Many blogs struggle with consistency when it comes to a posting schedule. Having an editorial calendar may be the perfect solution to determine what to publish and when. Editorial calendars help the entire team from writers, publishers, and social media managers stay on the same page about the content marketing strategy.
Here are a few reasons why you should have an editorial calendar as a part of your content marketing strategy.
Consistent flow of content
The best way to drive traffic to your blog is through the habits that an editorial calendar helps bloggers develop – organization. A good automated calendar is useful way to inform you of any upcoming deadlines. You can also set yourself reminders to make sure you are not scrambled for time, or if your schedule is flexible to change due dates with ease.
Helps with content production
Writer’s block and deadlines don’t mix very well. By having an editorial calendar, you can have a layout of major topics you want to cover, and having a writing schedule helps saves time spent coming up with a topic and saves time on the writing process.
An editorial calendar also helps with production to determine what content is reading the most readership and shares on social media. Having a better idea of this helps you create better content for future posts. Having a solid editorial calendar also puts your ideas in plain sight so you know what content you’ve written and the best ones to reuse that have gotten the most views and social media shares.
Better coordination with marketing plans
Developing a marketing strategy involves a lot of moving parts and requires a few different roles involved in the process. Whether you’re planning on advertising soon, planning an event, hosting a sale, or launching a new product, an editorial calendar helps with project management.
It makes it easier to share, edit, and keep track of what your editorial plans are and pinpoint what’s coming up in a clean and organized way.
Maintain tone of your site
Your blog should have its own voice and showcase creative and informative content that is appealing to your readers. By having an editorial calendar, you’ll be able to carry an editorial vision that will have everyone on your team on the same page. You can choose important categories and topics relevant to your site that other writers can easily follow a style guide.
Theme based coverage
Themes are helpful for writing well-defined topics that are appropriate for various times of the year. You can also write content based off important industry events that are relevant to your niche.
Knowing a theme for your content helps prepare for the expected and the unexpected. An editorial calendar helps writing content based off calendar dates and events, but when industry news breaks, it’s also easy to plan around commenting on what’s relevant to current events.