Ever wonder how some companies are able to pump out blog post after blog post, seemingly without breaking a sweat?
For some, it's a natural talent. Creating high quality digital content isn't a chore - it's an activity that brings great satisfaction.
For others, it's a necessary evil - done to appease the wants and desires of the search engines and the social web.
Either way, there's no reason you can't be creating high quality content on a regular basis, even if you don't always enjoy it.
One of the tactics that has helped the team at LevelTen in their quest to bring a better blog to the table is an editorial calendar. The editorial calendar includes topic ideas, scheduled out by date, as well as ideas for podcasts, e-mail newsletters, and regular press releases.
Essentially, if it's getting published on LevelTenDesign.com, you better assume it's in this calendar.
Having a solid digital editorial calendar for your internal staff can be one of the secret weapons that separates your website from your competitors.
Here are your 7 steps for creating a focused digital editorial calendar:
- Get a solid handle on your companies strengths and weaknesses.
You should know what your company is good at and where you struggle. Take note of this.
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- Brainstorm related content.
Set time aside for a long brainstorming session. Based on your notes from step one, brainstorm content ideas that could support where your company is strong.
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- Categorize into topical buckets.
Take these ideas, and break them into topical buckets. For example, I might have a bucket on social media marketing and another on SEO.
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- Break large ideas into smaller topics.
Many of the ideas you brainstormed in step 2 will be very broad. This is OK. Take some time to break down your broad ideas into several post topics. For example, if my broad topic is SEO 101, I may break that down into individual posts on page titles, keyword research, and internal linking structures. Think, "what would the title be for this post?".
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- Assemble into a spreadsheet.
Take all of your creative post ideas, broken out by category and begin to assemble them into calendar format. Google Docs has an awesome template for this, which I've used before.
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- Schedule posts by week.
Look 3-4 months into the future, and assign 2-3 posts each week. Depending on the size of your staff, and the time you have allotted to blogging, you may be able to write more.
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- Make notes of other forms of content like e-mail newsletters.
Don't neglect other content needs for your business. Be sure to make a note of other types of content like e-mail, press releases, and podcasts.
And there you have it! At this point you should have your very own editorial calendar! Got questions? Maybe a better way to do this? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
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