Tag Archives: Content Planning

The importance of maintaining a content marketing calendar

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Content Marketing Calendar

In my previous blog post titled How to Add Method to The Content Marketing Madness I briefly touched upon the point of maintaining a content marketing calendar so that you always know what you’re doing, how you are doing it and at what time you are doing it. Most people call it “Content Marketing Editorial Calendar” but here I’m not just talking about writing content and hence, organising topics and assigning them to various days; I’m talking about scheduling everything that you need to do in order to implement a result-oriented content marketing strategy.

Content marketing calendar helps you define a vision

The biggest problem with content marketing is when the enthusiasm wears off people are often at a loss, especially when you are a small business. What to do? And even if we do it, is it worth it? Aren’t we wasting time needlessly publishing blog posts that nobody reads? Why post links to various social networking websites?

You don’t come across such doubts when you are just launching your content marketing campaign because then you’re full of enthusiasm and confidence. Then, after maybe a month or so, you don’t experience much improvement. The search engine traffic doesn’t improve. You don’t see many people coming to your website. Your sales haven’t increased. You aren’t getting more leads. Your developing doubts – are you making a big mistake investing so much in content marketing?

But you know content marketing works. It is working for other businesses. Then why isn’t it working for you?

It is working for other businesses because they have already gone through the phase that you are going through right now and passed through it unscathed. They had prepared. They had a calendar and they simply stuck to it.

Once you have developed a content marketing calendar and written down the sort of effort that would be required, the sort of budget that will need to be allocated, and a long list of pros and cons that may come your way after a few weeks or a few months, you are already prepared for the phase of discouragement. Even if you are not experienced enough to anticipate lean periods, at least you know what you’re going to do for the next 2 months – yes, don’t create a content marketing calendar just for a few weeks. At least focus on the next 2 months.

A content marketing calendar will also help you formulate a strategy according to the resources you have or you may have in the coming days so that you don’t stretch yourself or go over budget. For instance, if you know that in order to publish new content for the next 2 months you will be requiring at least $ 3000, you must have that much money with you.

Doesn’t it all sound like a “plan” rather than a “calendar”? Yes, it does sound like a plan, but with dates allocated. I’m calling it a calendar because then you know that if today is January 20, 2015, exactly what blog post you will be publishing on February 15, 2015, what exact steps you will be taking to promote either your latest content or some existing piece of content and how you will handle or incorporate some sudden developments – having to write a blog post on a sudden political development or a natural catastrophe or scientific breakthrough.

Do you need a dedicated calendar application to maintain a content marketing calendar? Besides, how do you create such a calendar?

Rather than a calendar application I would recommend a spreadsheet application. You can use Google Docs (because then the documents can be accessed remotely by everybody) or you can use Microsoft Excel.

Open a new spreadsheet and rename the first worksheet as something like “Publishing Calendar”. You can insert another worksheet and rename it as “Marketing Calendar”. Why have separate worksheets? It is easier to maintain different activities.

Anyway, go back to the “Publishing Calendar” and in the top row, create the following columns:

  • ID: A unique ID can be assigned to every piece of content so that you can enter related information in different worksheets.
  • Date: On which date that particular piece of content will be published?
  • Format: What sort of content are you going to create? Blog post? Webpage? Video? Info graphic? PDF? Slide? Stop Motion Animation?
  • New or Existing: Are you revising/streamlining existing content for creating new content from scratch?
  • Topic or Headline: The topic on which the webpage or the blog post will be created.
  • Where: Whether you’ll be publishing the piece of content on your own website or blog or somewhere else.
  • Author: Who will be creating/writing that particular piece of content?
  • Responsible: If yours is a bigger organisation and you have a dedicated content marketing team, exactly who will be responsible for the timely publication of that particular piece of content?
  • Current Status: What is the current status of that content? Is it being written? Is it being edited and proofread? Is it being reviewed?
  • Visuals: What sort of images or videos will be used with this content?
  • Topic Categories: Under what categories this content will be published?
  • Keywords and meta data: What keywords should be targeted while creating this piece of content?
  • Call to action: Every piece of content must have a call to action. What is going to be for this piece of content?
  • Related URLs: Is related content already existing? Are there some existing URLs you would like to be linked to from this piece of content?

After you have created these columns you can start filling in the details and building your publishing calendar.

Simultaneous you can also move onto the marketing calendar and create the following columns:

  • Content ID: This unique ID was created in the “Content Publishing” worksheet.
  • Date: The date on which this particular marketing activity will be carried out.
  • Channels: What channels you are going to use to promote your content – Facebook, other websites, email broadcast, Twitter, LinkedIn, et cetera.
  • Format Conversion: Can this content be converted to another format? For example, can you create a slideshow or video presentation with the help of this content and then submit it to the appropriate social media website?

Actually, this can go on and on and it depends on how comprehensive your content marketing is going to be. Somewhere you can also include analytics and the changes carried out due to the data derived from those analytic tools.

 

13 content marketing mistakes you should avoid

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Content marketing mistakes

Mistakes in general are not bad as they help us learn, and the same applies to content marketing. The important thing is that you are aware of something called content marketing and you also have a vague idea of how it can transform the way you promote your business. The problem arises when you are not aware of those mistakes and you keep on repeating them and by the time you realise the implications of repeating those individual mistakes, it might be too late. Most unfortunate would be, not even realising what mistakes you were committing or whether they were mistakes or not and then eventually you end up disenchanted with this entire “content marketing thing”.

Just like any other marketing, there are certain pitfalls you need to avoid while implementing and executing your content marketing strategy (that is, if you have one, because most, don’t). I have listed below 13 content marketing mistakes you should avoid in order to draw full benefit of this wonderful marketing tool so easily at your disposal.

  1. Writing and publishing content with no clear purpose: This happens when you’re publishing content just because your competitors are doing so and you have no clarity of its inherent strength. If this is the case, you will soon lose interest and you will end up spending lots of effort and money on something you aren’t even clear about.
  2. Having no plan: Whenever you embark on a journey you always know which route to follow. In case you are going to use public transport then you know which bus or train to catch. In order to catch that bus or train you need to reach the terminal at a particular time. Even when you have reached the city or town of your choice, you need to know how you are going to reach the actual destination. This means, you have a plan. In the same vein if you really want to benefit from content marketing, you need to have a plan. You need to know that from point A you want to reach point G and in order to reach point G what all other points you need to cover.
  3. Expecting instant results: In the early 2000’s it was easier to experience success by publishing articles and blog posts and then distributing them over various websites and forums. With billions of webpages it is no longer possible. So it is going to take lots of time, effort and strategy before you begin to see any results. In fact, it’s alright if you don’t see any improvement in your bottom line for the first 4 to 5 months (if yours is a highly competitive niche) but if you carry on doing what needs to be done, the results will be so overwhelming that the effort will be worth it.
  4. Having a wrong purpose: Are you creating content simply for search engine rankings? You may succeed in that, but if that is your only purpose, you may not see any improvement in your bottom line even after attaining higher search engine rankings. This is akin to having a plan because once you have a plan, you know the end result.
  5. Not doing it professionally: Compared to other advertising and marketing channels it is easier to write and publish and distribute content and if you have enough time at your hand, you can do it almost for free. But this often means that people don’t take content marketing seriously and totally ignore the professional aspect. Your content needs to be impeccable in terms of grammar, language and presentation otherwise it is going to do you more harm than good. This is where a professional content writer can help you.
  6. Ignoring search engine optimisation:
    Although I have mentioned above that the sole purpose of creating your content shouldn’t be improving your search engine rankings it doesn’t mean that you totally sidestep this important aspect. Getting targeted and qualified traffic from search engines can literally make or break your business. Search engines like Google these days discourage Webmasters from producing content for search engine rankings but if you follow their guidelines without indulging in spammy tactics you can still publish optimised content and experience good search engine rankings.
  7. Ignoring social media: These days it is not possible to get exposure while ignoring social media. Everybody and his granny is either on Facebook or Twitter. If you provide B2B services then most of your clients and customers are on LinkedIn. Social media is not just used for getting updates from relatives and friends, people also follow companies, businesses and organisations to receive interesting and useful updates from them. Major news consumption happens through social media and social networking websites these days. Writing and publishing content without distributing it on social media renders your content marketing atrophied.
  8. Constantly promoting and pitching your product or service:
    If you’re constantly writing about how great your products or services are it is going to put off visitors to your website or blog. If your constant talking of your products and services gives them the answers they are looking for, then well and good, otherwise keep it down a bit. Normally it is acceptable to publish 60% content containing helpful and useful information and 40% content talking about your products and services.
  9. Not focusing on your audience: Instead of constantly focusing on your products and services, you need to focus on your audience. What are they looking for? What do they want to see when they come to your website? Use tools like Google Analytics and Webmasters Tools to find out exactly why people come to your website and then write and publish your content accordingly.
  10. Not having anything valuable to say: Publishing everyday doesn’t mean publishing whatever comes to your mind. Although such indulgence is not bad and in fact it gives you a human voice, but don’t just write about random stuff that has got nothing to do with your business. Say something noteworthy. If you are writing on some subject, make sure that people go back with something new, something different and something that adds value to some existing chain of thought.
  11. Not developing your authentic voice: How do people recognise you? With so many businesses employing content marketing how do you differentiate yourself? You do this by developing your own unique, authentic voice. If you’re simply parroting what others have written, they won’t be able to distinguish you from the others and they might as well do business with someone else. People will relate to you, remember you, if you express yourself in your own authentic voice. As it is the Internet is faceless and if people cannot recognise the way you express yourself, you can never hold their interest, trust or loyalty.
  12. Not having a blog:
    Well, this is too obvious. Thinking about content marketing strategy and not having a blog is like trying to learn driving without ever intending to sit in a car or any other vehicle. A blog is your own business channel. This is a place from where you broadcast your ideas, your messages and your wisdom. This is where people come repeatedly. This is a content repository the search engines love and rank better compared to the usual pages. This is the place from where your links get promoted on social media and social networking websites. This is the place where you engage your audience. If you don’t already have a blog, this is the first thing you need to do before even thinking about content marketing.
  13. Neglecting email marketing: You can do content marketing without email marketing but email still remains the best way to reach your target audience. Pretty much everybody checks email, especially people who would be interested in doing business with you. Email marketing can be as simple as just having a subscription box on your website or blog and letting people drop their email ids so that you can notify whenever you publish a new webpage or blog post or as comprehensive as running routine email marketing and promotion campaigns. There is nothing like having your own mailing list of people eager to hear from you.