Optify Kick Ass Content Calendar Guide

8/22/2019 Optify Kick Ass Content Calendar Guide

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MARKETING ESSENTIALS:DEVELOPING A KICK-ASSEDITORIAL CALENDAR


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Marketing Essentials:Developing a Kick-AssEditorial CalendarFROM BIG IDEA TO ACTIONABLE PLAN

An idea can only become a reality once it is broken down

into organized, actionable elements. Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Implementing a robust content marketing plan can be daunting for any enterprise, whether youre a

large, B2B firm serving clients across the country, or a small business trying to build a customer base

in a single location. What to post, when to post it, who will create it clearly, theres a lot to consider if

youre trying to create meaningful engagement with your target audience.

Regardless of the size of your enterprise, having a content calendar that captures the what, why and

how of your content creation efforts will be critical to the success of your entire marketing plan.Content marketing is a long-term strategy that requires organization and structure; without a well-

planned content calendar, you risk wasting time and effort creating and distributing content that

doesnt support your overall marketing objectives.

As Belsky notes, there needs to be a scheme that consists of organized, actionable elements if you

want your big ideas to fly. This guide will help you get started.


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Before you start creating content and building your content calendar, you (and others who will be creating

content for you) need to have a solid understanding of your:

Every product and service has a story; learn yours, and you will be better prepared to be an effective content

marketer.

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Marketing Essentials: Developing a Kick-Ass Editorial Calendar

KNOW YOUR STORY

STEP

ONE

To gain real-time insights about whats happening in your industry, you can

set up a few Google Alerts, using appropriate keywords, or use tools such

as Social Mention or HootSuite to track trending topics.

PROTIP

BANDWIDTH& RESOURCES

COMPETITIVEMARKETPLACE

UNIQUE SELLINGPROPOSITION

BRAND &PRODUCT(S)

INDUSTRY
http://www.google.com/alertshttp://socialmention.com/https://hootsuite.com/https://hootsuite.com/http://socialmention.com/http://www.google.com/alerts


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GUIDE

5 Steps to Building aSearch Persona

WEBINAR

Using Personas to BoostOnline Marketing and SEO

4

Before the nuts and bolts of assigning tweets, posts, blog posts, white papers or podcasts can begin, make

sure that you have a thorough understanding of your target. Know your audience:

What are their consumption habits? What are their pain points?

What motivates them? Identify their action triggers.

What online platforms are they most active with?

If they are most active on mobile, do you have a strategy for that?


KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

STEP

TWO

It can be helpful to imagine your target audience not as a faceless crowd, but as a

specific persona. Personas are widely used by experienced marketers to help

develop messaging that will resonate with the likely buyer. Whether you determine

that your prototype buyer is George, a single, 35-year-old urban dweller who owns

a dog, a hybrid vehicle, and vacations in Costa Rica, or college educated women,

ages 25-30, the more insight you have about your audience, the more relevant

your content marketing eorts will be.

PROTIP
http://www.optify.net/forms/5-step-to-building-a-search-persona/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/forms/5-step-to-building-a-search-persona/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/forms/5-step-to-building-a-search-persona/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-webinars/webinar-using-personas-to-boost-online-marketing-and-seo/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-webinars/webinar-using-personas-to-boost-online-marketing-and-seo/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-webinars/webinar-using-personas-to-boost-online-marketing-and-seo/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-webinars/webinar-using-personas-to-boost-online-marketing-and-seo/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/forms/5-step-to-building-a-search-persona/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCal


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Your content marketing calendar will consist of items that are produced by your own subject matter experts,

as well as content that you share from thought leaders and influencers from your industry. Based on your

unique marketing objectives, and your resources, you will need to decide:

Who will be involved in brainstorming and/or creating content? What type of content do we need to

> drive meaningful engagement?

> establish thought leadership? > elevate our brand? How frequently should we distribute content?

Begin by auditing your existing content to identify content that can be refreshed or repurposed, and to discover

content gaps that indicate potential topics for new content. As you review existing content, look at ways that

you can creatively leverage the material: a blog post could become a slide deck or infographic, for example.


KNOW YOUR CONTENT

ECOSYSTEM

STEP

THREE

Understanding the content marketing produced by your peers and competitors will

be helpful to you as you begin to curate and solicit material for your own content

calendar. Proactively build connections with the online community and establish a

presence with the influencers in your industry niche. This way, you will build credibil-

ity for your brand and the content that youll be publishing.

PROTIP


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Just like you need a travel itinerary to guide a trip, youll need a tactical document, or roadmap, to capture a

high-level view of your content marketing plan before you begin assigning specific topics, authors and dates

to a master calendar.

The worksheet below is a roadmap for a first generation content marketing plan. It can be customized to

reflect your own tactical plan. In this example, platforms are shown, with the target audience for each.

The key messages and themes are

the same across categories. Initial goals

are stated in general terms; as more

meaningful metrics are obtained over

time, goals will become more specific.Note that daily posting topics, hashtags

and themes are shown, but specific

details of the posts are not.

This information will be captured in the

master calendar.


BUILD THE BIG-PICTURE

ROADMAP

STEP

FOUR


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Youve done your due diligence and youre confident that you know your industry, your product, your audi -

ence, your marketplace and your capacity for creating content that your audience will want. Youve deter -

mined the platforms and messaging, and youve created a roadmap to guide your efforts (see Step Four).

With a plan and concept in place, youre ready to develop a working content calendar.

The categories that you choose to include in your calendar will be determined by the types and volume of

content that youre planning to create. A simple calendar might include these categories:


MASTER CALENDAR BASICS

STEP

FIVE

An Excel or Google spreadsheet is the most common tool for organizing your

calendar. Depending on the size of the team that needs to access or edit the

information, you may wish to use an online sharing tool, such as Google Drive.

Create the calendar with access and collaboration in mind. Its important that

content marketing objectives are known and understood across your organization.

PROTIP

Title

Description

Due Date

Publication Date

Platform(s)

Author

Status

Keywords

Digital Assets

Tags

Call to Action

Repurpose Content?

Tie-ins with other marketing

campaigns or milestone eventsEngagement Highlights (Metrics)

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>


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Below is anExcel spreadsheetthat can be modified to reflect the areas that matter the most to your content

marketing efforts.

Depending on how much content youre planning for, you may wish to create a tab for each month. Adding a

brainstorming page might be helpful as ideas develop organically over time. Customize and tweak your

calendar until it supports your unique objectives.


CLICK TO ENLARGE
http://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsxhttp://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsxhttp://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsxhttp://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsxhttp://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsxhttp://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/optify-sample-content-calendar.xlsx


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Whether your calendar is a quarterly, monthly, or annual document, you need to anticipate and plan for

content that aligns with your organizations milestone events. If youve been given a marketing plan for the

entire year, use it to guide your content calendar! Think like a publisher; whats happening in your organiza-

tion, in your industry, or with your leadership that might engage your audience?

Be creative: turn events into opportunities to develop innovative content. Rather than a standard blog post

about a success story, create a video or a Pinterest board based on elements of the story.

With practice, youll see the potential for good content marketing material in the day-to-day life of your

company, as well as in popular culture:

Product launches Quarterly sales goals Seasons Selling cycle-specific content Company events Holidays

Cartoons, memes and humor

Is there a magic formula that will deliver the best ROI? Not necessarily, but according to Paul Chaney, a

common best practice is to follow the 70/20/10 rule: 70% of your content should focus on your customers

needs and interests, 20% should be content that you curate from other sources, and 10% should be promo -

tional in nature. As your plan evolves, youll discover the mix that works right for you.


THINK LIKE A PUBLISHER

STEP

SIX


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Think visually. Pictures, graphics and images will drive the most engagement andare the most shareable. Develop evergreen content material and information

that has value to the target audience that can be updated and retrofitted for

ongoing use.

Keep in mind that a good calendar is flexible enough to accommodate unex-

pected developments, such as new branding initiatives or changes in the market-

place. As you create your calendar, you should strive to build a content plan that

will engage your audience in the way thats most authentic to your brand.

Certain types of engagement will develop organically responses to a blog post,

for example so your plan needs to be flexible enough to accommodate sponta-

neous developments. Remember that social media is a conversation your con-

tent should be positioned to instigate or encourage a wider conversation, rather

than be a bullhorn for your brand.

PROTIP

CONTENT MARKETING RESOURCES

How to Create a Business Plan for a Corporate Blog Strategy

Tips for Creating Compelling Content

B2B Content Marketing Trends
http://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-guides/how-to-create-a-business-plan-for-a-corporate-blog-strategy/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing/4-tips-for-creating-compelling-content/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-guides/b2b-content-marketing-trends-2012-survey-results/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-guides/b2b-content-marketing-trends-2012-survey-results/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing/4-tips-for-creating-compelling-content/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCalhttp://www.optify.net/inbound-marketing-resources/how-to-guides/how-to-create-a-business-plan-for-a-corporate-blog-strategy/?optify_r=Whitepaper&optify_rd=ContentCal


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No, CNN may not always pick up your content, and it may not go viral on YouTube, no matter how clever or

well-planned your calendar may be. But implementing a calendar, iterating on it, repeating what works and

discarding what doesnt, will help you create content that resonates with your audience. Keep in mind that

your distracted, fickle and information-thirsty audience is looking for shareable, useful and entertaining

content from the brands they care about12 months of the year.

A robust content calendar thats tied to your marketing goals will deliver results:

What are you waiting for? Your audience is already online, waiting for you. Go get em!


#BrandAwesome

IMPROVED SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS

INCREASED LEADS TO YOUR WEBSITE

PIQUED INTEREST OF BLOGGERS IN YOUR NICHE

SOLIDIFIED SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

INCREASED AWARENESS OF YOUR BRAND


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Optify Kick Ass Content Calendar Guide