How to Plan Your Content Calendar

Before you start reading this blog post, you might want to first Download the Free Content Calendar Template and Guide -- it'll help you start implementing the steps below right away! :)

WHAT IS A CONTENT CALENDAR?

In simplest terms, a content calendar is a document that specifies when you’re going to publish what.

This can include planning the publishing dates of:

• Social media posts
• Blog posts
• Email newsletters
• Courses
• Anything you’re putting out there as part of your content marketing mix!

WHY SHOULD YOU PLAN YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR?

Sure, technically you could wing it -- post on social media willy-nilly, write a blog post next time you’re inspired, and send an email blast once you realize you haven’t sent one in ages.

This approach, while seemingly more chill than actually being a person who plans things in advance -- will result in a less chill experience, and more than likely, less effective marketing efforts.

This laissez-faire approach will results in a less chill experience because you will constantly have that nagging voice in your head (unless you’re already super zen and immune to these nagging voices, in which case -- I’m happy for you!) saying that you should be posting something, writing something, emailing something.

Having a content calendar in your back pocket (or your Google Drive, as it were) will give you the peace of mind that all your pieces of content will be published consistently, and your content marketing machine will be running smoothly.

Peace of mind and better marketing results: what more could you want?!

WHEN SHOULD YOU PLAN YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR?

Planning your content calendar is the first step of an effective monthly content marketing management process. 

By this point, you've gone through the preliminary and foundational step of defining a marketing strategy that will attract and convert your target audience. This strategy can and should be tweaked over time as you see what works and what doesn't.

Part of developing your content marketing strategy involves answering the question, "what kind of content will resonate with my ideal customers and position my brand as an expert in our field?"

For example, if you’re a dermatologist, a few of your “content categories” could be:

• Skincare Myths vs Facts
• Everything You Want to Know About [X Cosmetic Treatment]
• Ask a Derm: Top Questions from Our Patients
• X Reasons to Attend Our Next Event
• Holiday-Related Content

Once you have these overarching content categories, the next step is to figure out when to post about what -- this is where the content calendar comes into play.

• When: Once you’ve figured out how often you want to publish different types of content (i.e. 7 social media posts per week, 4 blog posts per month, 2 email newsletters per month) then it’s time to fit these frequency goals into actual publishing dates.
• What: You might also have specific goals on how often you want to publish content relating to each of your content categories. The number of holidays that relate to your brand will also vary from month to month, affecting the question of what content to publish.

There’s no strictly defined rule on when exactly to plan your content calendar.

If you really want to get ahead of the game, you can plan a whole year in advance! You can get more specific with dates as you get closer to the present, and add in future content publishing goals to the extent they can be planned.

You can add in known dates such as holidays as placeholders, as well as any defined dates relating to your brand’s own milestones, such as events and product launches.

The time required for content creation is a key consideration in determining the extent to which you want to plan in advance. If you’re creating all your content and this content is low in complexity, you will need less lead time than if you’re planning to publish more involved content -- particularly if this content is being created by someone else and you need to bake in deadlines for approvals.

Now that we’ve covered what a content calendar is and when to create one -- let’s get into the steps to planning your calendar!

STEP 1: SET UP YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR TEMPLATE

Before filling out your content calendar, naturally, you will need a content calendar to fill out!

This is largely a one-time step, since making the next month’s calendar will involve duplicating your first calendar template and replacing the content to reflect the new month.

I like building content calendar templates in Google Sheets -- the company's spreadsheet product.

You can click here get access to my content calendar template in Google Sheets, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel for this step!

You can build yours in Excel if you prefer, or even in a physical calendar you purchased at a bookstore (if you’re old school like that!)

I like Google Sheets because it makes your content calendar:

• Always up-to-date
• Safe in the cloud
• Easy to share with others

Exactly how you format your calendar is up to you. I used to build mine to resemble a classic calendar, but since I’ve moved to a more straightforward table format -- organized by week.

The screenshot below shows you a hypothetical week in a dermatologist’s content calendar, to continue with the example given above:

Each row represents a content piece, be it a social media post, blog post, email newsletter, etc.

Below are the columns you can add to your content calendar, depending on your specific needs and preferences:

• Date: You couldn’t call it a calendar without a list of dates! Add these in the leftmost column of your spreadsheet. You might want to have one column for publishing date and another for due date, particularly if someone else is creating content for you and you want them to provide content with a certain amount of lead time.
• Content Medium: Does this row represent a social media post, blog post, email newsletter? If you plan to, say, publish a blog post then send out a social media post and an email newsletter announcing the new blog post -- this would represent three rows in the calendar, each corresponding to the message that would be published across each platform. If you want to get more granular, each social network can be its own medium and get its own row.
• Content Category: If you want to keep track of the overarching category behind each piece, you would do so in this column. For example, "myth vs. fact", ask the expert, event promotion, holiday, etc. This is useful so that down the line you can match up the metrics on how well each content piece did with its overarching category -- revealing trends in terms of what types of content resonated with your audience.
• Content Topic: Here is where you would list out the specific topic of each content piece -- for example, “myth vs. fact: does chocolate give you acne?”
• Content Link: Here you could link to a Dropbox file (in the case of original content, i.e. a branded graphic or video) or a third-party URL (in the case of curated content, where you’re sharing something that someone else has created). Adding this here allows you to quickly find the “meat” of whatever content piece you’ll be sharing. This is particularly useful if more than one person will be accessing the calendar -- it allows you to link out to all the content requiring approval straight from the calendar. It’s also helpful for when you want to go back and find a specific piece of content, you can simply search for it within your calendar file.
• Next Step: Exactly what it sounds like! What needs to be done next for this content piece? For example: “create social media graphic”, “write blog post”, or “approve email newsletter”.
• Status: A simplified version of the next step column, this column simply would specify “published”, “scheduled”, “approved”, “in progress”, or “to be started”. You could also color code each row based on status for an at-a-glance view of where your content production efforts stand at any given time.

That may sound like a lot, but once you’ve created the template -- making the next month’s calendar is simply a matter of duplicating your calendar tab (or the whole file) and updating the information contained therein.

You can click here to make a copy of my content calendar template in Google Sheets to use for your own projects!

I promise: the peace of mind and sense of organization that a content calendar will give you is well worth it!

Get the next 6 steps of the calendar planning process on my blog! >>