What Is an Editorial Calendar and Why Do You Need One? October 2, 2014Expert Blogs, PINK NotesOff

An Editorial Calendar is much more than SEO keywords and BtoB content!

There are many ways to get your marketing messages across such as mobile, Web, social, phone, live events, and more. But one thing remains constant among all of these mediums – content!

There are many communications going on so how do you organize all of this content for the best results?

After all, you need to track what’s going on, meet deadlines and make sure everyone is sending out the right message at the right time. The answer lies in your editorial calendar.

In the past, this was just a simple calendar with topics for stories. But today, it’s an essential tool for business success.

What is an Editorial Calendar, Anyway?

An editorial calendar is simply a calendar for all of your current and future marketing activities. It’s a great way to get organized, know what’s going on and prepare for upcoming campaigns.

And the important thing is to keep it SIMPLE. After all, who wants to deal with yet another document that wastes time and effort?!

With this in mind, here’s a simple cheat sheet to help you set up your editorial calendar:

  1. Write down all of your marketing activities for the year with their deadlines.
  2. Create an Excel spreadsheet with each month and date noted.
  3. Make columns for activities, responsible parties, social media, SEO keywords, notes, results, and any other information that you need.
  4. Once you have your calendar set up, start inserting all of your marketing activities and information under the specific dates and columns.

That’s it. Now, share the documents online via GoogleDocs or another service, and give the link to your team members. This way, the appropriate people can access the document at any time to see what is going on and prepare accordingly.

Your Editorial Calendar is a Living Document.

Once your editorial calendar is up and running, don’t forget to add information about the results for each marketing activity. Track all of your messaging via Google Analytics or other tools, and write down both good and bad results. After all, if something isn’t working, you can stop wasting time on bad messaging, and make positive changes immediately.

That’s why your editorial calendar is a living document. It will be updated and changed on a regular basis to meet the needs of your customers. And while this may seem like extra work, it’s one of the easiest ways to track all content and marketing messaging in your organization.

Your editorial calendar is a one-stop document for success. Without it, good luck having consistent messaging and content that actually increases sales and customer loyalty!

What are you going to do today to organize your editorial calendar?

For additional help with your BtoB content strategy, please write to me at www.rembrandtwrites.com. 

 

By Melanie Rembrandt, a BtoB Content Strategist and Publicist who helps business owners boost sales, awareness and credibility fast at Rembrandt Communications, www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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