In the fast-paced digital marketing world, it’s essential to keep your content well organized and on track. Content Calendars mature your brand, organize your campaigns and services/products and keep your brand top of mind. Plus, they provide a perfect framework to practice writing copy. The more you practice, the better you will be! By reducing the need to dig for last-minute content, your team can now focus on other aspects of your digital marketing efforts. Keep reading to learn more about the importance of establishing a robust Content Calendar unique to your brand.

What is a Content Calendar?

As the business world relies more and more on digital, it is vital to stay organized and plan out your content ahead of time. Often, there are many members on the team working together to generate content, create and develop a publishing system to stay relevant in the digital space. A Content Calendar allows you to integrate and organize the team’s thoughts effectively in one place. Platforms as simple (and free!) as Google Sheets to something more detailed such as Airtable, are a great solution for a Content Calendar. Both platforms encourage collaboration and real-time changes. Using content calendars as part of your digital strategy will enable you to stay ahead of the game by planning out content for weeks, even months in advance.

Elements of a Content Calendar

Every successful strategy starts with a plan, but surprisingly, 63% of businesses have yet to establish a documented strategy. A Content Calendar is the perfect planning document for a successful social media strategy. Well-executed Content Calendars provide you with a place to generate ideas, schedule, view and manage your content in a cohesive way. Although creating content in bulk can feel daunting, it sets the foundation for an effective and relatable online brand presence. For a Content Calendar to provide value to your brand, it’s essential to include a few core components. Common elements of a thorough Content Calendar include the following:

Benefits of Using a Content Calendar

The demand for businesses to be on social media and to use it well is not going away. Brands are expected to have relevant content quickly and a Content Calendar makes this must easier. Without a way to organize all of your content, it is easy to overlook deadlines and miss opportunities to post and generate new ideas. Why else should you implement a Content Calendar?

1. Organization: Organization is critical when your company or brand wants to push a lot of relevant content across channels. Maintaining a Content Calendar allows you to visualize all of your content in a way where you can immediately see the potential impact of your brand. You will also be able to determine if there are any overlaps in campaigns/topics or gaps in publishing.

2. Effective Planning: By planning ahead, you can ensure ample time for the preparation and execution of your content. Is your content approval process lengthy? You’ll need to plan ahead. Having your content displayed in a calendar view also allows you to note and develop content for significant dates such as holidays, events, product launches, etc.

3. Time Management: With the need to fill your social feed with content, having enough time to do so is necessary. While this may seem like a given, using a Content Calendar will save you time in the long run.By pre-scheduling your posts, you are giving yourself enough time to generate future content without worrying about last-minute content.

4. Understanding Consumer Behavior: By pre-scheduling content, there is more time to analyze and understand your social media followers and how they interact with your posts. At nContext, we focus on data-driven results. By taking the time to analyze consumer behavior, it provides insight into the success of your content. Determining the right time to post, discovering which creative consumers interact with most and establishing the most effective content comes from analyzing previous posts. Doing this deep-dive analysis helps determine what is and isn’t working for your brand and how you can change your strategy to drive results.

If you want to learn more about nContext’s Content Calendar service, reach out to info@ncontext.com. Happy planning!