
If you’re starting out small in content marketing, you may wonder how to create a content calendar. For that matter, you may wonder why you even need a content calendar.
I’m going to answer both of these questions. Then I’ll provide you with a downloadable calendar that will help you schedule your work and maintain focus.
But before we discuss how to create a content calendar, let’s talk about why you need one.
Why You Need a Content Calendar
If you’re a solo practitioner, you might think you can just keep your plan in your head. If you’re leading a small team, you might think you don’t need much infrastructure either. Email and a Slack channel are probably all that’s needed.
Yet the more you learn about a content calendar, the more its benefits seem to grow. A calendar:
- Is an excellent organizational tool.
- Provides a quick reference to your content plan.
- Keeps all your deliverables in plain view.
- Helps your team communicate, keeping members aligned and accountable.
- Provides a prompt for further planning.
- Provides an inventory of content assets.
This brief list of benefits might already be enough to convince you of the need for a content calendar. But if you’re also looking for social proof, consider this fact: 77 percent of the best marketers—referred to as foxes in this Curata post—use a content calendar. And who doesn’t want to be a fox?
Building Our Content Calendar
Before I describe how to create a content calendar, I’d like to review the planning tools we developed in previous chapters. These tools will serve as the building blocks of our content calendar.
While a calendar is essentially a scheduling tool, I also like to incorporate my planning information directly into it. That is, I talk about the how and why of a piece, as well as the when. This information helps solo practitioners and teams maintain their focus on the original purpose as they develop their content.
Aligning Funnel Stages with Objectives and Metrics
You might recall from an earlier chapter, Setting Goals, Objectives, and Metrics, that we began our content strategy with a simple table that aligned funnel stages with objectives and metrics. For convenience, I’ll reproduce that table here:
Funnel Stage | Objective | Metrics |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Unique page views Time on page Bounce rate |
Consideration | Engagement | Likes Shares Comments Inbound links |
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Leads Lead qualification (percentage of leads that led to sales) Orders Enrollments |
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Repeat customers Referrals |
Adding Content Types
Next, in Optimizing Content for Your Audience, we developed three tables for planning your content.
The first table provided a means to align your content to the stages of your marketing funnel. It also suggested content types that were suitable for particular stages of the funnel. It looked like this:
Funnel Stage | Objective | Tactics | Content Types |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Provide educational and interesting content | Blog posts Social media posts Listicles Podcasts Infographics Presentations Digital magazines Email newsletters |
Consideration | Engagement | Explain how your product or service works and why it’s better than your competitor’s offering | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Case studies Free demos or downloads Email series Ebooks Statistics about your product How-tos that feature your product |
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Issue a call to action | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Sales pages Customer stories Testimonials Demos or free trials |
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Deliver additional value to your customer to keep your brand “top of mind” | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Helpful tips Insider guides Special offers for upgrades or additional products How-tos from other customers |
Addressing Audience Needs
The second table extended the first to consider audience’s needs—the thoughts, feelings, and concerns you have to address to make your offering persuasive. It looked like this:
Funnel Stage | Objective | Tactics | Content Types | Thoughts, Feelings & Concerns |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Provide educational and interesting content | Blog posts Social media posts Listicles Podcasts Infographics Presentations Digital magazines Email newsletters | Is this organization knowledgeable, trustworthy, and likable? Does this organization offer a solution to my problem? |
Consideration | Engagement | Explain how your product works and why it is better than your competitor’s product | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Case studies Free demos or downloads Email series Ebooks Statistics about your product How-tos that feature your product | How does this organization’s solution compare to its competitor’s? |
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Issue a call to action | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Sales pages Customer stories Testimonials Demos or free trials | Should I sign up for a newsletter? Should I do business with this organization? |
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Deliver additional value to your customer to keep your brand “top of mind” | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Helpful tips Insider guides Special offers for upgrades or additional products How-tos from other customers | How can this organization help my friends and allies? |
Adding Audience Personas
The third table extended the second to consider three audience personas—those with beginning, intermediate, and advanced knowledge of your subject matter. It looked like this:
Funnel Stage | Objective | Thoughts, Feelings & Concerns | Content Types | Pesona 1 (Beginner) | Persona 2 (Intermediate) | Persona 3 (Advanced) |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Is this organization knowledgeable, trustworthy, and likable? Does this organization offer a solution to my problem? | Blog posts Social media posts Listicles Podcasts Infographics Presentations Digital magazines Email newsletters | |||
Consideration | Engagement | How does this organization’s solution compare to its competitor’s? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Case studies Free demos or downloads Email series Ebooks Statistics about your product How-tos that feature your product | |||
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Should I sign up for a newsletter? Should I do business with this organization? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Sales pages Customer stories Testimonials Demos or free trials | |||
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Should I do business with this organization again? How can this organization help my friends and allies? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Helpful tips Insider guides Special offers for upgrades or additional products How-tos from other customers |
Adding Keywords
If you were doing keyword research while you read How to Do Keyword Research, this would be a good time to add those keywords. Let’s do it now.
Funnel Stage | Objective | Thoughts, Feelings & Concerns | Content Types | Keywords | Pesona 1 (Beginner) | Persona 2 (Intermediate) | Persona 3 (Advanced) |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Is this organization knowledgeable, trustworthy, and likable? Does this organization offer a solution to my problem? | Blog posts Social media posts Listicles Podcasts Infographics Presentations Digital magazines Email newsletters | ||||
Consideration | Engagement | How does this organization’s solution compare to its competitor’s? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Case studies Free demos or downloads Email series Ebooks Statistics about your product How-tos that feature your product | ||||
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Should I sign up for a newsletter? Should I do business with this organization? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Sales pages Customer stories Testimonials Demos or free trials | ||||
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Should I do business with this organization again? How can this organization help my friends and allies? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Helpful tips Insider guides Special offers for upgrades or additional products How-tos from other customers |
Finalizing Our Content Calendar
Our table is a powerful tool for content planning. First, it provides a convenient place to write all the decisions we make about content—the audiences we will serve, and the metrics we will use to measure the effect of our work.
Second, it keeps all this information in plain view. That helps prevent what I call “content drift,” which is the natural human tendency to slowly veer off course.
But there’s one more thing we have to do—add columns for the information we need for scheduling and accountability. This information will vary for each organization. In this example, however, I’ll add four columns on the left-hand side:
- Publication date
- Channel (website, social media network, etc.)
- Writer
- Title
Publication Date | Channel | Writer | Title | Funnel Stage | Objective | Thoughts, Feelings & Concerns | Content Types | Keywords | Pesona 1 (Beginner) | Persona 2 (Intermediate) | Persona 3 (Advanced) |
Discovery | Brand awareness | Is this organization knowledgeable, trustworthy, and likable? Does this organization offer a solution to my problem? | Blog posts Social media posts Listicles Podcasts Infographics Presentations Digital magazines Email newsletters | ||||||||
Consideration | Engagement | How does this organization’s solution compare to its competitor’s? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Case studies Free demos or downloads Email series Ebooks Statistics about your product How-tos that feature your product | ||||||||
Conversion | Lead generation Sale or other customer action | Should I sign up for a newsletter? Should I do business with this organization? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Sales pages Customer stories Testimonials Demos or free trials | ||||||||
Retention | Brand loyalty Advocacy | Should I do business with this organization again? How can this organization help my friends and allies? | Blog posts Podcasts or video logs Webinars Helpful tips Insider guides Special offers for upgrades or additional products How-tos from other customers |
There you have it—a content calendar that will help you schedule content production, align your team, and keep your entire content marketing effort on track.
Download the Calendar
If you like this calendar, why not download it?
Click the button below to download the calendar as an Excel spreadsheet. Then use it as is or customize it.
Add separate worksheets for each product or service you offer. Add a column for keyword planning. Convert it to a Google sheet and share it with your team. Use your imagination—the possibilities are endless.
Chapters
Chapter 1
What Is Content Marketing?
Chapter 2
Setting Goals, Objectives, and Metrics
Chapter 3
Auditing Content
Chapter 4
Optimizing Content for Your Audience
Chapter 5
How to Do Keyword Research
Chapter 6
Generating Ideas
Chapter 7
Reusing Content
Chapter 8
Promoting Your Content
Chapter 9
How to Create a Content Calendar
Chapter 10