas, content, and images that you want to use to promote.

Makes It Simpler to Find Your Voice

By planning out your marketing year in advance, it means you’ll also be planning your product creation. If you provide services, you’ll know in advance which services you are focusing on. This will make it so much easier to know what kind of content to create and in what tone you need it to be, because you’ll understand in advance when you need it, and what it’s for. When you have a plan, finding your voice will become a lot easier.

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Makes It Easier to Diversify Content

If you know in advance what the topic of your content needs to be, it’ll be easier to create different forms of content for your needs. You can plan in advance to create blog posts, vlogs, videos, reports, and more, based on a particular subject or theme designed to market a particular product or service. By not doing it “on the fly,” your content will be more cohesive and diversified.

Keeps the Content Ideas Flowing

By making an editorial calendar, you actually create a situation where you make it easier to keep content ideas flowing. Some people think planning makes content boring but the truth is, planning makes content effective, appropriate and enjoyable for your target audience. It gives you time to create appropriate titles and outlines, to ensure that you get the right message out.

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Enables You to Create Quality Content

By planning your content in advance, you have more time to make the content true quality content that speaks to your audience. Whether you are writing and editing yourself or hiring others to do it for you, it’s important to plan in advance what type of content will be needed in order to produce the highest quality content that you can.

Keeps Your Website on Topic

It’s easy to get off topic sometimes if you haven’t planned your content in advance. By writing down what you’ll be creating before you create it, you’ll have time to nix ideas that go off topic. Alternatively, you can move them to the right time and place. If you try to produce content at the last moment, you may end up with irrelevant content with no purpose.

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Acts as a Map to Help You Reach Your Goals

Your editorial calendar is just like GPS or a map. You can look at it in one glance and see where you’ll be in the future. By looking into it more deeply and you’ll find out what you’re supposed to be doing right now! You then won’t go into each day without a clue of where you’ve been or where you’re going.

Helps Increase Collaboration

Having a publication calendar can also help increase collaboration. If you allow guest bloggers to look at your calendar, it will be easier for them to decide what to write about. In addition, it will help your outsourcers and people who work with you understand the direction you’re taking the business.

Attracts More Visitors

By having a set calendar, your content will appear more regularly, thus increasing the number of visitors to your website. Your audience will learn to expect certain content from you at certain times.  They will appreciate knowing when what and where to go to see it and view it. Blogging consistently can be hard for me so putting a calendar in place helps keep me on track.

Sets Expectations and Deadlines

Even if you are just setting deadlines for yourself, it’s important to do so. If you have no expectations of yourself or others it will be difficult to build a truly profitable business. Set expectations and deadlines for yourself and anyone you outsource to; this will help you meet your goals.

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Finally, by having a calendar you’ll have a more organised and planned business which will help you make more money. By distributing and marketing your content according to your editorial calendar, you will see a lot more success than haphazardly publishing without any notion of a goal or a plan.

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