According to Content Marketing Institute survey conducted in 2017, 70% more marketers are using content marketing, social marketing planning and content calendar than marketers in 2016. The percentage will go event higher. Why content planning is so crucial?
Here are some of the main reasons:
1. NEVER MISS AN IMPORTANT DATE
One of the key elements of your content calendar is to include all the dates which are of significant importance for your business – national days, events, product launching, campaign launching etc. Thus, you may plan the content ahead and be sure that no urgent situation would force you to create your message at the last minute.
In addition, this calendar is a great tool for results measurement. If you maintain a B2B profile for example, you may easily find out that national days or public holidays have significant impact on your CTR due to your audience having a day off. You should consider that information for your calendar creation and plan wisely. Decline the number of posts if needed or re-post old but useful content.
2. YOUR CONTENT IS WELL ORGANIZED
Content calendars are helping to maintain clear and strict timeline for messages publishing. This means that you are always aware of what, when and where to be published. Do not underestimate the positive impact of that kind of organization on your social marketing strategy. In addition, the content calendar gives your social channel a “rhythm”, which to maintain. Using the calendar eliminates risks of making spam of your posts or the opposite – ignore useful content.
3. YOU SAVE TIME
Your planning results in higher effectiveness. When you plan your content ahead and perfectly know when to post an evergreen, new content or shared content, you save plenty of time in a long-time perspective.
4. YOUR RESOURCES ARE USED PROPERLY
You don’t want to brief your copywriters and designer (if you have them in your team) in the last possible minute. Instead, brief them ahead by giving them enough time to make their own research and generate ideas. Thus, you’ll be absolutely sure to publish high quality content just when it needs to be published.
5. YOU UNDERSTAND MUCH BETTER WHICH CONTENT IS EFFECTIVE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE AND WHICH IS NOT
When you carefully plan your social media content you would be able to understand which content is good and effective and which is spam. Thus, you may get the idea of what your audience wants to see and give them more of it, respectively – score better and have highly effective marketing strategy. How? Firstly, don’t waste your time for posting in the last possible minute. Save time by planning ahead and use this time for analyzing the metrics. Secondly, planning is helping to have a clear structure and strict frame and not loose your tracks. Which are the posts with then best results? The posts from every Thursday or the ones on a specific topic? The only way to get those insights is to have content calendar and clear plan for your strategy.
HOW TO CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR FOR PUBLISH IN OUR SOCIAL MEDIA
1. THINK ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE
The great content should come from your audience interests. Than means that you need to know your audience well. The best way to understand your audience preferences is to create the so called audience persona or the “archetype” of your Facebook page fan for example: what are his or hers demographic specifics, interests, needs, wants and demands, social specifics, profession etc. While making statistics about your audience persona you may define your target persona as well. Creating your messages you may try to address both – your current audience and your target audience. If the message is somehow irrelevant to one of both segments interests, better not post it at all.
2. EXAMINE YOUR CONTENT RESULTS
For creating great content you might need to know what great content actually means. Go through all your old publications and try to understand which generates better results and why.
-which publication has most likes
-which publication has most comments
-which publication has most shares
-which publication has most views
-which publication has most engagements
3. ORGANIZE YOUR CONTENT
Organize your content by making some kind of a catalog. Separate the content regarding topics and type of posts. The content may vary regarding the type of business you are running. For your particular type of business it may be efficient to have “how to..” posts, “question and answers” posts or blog posts articles for example. You may also need to create an “evergreen” category where to store all the content ready to be re-post when needed.
4. PUT ALL THE IMPORTANT DATES IN THE CALENDAR
When your calendar is ready (it may be a doc file or an excel table, whatever is more convenient for you) you should add all the dates with a significant importance for your business. You may not want to miss any occasion for creating useful content. Add all the big international holidays like Christmas and if your business allows it – some funny international days like Joke Day for example, campaign launching, new product launching, events organized by your company and if your business is seasonal – have that seasonal character in mind.
5. START WORKING ON YOUR CALENDAR
Now, when you have the type of content and all the important dates, you may start the actual work on your calendar. Firstly, you need to create the proper mix. What type of content you want to publish, when and how often? The golden rule should be 80 / 20 where 80 is the useful, entertaining and interesting content and 20 – the posts which are trying to sell or promote your products / services.
6. SCHEDULE YOUR POSTS
Think big. If you are running a company selling drinks for example and you are launching a new flavored product for the upcoming summer season, you may want to choose carefully your topics and add them in your calendar. it’s always better to do less but high quality than more but poor quality. Think carefully about your message and write down all your ideas. Select only the ideas with the potential to become the next great content. Don’t forget to select the visual corresponding best with the initial idea. When the publication ready, schedule it for the particular date.
Plan, create, schedule. It may sounds easy but it’s actually a hard working process which takes time and efforts. So get ready!
