Creating a content calendar is a great way to plan, organize, and publish your content consistently and strategically. But how can you make sure that your content calendar reflects your personal brand and showcases your unique value proposition? Here are some tips to help you craft a content calendar that aligns with your goals, audience, and voice.
Before you start filling your calendar with topics and deadlines, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your content. What are your personal and professional goals? How do you want to position yourself as an expert, a thought leader, or a problem solver in your niche? How do you want to connect with your target audience and build trust and loyalty? Having SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals will help you create a content calendar that supports your personal brand and guides your content creation process.
In my experience, it has become clear that, while content is King, personal vision (of yourself and career expectations) is the kingmaker. It is important to think very deeply to find out the very thoughts that shape your personality. With that done, it is easier to develop a content calendar or schedule. Without this first step, one risks running dry along the way, even if you have a schedule in place. What should drive a content calendar has to be what one loves writing about, even with or no prior preparations- though, nonetheless important. When you develop content in this way, and as stated above, one becomes much more prepared for the long haul in content development
Nothing goes out without an intention. The type, format, or style of content you will have on your calendar starts from the goal first.
To create a content calendar for your brand: Define your brand's key themes and values. Plan diverse content types (blogs, videos, social posts) aligned with these themes. Incorporate important dates and regular features showcasing your unique perspective. Use consistent branding elements like colors and tone. Schedule posts for peak engagement times, but also allow space for spontaneous or trending topics. Regularly analyze audience feedback and engagement to refine your strategy. For a novel approach, use an Advent Calendar setup for special events or seasons, adding an element of surprise and engagement. This approach, including the Advent Calendar concept, ensures consistent brand identity and interactive engagement with your audience.
Your content calendar should also reflect your understanding of your target audience and their needs, challenges, preferences, and behaviors. You need to know who you are creating content for, what they are looking for, how they consume content, and where they hang out online. This will help you tailor your content to their interests, pain points, questions, and goals, and choose the best formats, channels, and distribution methods for your content. You can use tools like audience personas, surveys, analytics, and social listening to gain insights into your ideal audience and create content that resonates with them.
One thing I've found helpful is my Hubspot training on "inbound methodology". Everything in marketing revolves around whom you're marketing to, and this applies to your content calendar and the type of content. Mr. A, who lives in Lagos, is different from Mr. A, a 30-year-old in Lagos, and from Mr. A, who is a 30-year-old engineer residing in Ikeja, Lagos, when it comes to the content that will resonate.
Knowing your target audience is fundamental for creating content that is not only effective but also sustainable in the long run. It helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level, tailoring your content to their specific needs and preferences, which can ultimately lead to greater success in your content development efforts.
We often find that your target audience is actually two - the one you want and the one you have. It's vital to work out which audience you want to reach before you think about how to target them - or how to keep them once you have them.
Your content voice is the personality and tone that you use to communicate with your audience through your content. It is one of the most important elements of your personal brand, as it helps you stand out from the crowd, express your values and opinions, and create a memorable impression on your readers. To develop your content voice, you need to identify your core values, your unique selling points, your tone of voice, and your style guidelines. You also need to be consistent, authentic, and engaging in your content delivery. Your content voice should be reflected in your content calendar, as it will influence your choice of topics, formats, angles, and words.
Infuse your content voice with your unique personality traits, humor, or quirks. This adds a human touch to your content and makes it more memorable.
The rule of three is helpful when forming a cohesive content strategy. Plan in three - No brand or content should ever be the same on repeat - look at your message/content and break it into three steams. Break that down into a schedule of three blasts per week for three months. Use different colour, phrases or tags for each stream and you will then find that there is a unity in your program. Most clients or future partnerships, need to see three visuals, or three conversations before engaging. The end result is you can then also clearly see which 'streams of content' have the most engagement - if you only have one thing to talk about you have will also have been forced to be accountable to express it differently.
Your content themes are the main categories or topics that you cover in your content. They should be relevant to your niche, your goals, your audience, and your voice. Your content themes will help you generate ideas for your content calendar, as well as create a coherent and cohesive content strategy. You can use tools like keyword research, brainstorming, mind mapping, and content analysis to identify your content themes and subtopics. You should also consider the seasonality, trends, and events that affect your niche and your audience, and incorporate them into your content calendar.
A few examples of how to choose content themes: - Review the main content producers you view and find most useful. Do they have recurring reports that they release? What are the overarching topics they cover? - What are your main objectives for your audience? If you're developing business, think about what industries you're reaching for or what services you provide. If you're promoting your personal brand, focus on your priorities, personality or hobbies. - Think of buzzwords that you want your content to cover (i.e. wellbeing, remote working, creative design, etc) and utilize 3-5 buzzwords as your content themes.
Your content frequency and schedule are the aspects of your content calendar that determine how often and when you create and publish your content. They should be based on your goals, your resources, your audience, and your performance. You need to find a balance between creating enough content to maintain your visibility and credibility, and creating quality content that adds value and meets your standards. You also need to consider the best times and days to publish your content, depending on your audience behavior and your content channel. You can use tools like editorial calendars, project management software, and content automation tools to plan and manage your content frequency and schedule.
En este punto lo que mejor funciona es el "ensayo y error". Yo he probado la publicación de contenido en diversas horas, y esto me ha servido para saber cuál es el mejor momento para llegar a más gente. También hay herramientas como Metricool que te pueden orientar sobre las horas en las que mejor funcionan los contenidos... pero no todos los públicos son iguales. Una cosa es la media y otra muy distinta las preferencias de tu público!
Your content calendar is not a static document that you set and forget. It is a dynamic and flexible tool that you need to review and optimize regularly, based on your results, feedback, and changes. You need to measure and analyze your content performance, using metrics that align with your goals and KPIs. You also need to collect and evaluate your audience feedback, using tools like comments, reviews, ratings, and social media interactions. You also need to keep an eye on the changes and developments in your niche, your industry, and your audience, and adapt your content accordingly. You can use tools like content audits, content reports, and content updates to review and optimize your content calendar.
Para esto resultan de gran ayuda las aplicaciones que permiten programar los contenidos en redes sociales, porque, simplemente arrastrando una publicación o con un par de clics, es posible cambiar de día un post, ya sea para atrasarlo, adelantarlo o incluso cancelarlo... así te puedes adaptar a la actualidad!
A content calendar is great, same with your intention, and then, your audience in mind. One thing I've found helpful is my HubSpot training on the inbound methodology. Everything in marketing revolves around whom you're marketing to, and this applies to your content calendar and the type of content. Mr. A, who lives in Lagos, is different from Mr. A, a 30-year-old in Lagos, and from Mr. A, who is a 30-year-old engineer residing in Ikeja, Lagos, when it comes to the content that will resonate.