Content strategy: planning your content

Photo credit: Dafne Cholet

A previous post explored the importance of content strategy, a blueprint that lays out exactly how an organization’s content will be used to accomplish organizational goals.

When it comes to the systematic, day-to-day implementation of this strategy, utilizing specific planning tools will go a long way in ensuring that your strategy is effective. One such tool is an editorial calendar.

The editorial calendar is commonly regarded as one of the most steadfast and reliable content planning tools. Your calendar should cover all of your content needs, incorporating content on paid, earned, shared and owned channels.

Why is an editorial calendar important?

• It’s strategic: As a planning tool for your content strategy, your editorial calendar ensures that your content work is intentional, aligned with organizational goals and can have the maximum impact on your audiences.
• It makes achieving content goals easier and more efficient: Writing for the CoSchedule blog, Garrett Moon explains: “If you are focusing on building traffic and/or blog growth, then making a concerted effort to plan your content will only make reaching your goals easier. Website visits will increase when you make consistency and quality your top priority.”
• It encourages consistency: Moon writes: “The editorial calendar will give our team the accountability it needs for building the discipline of creating content day after day.”
• Your audiences will appreciate it: Without a doubt, providing content that is focused on your audience’s needs in a consistent way is a no-brainer.
• It can boost teamwork: As Moon explains, a good editorial calendar will bring a team to a single place to visualize and execute their shared goals.
• It can take search engine optimization (SEO) to the next level: Moon explains: “Search engines like Google and Bing are heavily favoring unique high quality content over the typical SEO tricks. A focus on content marketing is more important now than ever. Read more about why content strategy is the new SEO 

Look out for my next post on tips and tools for an effective editorial calendar.