How to Build a Content Calendar that Converts in 4 Simple Steps.

As a marketer, you are well aware that having a reliable and steady stream of content that is targeted to your audience is essential to keep your business growing. But having to brainstorm every time you need to put out content can be overwhelming. And you might be wondering, is there a way to make this easier? 

The answer to this question is yes, there’s a way you can steadily put out content for your audience and keep your content production organized without having to ever go through the stress of brainstorming each time, which can delay your content production.

The solution to this problem is a content calendar. A content calendar is a tool that helps you organize and plan your content strategy, allowing you to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time.

A workable content calendar can be in any form, from spreadsheets to simple lists in a plain document or complex databases depending on your preference. Remember, the best content calendar for you and your team is the one that provides the information you need in a simple format that can be easily accessed and used without any unnecessary data or fields.

What Is A Content Calendar

A content calendar, also called an editorial calendar, is a tool that helps businesses in planning, organizing and scheduling their content for publication across different platforms like the company’s blog, social network and email marketing. It serves as a roadmap for the creation, promotion and distribution of content, ensuring an effective and cohesive marketing strategy. It provides a clear outline of the content strategy, allowing teams to work more efficiently and ensuring that the right content gets to the right audience at the right time.

How to Create a content calendar that works for your brand

Trying to create a content calendar from scratch can be an intimidating task, especially if you are managing a team or in-house staff. Having a large team with each person having specific tasks can make your calendar even more complicated. So, How can you create a workable strategy to track and streamline your team’s content production efforts without getting overwhelmed? 

Step 1: Decide what you’ll be needing in your calendar

When it comes to creating a content calendar, the first step is to decide on what you’ll need in the calendar. You need to clearly understand exactly what you are trying to achieve with your efforts before you can start planning or organizing your content. This means setting measurable and specific goals that will improve your overall marketing strategy. For example, your aim might be to generate more leads, increase website traffic or improve your customer engagement. Once you’ve decided your goals, you can then start to plan your content strategy around them, ensuring that your content is created to achieve those objectives.

The way you create or design your calendar depends on your strategy and goals. Here are 5 key questions you should address in your content calendar:

1. Who are you creating content for? Clearly define your target audience. Understanding their demographics, interests, needs, and challenges will help you tailor your content accordingly.

2. What are your content goals? What do you want to achieve with your content? Is it brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating leads, or boosting sales? Setting specific goals will ensure your content is aligned with your overall marketing strategy.

3. What content formats will resonate with your audience? Consider the platforms you’ll be using and what types of content perform well there. Will you use blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, social media posts, or a combination?

4. When will you publish your content? Develop a publishing schedule that aligns with your audience’s online habits and maximizes reach. Consider factors like frequency, consistency, and timing within the day or week.

5. How will you measure your content’s success? Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the effectiveness of your content. Common metrics include website traffic, engagement, conversion rates, and social media shares.

By answering these 5 questions, you can build a comprehensive and effective content calendar that drives results for your business.

Step 2: Study examples of other content calendars

Now that you’ve known your objective, you can start analyzing other content calendars to get an idea of how yours should look like. There are a lot of content calendar templates available online, all you have to do is go straight to Google and search for “Content Calendar Templates” You’ll see a bunch of results, then collect your preferred templates and analyze each one. It’d be best to start by collecting those from brands similar to yours. Assuming you are a B2B company, target brands with the same target audience and market positioning as yours.

Limit the number of examples you choose to analyze, because having too much information to go through can be overwhelming and might eventually make things complicated. Remember, “analysis paralysis” is real and this can affect your calendar creation process. 

Yeah, It’s easy to get bogged down in researching competitors, dissecting data, and overthinking every detail. So, here are a few ways to go through it:

Set a deadline: Give yourself a realistic timeframe to gather inspiration and finalize your calendar.

Start small: Instead of trying to plan every single post for the year, focus on one week or month at a time.

Don’t strive for perfection: Remember, your calendar is a living document that can be adjusted as needed. The goal is to get started, not to create the ultimate, unchangeable masterpiece.

Focus on action: Once you have a general idea of your target audience and goals, jump into brainstorming specific content ideas. Don’t overthink each one – just get as many as possible down on paper.

Embrace imperfection: Some of your best content might come from unplanned moments or unexpected inspiration. Be open to adapting your calendar as you go.

Seek feedback: Share your draft calendar with colleagues, friends, or even target audience members to get their input and avoid blind spots.

Progress is better than perfection! By taking action and avoiding the analysis paralysis trap, you’ll be well on your way to creating a content calendar that drives results. Remember not to fully adopt another brand template, because being you is what makes you special.

Step 3: Choose your preferred platform

As you are analyzing each brand calendar template, make sure to note the platform they use. Some time ago, marketers made use of spreadsheet templates and simple documents, which can still work for businesses with smaller teams that prioritize collaboration and access to user management.

Today, editors and marketing managers make use of project management tools like Asana, Trello, ClickUp etc. as their content calendars. This strategy is mostly useful for businesses with larger groups that need to be able to track large amounts of data over a long period of time and assign tasks to different team members. 

One drawback of using these tools is that you’ll need a subscription plan to be able to use them, and each software has a different plan depending on how big your team is. So, as a small business with a few team members, it’d be best to start with a spreadsheet template such as Google Sheets and Excel. As your business grows you can always switch to project management tools like the ones mentioned above.

Step 4: Create Your Content Workflow

Moving from planning to create the calendar to creating the actual content is like turning your ideas into reality. A great way to do this is by taking a single idea and guiding it through the entire process, from coming up with the idea to promoting it after it’s published and analyzing how well it performs. This helps you understand some important things that make your content and planning better.

Here are some specific benefits:

Deeper understanding: By tracing every step, you gain a deeper understanding of what works well and what needs improvement. You will be able to see the connections between different stages, like how brainstorming impacts promotion or how content performance affects future planning.

Improved ideation: Analyzing a complete cycle can spark new ideas for future content. You’ll be able to identify gaps in your current strategy or discover unexpected connections between topics. This can lead to more tailored and engaging content.

Sharpened decision-making: Tracking data from a single idea allows you to measure the effectiveness of specific tactics and make informed decisions about future content. You can see what resonates with your audience and what falls flat, leading to more targeted and efficient planning.

Enhanced collaboration: Sharing the journey of an idea can foster better collaboration among your team members. By working through each stage together, you can identify potential challenges and opportunities early on, leading to a more cohesive and successful outcome.

Increased confidence: Seeing how your content performs from start to finish can boost your confidence in your planning abilities. You’ll gain a sense of control over the process and be better equipped to tackle future challenges.

Following a single idea’s journey is a powerful learning tool that can significantly improve your content creation and planning processes. It’s a practical and insightful way to refine your strategy and achieve greater success with your content.

Using a Content Calendar Tool – Benefits and Drawbacks

As mentioned earlier, if you are a small business with a few team members, you might want to consider starting with a simple spreadsheet. But if you think a spreadsheet won’t be enough for you, then you can try going for project management tools which are mostly paid software. Here are some benefits and drawbacks that will help you decide whether an online content planning tool is worth it for you.

Benefits

More professional and visually appealing

One of the perks of a good content calendar tool is that it is purpose-designed. While this isn’t really essential and it might not look like a big deal for some, having a nice and visually appealing interface can make a difference among your team members. It can significantly impact your team’s efficiency and has the potential to enhance collaboration and productivity compared to less visually appealing alternatives.

More Tools and Features

Online content calendar tools often come with a user-friendly interface, and features that make your workflow as efficient as possible (after all, that’s its main purpose). For example, these tools often come with a user dashboard where you can see your recent work and some important information. They also offer a drag-and-drop feature so that you can easily make changes to the calendar without having to go through a complicated process. With these functions, you can really create a calendar that meets your preferences.

Suitable for large teams

If you are a brand with a larger number of team members or cross-collaborating with other stakeholders, then using a project management tool will most likely be the suitable option for you. These tools allow you to assign tasks to specific people or teams, manage permissions and user access, and cross-link to relevant projects, operations and teams.

Drawbacks

Requires a paid plan

Most content management tools out there require a paid plan before you can use it. As a small business or a solo content marketer, there’s no need for you to invest in an online content calendar yet since you are just managing a small team. Going for a basic spreadsheet software should be enough, although if there’s an online calendar that offers a free version, you can go for it.  However, businesses with larger teams and more complex workflow might need to opt for a paid package since it offers various functions for businesses with larger teams.

Requires training to use

To efficiently utilize these tools, you might need to train your team members on how to use them. You might even have to pay for a professional trainee depending on how sophisticated the tools are, which can cost you time and money. 

Possibly irrelevant features

There might be some features in the tool that are nice to have but not necessarily crucial for its core functionality, which can weigh down the user experience. For example, these online tools mostly come with different tier packages depending on the one that suits your brand. Suppose the specific one you want to use comes with 3 tier packages, namely basic, standard and premium, each with its corresponding prices. Let’s say the basic package is the lowest and the premium is the highest. 

So, you’ve reviewed the standard package, and it’s perfect, it has all the features you wanted but it’s missing just one function available only in the premium package. Because of this, you had to pay for the premium package which cost almost two times the standard just because of that one feature. Ironically, you ended up not even needing the other functions the premium package offers. 

Conclusion

All in all, just get your foot in the door. If creating your own brand content calendar from scratch feels overwhelming, try using another brand’s template as a cookie-cutter approach.

Remember, it’s okay to be flexible and adjust your calendar as you go. The important thing is to get started and create content that resonates with your audience. Don’t let analysis paralysis hold you back from achieving your content goals!