What is an editorial calendar?
Editorial calendars are an essential part of any content marketing initiative. Whether you’re marketing to your target audience through articles, blog posts, social media updates, e-newsletters or case studies, an editorial calendar will keep content published regularly and on strategy. It helps you plan what content to create, when to create it, where to publish it, and can even address SEO keyword phrases and content goals. Colleen Jones, Content Strategist and Author of Clout, defines a content calendar as, “A tool borrowed from journalism to plan content over time.”
How do you create an editorial calendar?
Starting an editorial calendar can be as simple as opening an Excel spreadsheet and creating rows and columns that correspond with specific dates and topics. The exact headers might change a bit depending on the content marketing initiative. For example, an editorial calendar for articles may include publishing dates and article titles, while one for blog posts may address keyword targets and corresponding categories. You can also use pre-made tools like this plugin from WordPress.
Here is an example of an editorial calendar used for a blog:
What information should you include?
You can make editorial calendars as general or specific as you like. The goal is to include any information needed to help you plan and manage important information like:
You can make editorial calendars as general or specific as you like. The goal is to include any information needed to help you plan and manage important information like:
- What content should be created over time
- Where content should be published
- Who will write, publish and distribute the content
- Why is the content being created (call to action)
Creating a different calendar for each marketing initiative also allows you to cross-reference topics to make sure your key messages are distributed through all of your content. For example, if you have a blog, you may want to track information such as:
- Post date
- Author
- Title
- Keywords
- Categories
- Call to action
A social media calendar might track information like:
- Post date
- Type of post (question, poll, tip, etc.)
- Content for FB Post
- Content for Twitter Post
Editorial calendars are often produced months in advanced and should be reviewed frequently for topic relevance, timeliness, keyword appropriateness, and internal and external resources before launching into content development.
As Erin Kissane says in her book The Elements of Content Strategy, “Editorial Calendars can provide structure for ongoing content development and management, and can also encourage regular strategy discussions between content creators and the people who develop your organization’s communication strategy.”
Hold your business accountable to a schedule to keep your content marketing initiatives on strategy with relevant information.
About the author: Dechay Watts is CEO and co-founder of SPROUT Content, a content marketing agency that connects businesses to their audience through original, engaging content with a purpose.