You’re spread thin in your business as-is, so having to market yourself on multiple platforms on top of it is exhausting! A content calendar can make your digital marketing easier, provide clarity, and save you countless headaches and hours of time.
A digital marketing content calendar is exactly what it sounds like: a schedule of all your posts (or other content) for each platform your business is on. By planning your content ahead of time and putting it into a calendar, you can:
- Eliminate the daily or weekly “scramble” for ideas
- Stay focused on your business goals and promotional needs
- Make it easier to produce content in batches
- Produce higher-quality, more timely, and more relevant content
- Delegate content creation to others more easily
- Reduce your content creation time overall
- Build momentum and streamline your work hours
- Reduce your mental load as a busy entrepreneur or creator!
If the thought of generating 12 months of marketing material overwhelms you, here’s a quick guide to help you get started with creating a content calendar. You can get started with a blank printed calendar or use your favorite project management software — the key is to use the system that’s easiest for you to implement and stick with.
1. Set Your SMART Content Marketing Goals
Before diving into content ideas, define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your content? Are you trying to grow your following on a specific platform? Do you want to book appointments from your social pages? Or do you want to educate your audience about specific topics? Make sure your content marketing goals align with your business mission and goals.
Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) will give you a clear direction and allow you to better track your results and adjust your plan as necessary. For instance, if you want to increase your social media following, choose a number or percentage increase to aim for, set a deadline for your goal, then create content that encourages more people to follow your page. If the goal is to funnel leads to your website, try specifying the goal to generate a certain number of click-throughs from your posts to your website each month and use tools like Google Analytics to track where your website traffic is coming from.
EX.: “Get more TikTok followers” may turn into “Increase TikTok following by 15% in Quarter 2.”
Clarifying your goal will better inform the content ideas you put into your calendar, as well as their timing.
2. Note Seasonal Promotions and Events
Review your calendar for important dates and write them down! Which holidays, special promotions, seasonal observances, or major events are relevant to your audience or mission? You can generate dozens of content ideas from these events alone. Depending on your industry, you might want to post content related to Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, or Mental Health Awareness Month, as examples.
By planning around these key moments, you can create timely and engaging content that resonates with your audience. Mark these observances and events in your content calendar before writing down any specific content ideas.
3. Pick Your Platforms
Choosing the right platforms is critical. Think about where your target audience spends their time online. Are they active on Instagram? Facebook? Or are they searching for you on Google? Also consider when your audience is most active and how much time you can realistically devote to managing each platform. You do not need to be on every single platform – just the ones that your ideal audience spends the most time on.
Think about whether your content can be recycled across platforms. It may be easy to re-post content to multiple platforms with minimal effort in order to reach a wider audience, in which case you might add more digital marketing platforms to your content calendar.
4. Choose Your Content Cadence
How often should you post? WHAT should you post, and when? It all depends on your goals, resources, and audience.
For example, if you offer B2B services, have a website, and only have 3 hours to devote to content marketing each week, then you might choose to focus only on your website and your clients’ favorite social media platform. You can re-post content to other lower-converting platforms as you have time.
This might look like: posting one blog a month to improve your Google rankings and capture traffic from searches, then breaking that blog’s content into bite-sized pieces that can be posted to LinkedIn twice a week, in the late morning when other entrepreneurs are most active on the platform. If — surprise! — you find an extra hour in your week, re-post your LinkedIn content to Facebook or try re-creating your content in another format, like a short-form video.
When deciding what type of content to post, consider your goals and audience. If your goal is to sell $xxx of your best-selling product, it should appear on your platforms multiple times per week or day, depending on the platform and your time. However, you may want to balance your “sales” posts or ads with organic content such as business updates or helpful product usage tips in order to keep your audience engaged. It will likely take trial and error to find the right balance.
The best posting cadence is the one that you have time for and can be consistent with.
5. Schedule and Start Creating
Once you’ve outlined your goals, key events, platforms, and cadence, it’s time to put it all together. Write your content ideas down or plan them digitally in a place where you will see them frequently. A simple physical planner or printed calendar may work for you. If not, use content scheduling or project management tools like Trello, Notion, Monday, Later, or Meta’s scheduling tool to organize and plan your posts. Using a digital content planner has numerous benefits including:
- Compiling captions, media files, links, and notes all in one place
- Allowing others to access and collaborate on your content planning
- Color-coding, labeling, or otherwise organizing your planned posts to keep things on track
- Some tools have automations that can streamline your process even more!
Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of marketing yourself?
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A few things to remember…
You don’t need fancy tools or costly subscriptions to get started! Pen and paper serve well enough to jot your notes, content ideas, and posting schedule down until you figure out which system works for you.
If you don’t fill out all 12 months of your marketing calendar, don’t sweat it. Try planning 1-3 months ahead of time instead.
Don’t forget to track your progress, monitor your content, and adjust the plan or content types as needed. Keep your plan loose and flexible, and don’t be afraid to post spontaneous or trending updates, or experiment with different times, content types, and platforms.
If you find yourself stalling or constantly running out of time for your marketing, recruit help! Our experts are on hand for referrals, tips, or services. You can book a free Q&A call here to learn more.
Creating a content calendar is an essential first step to kick-starting your digital marketing. When you have a strategy and a plan, it streamlines your work and frees up your precious time and energy for the things you do best. Best of luck, and remember to contact our experts if you get stuck!
