For the month of April, I decided to focus on organization, you know because of Spring Cleaning! One of the items that I took a good hard look at was an editorial calendar.  When I first began my blogging journey I thought the editorial calendar was rubish.

Let me explain.

I thought it was pointless and added to the workload. I also thought if you scheduled your time wisely you could simply manage the workload of content and social media.

Needless to say, I was wrong.

Very wrong.

 I learned for a content writer, blogger, or any kind of writer you need to be organized in simple and effective ways that allow you to optimize your schedule to your business needs. Thus why we all need an editorial calendar. 

Using an editorial calendar helps you in coming up with themes, planning ahead, and provides you with structure and the strategy that your content the structure it deserves. One of the most important aspects of an editorial calendar is it keeps you consistent. 

If you have been paying attention to any kind of content marketing then you understand that consistency is vital. 

Elements of an Editorial Calendar

When creating your editorial calendar, a good idea is to add certain aspects or features, such as publishing date, due date, author, topic and title, content details, keywords, target audience, offer, or CTA.   

I’m going to break it down for you even more.

1. Published and due date-These are the dates you want to hold yourself accountable for. I use the publish date as the date I drafted my first draft and the due date as the date I plan to schedule my post. first

           You can use these features however you feel works best for you.

2. Author, you don’t have to include if it is just you! But it is a great idea to include should you have a staff of writers you work with.

3. Topic/ Title is where you want to list possible ideas for headlines or subtitles. In this section, you are honestly brainstorming the possibilities before creating an outline. This does create some creative juices, so don’t skip it.

4. Content Details are key points you want to cover in your content. Perhaps this could begin as your summary or introduction. You can also use this as part of the details in the body of the main content.

5. Keywords are a pain in the neck. The research it takes to dive into the keywords is time-consuming, but doing the work on an editorial calendar saves you time!

6. Target audience is essential for any content creator. Keeping the audience in mind will allow you to write with purpose and create value. Making sure to keep your audience in mind will provide you with direction for writing / choosing topics to cover.

7. Offer or CTA is what you want the audience to do after or while they are reading your content. Do you want them to buy something? Do you want to have them go to another website?

The benefits of an editorial calendar

Look I get it, you don’t want to implement something into your routine or business unless it is beneficial in more than one way. The organization is a major reason for using an editorial calendar but here are a few more!

• Idea generation
• Consistency
• Scheduling
• Staying on top of social media
• Keeping track of holidays/seasonal events
• Promotions
• Planning events or creating a course (keeping everything together)

Using an editorial calendar will help you in your organization goals in a simple and effective way that still allows you to optimes your schedule to your business needs.

As you use an editorial calendar you may find you’re coming up with better planned out themes, and your content has more structure and strategy.

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