I often hear moans and groans when I ask clients about blogging or creating an enewsletter (I’m sure someone has heard mine too). I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be stressful.
As the former Editor-In-Chief of Kaleidoscope Magazine, I know the value of an editorial calendar.
Establishing a calendar for a company or personal blog will improve your content and relieve the stress associated with meeting deadlines. Scheduling the topics in advance will help with efficiency and guarantee that you reach your audience and marketing goals.
A calendar should include:
- A synopsis of each post and what marketing goals it should satisfy. Ask who comprises your audience and what can you write to reach and engage with them.
- Deadlines: Lead time for when you should start writing. Work back from the date it will post. How frequently you post should be taken into account to allow enough time to write and find images and/or video content.
- Headlines: Keep them short, clear, thought-provoking and engaging. If a headline works, it asks your audience to read on and share it on social media platforms.
- Byline: This is the person who wrote the article. Is not necessary if one person is always the blogger, but should be included with guest posts.
- Keywords and Categories: These are crucial to be included so your post can be indexed by search engines like Google.
- Social Media: Where an announcement of a post will be publicized, be it Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Most national monthly magazines are gearing up now (November) for their spring issues. They know for March, who will be on the cover, the topics and who will write the articles.
A calendar is an excellent tool to keep your blog going strong, more effective and on-schedule. It will also leave room to make changes and still not put you behind schedule.
Try it…and let me know what you think.