How to Build a Master Content Calendar That Covers All Your Bases

How to Build a Master Content Calendar That Covers All Your Bases

The human brain is an amazingly powerful organ—but not always good at organizing. Five Core Elements of an Effective Content Calendar Let's start here: The most critical component of a useful content calendar is... a content calendar tool. However, what IS necessary is a consistent cadence. "Build your content operations so that you can deliver on that cadence (1 post per day or 3 posts per week). This allows you to set an appointment with your audience and focus on the highest quality content but also on a regular schedule." Hold regular editorial meetings Regular meetings will help with maintaining that agility and responsiveness. Strike the right content balance Obtaining a high-level view of your content mix through the calendar will also help you assess and compartmentalize not only based on keywords and content type ("Whoa, we've got three 'how to' posts in a row lined up for August, let's space those out") but also, and more importantly, based on purpose and objective. No Time to Waste For content teams large and small, a content calendar is crucial to ensuring consistency, strategy, collaboration, analysis, and balance. DivvyHQ is the most intuitive content planning, workflow, and collaboration platform on the market. Winning Content Marketing Institute's Audience Choice Award for the top overall content marketing platform, DivvyHQ helps such companies as Red Bull, Aflac and H&R Block get organized, bring visibility to their content production schedule, and streamline collaboration across their organizations.

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Calendars can be lifesavers. You already know this if you’ve ever been notified of an overlooked appointment or anniversary by the handy reminder machine in your pocket.

The human brain is an amazingly powerful organ—but not always good at organizing. When you need to arrange complex information and track minute details, calendars are awfully helpful. Especially in content marketing.

Trying to mentally formulate the right topical balance, publishing cadence, and keyword mix for a company blog is nigh impossible, especially when multiple people are involved in the process.

For today’s busy marketing teams that need to design a strategic road map, and follow it, a content calendar is essential. Content planning is the bridge between strategy and execution, and a content calendar provides the framework for that connection.

But, of course, the calendar is merely a tool. It’s valuable only when loaded up with a consistent pipeline of content that’s connected to business goals. Which is where that big brain comes in.

The makeup of a stellar content calendar will vary by industry, vertical, objectives, and a host of other factors. There are, however, some guidelines that will help set you up for success. Today we’ll cover a few of these and equip your brain with the requisite knowledge for optimizing your content planning.

Five Core Elements of an Effective Content Calendar

Let’s start here: The most critical component of a useful content calendar is… a content calendar tool. I mean a real, structured, centrally accessible calendar that accounts for all elements of the creation process. (If you still use spreadsheets or Word docs to organize your content plan, you’re in trouble.)

Here are five ways your content calendar can help to ensure all your bases are covered.

1. Develop consistency

Publishing a blog post every day can be great in certain circumstances, but it’s not always necessary or even useful. (I’m a big “quality over quantity” guy.) However, what IS necessary is a consistent cadence. If you want to build and sustain an audience while maximizing the SEO impact of your content, you need to be steady and reliable in your output.

“The key to an effective editorial plan is committing to a publishing cadence,” suggested Michael Brenner in DivvyHQ’s 2017 Content Planning Challenges, Trends & Opportunities report. “Build your content operations so that you can deliver on that cadence (1 post per day or 3 posts per week). This allows you to set an appointment with your audience…

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