Oh, content.

By now, we should all be well aware of the vital role content plays in our marketing strategies to attract, inform, and engage...that being said, it's not as simple as creating a few blog posts or pieces of content every so often.  

If you want your content to truly work for you, you need to make sure you're approaching it correctly. And by correctly, I mean you have learned how to harness the power of the editorial calendar.

So, let me ask you a couple questions: 

1. How much content are you producing on a regular basis? 
2. What kinds of content are you producing? Blog posts? Infographics? Webinars? Newsletters? 

With regards to Question #1, if you're not regularly producing content, that's a problem. Consistency is king when it comes to content production, and you can't expect to see results if you're not committed to a regular content schedule.

Here's a core reason why producing content on a regular cadence will work in your favor.

In the simplest of examples, let's pretend that every time you publish a blog post, your business presence grows a bit more. At first, it may seem like it's a lot of effort with little results, but, in time, you'll end up with a mountain of content.

That mountain takes up more online presence in search results and provides more opportunities for prospects, strangers, and customers to be attracted to and engage with you. Ultimately, your business will have a mountain of credibility, content, and value to offer which should be tied back directly into your core marketing funnels.

My full-service agency, Built By Love, does just this for many of our clients. If you would like to learn more about how we can do it for you, schedule a free consult today and we'll help you create a plan that works for your business.

Okay, now let's say you ARE regularly producing content..

If so, great! But that brings us to Question #2.  If you're only producing 1 or 2 types of content, that's a whole other problem. 

And you're not alone...

This blog is going to help remedy this by giving you valuable insight for a content strategy that works.  Yes,  I'm going to tell you how to harness the power of an editorial calendar, but before I do that, you need to know why Question #2 is so important. Namely, why do you need to diversify the types of content you produce?

The best (and my favorite) way to answer this question is with a metaphor...

Before we dig deeper into this metaphor, don't forget to download your complete guide to creating and harnessing the power of an editorial calendar.  Not only will this guide give you step-by-step instructions, you'll also get a working editorial calendar to use. Sign up below to get yours now! 

Step 2: The Editorial Calendar

The main reason why business owners struggle with producing great content their customers will want is because they don't (yet) know how to harness the power of the editorial calendar.

Creating and publishing content without a proper plan in place not only makes you feel disorganized, it can make your business look unstable or weak.

Planning ahead with an editorial calendar can do wonders. First, it will help solidify consistent content production; and second, it will help you focus and think more strategically about the purpose of your content, allowing it to better do the work it's intended to do....get you more customers and clients!

How to Use an Editorial Calendar for Maximum Impact 

You'll want to scope out each month for the entire year, which doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds. Just follow the guidelines below, and for each month of the year list out:  

• All holidays and industry related events your audience may be interested in.  
• Core product/service you want to focus on each month
• Promotion/sale you want to focus for each month. A rough idea is fine; later, you'll want to determine the terms of the sale, the exact dates, the PROMO code (if applicable), and the link to the product to be purchased.
• The various types of content you will use for each month. 

Once you have an idea of what each month's "theme" is, you can move forward with planning the actual content.

Using the example above, if you know well in advance that your June content is going to focus on building momentum and continual training, you can begin researching and curating the content needed for a blog post, Q&A interview, webinar, e-book (or whatever content forms you choose) months ahead of the deadline.

This not only takes away the stress of wondering what you should write about, it will also help you pay attention to other points or angles that you could tackle for that month's particular topic.

At this point, you may be feeling worried or overwhelmed just thinking about creating content in a number of different formats...the good news is, you can still diversify without starting completely from scratch. 

That's where Content Repurposing comes in.

The point isn't to cover every topic under the sun, every single month, using every single format.  That's a waste of your time and resources!

Instead, you should focus on strong topics while utilizing a handful of different formats (aka more tributaries in your river) that will expand your reach and draw in more qualified leads.  

So with that in mind, here are some more details you'll need to consider if you want your editorial calendar to function as a well-oiled machine, driving a powerful and robust river. 

How to Use an Editorial Calendar to Plan Your Content 

First, identify the primary piece of content. For our purposes, let's say it will be a blog post. You'll want to nail down a process for it, by answering these questions:  

• Who's creating/writing it? 
• When is the first draft due?
• What assets are needed to create it? 
• When will it be published?
• When will we promote it? What date will the email blast go out? 
• What are the social media CTAs? 
• What is the ad budget (if any)? 
• Where will this piece of content live? 
• Is there an offer attached? Where does it drive to? 

Once you have answered each of these questions, you can begin applying it to all types of content, which will make the entire process of production so much easier.

What Should I use to Create an Editorial Calendar?

The easiest way to do so is to simply sign up below for your own guide and editorial calendar and half the work is done for you!

Otherwise, if you want to create your own, a Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet can work just fine.

Start by creating a workbook, where one or two tabs can be your Master Calendar for the entire year (or quarter) where you hash out the seasonal activities/topics for each month. Then, you can designate individual tabs for each month to determine publication dates, content types, promotion schedule, and so on. 

Again, if you'd rather use something that has been set for you, then grab your complete Editorial Calendar below while you can! 

Daniel is the world's only dual certified StoryBrand Certified Agency and Infusionsoft Certified Partner. His agency holds a long list of certifications and hires top talent that has one primary goal: to make the client achieve their wildest dreams.