Build a Content Marketing Calendar, Customers Will Come
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 6:59 am
There’s someone I’d like you to meet! My biggest frenemy in the world: Procrastination. Oh wait, you two have already met? Of course you have, procrastination gets around, am I right? And, when it comes to content marketing, getting involved with procrastination is an intense whirlwind relationship full of stress, guilt and shame. Meanwhile, customers are eagerly awaiting our educational emails, super sales, bangin’ blog posts and shareable social updates. So how can we retain and gain new customers, yet kick that no-good procrastination to the curb? Meet a much better catch: The content marketing calendar.
We know producing quality content is at the core of keeping our customers engaged, buying, liking, talking and subscribing. But oh, how do we find the time! It’s pretty simple if/and when you create a calendar. Organization is power! Build a content marketing calendar and customers will come. Here’s how:
Make decisions
First, decide what type of content you’re going to wow your customers with. Will you uae whatsapp number database create promotional emails, newsletters, videos, blog posts, Twitter and/or Facebook updates? Write down every type of “content” you want or need to produce, plus how often you’ll publish or send it. This will give you a better understanding of how and when you want to communicate with your audience.
Get cookin’
Determining content type is fine and dandy, but cooking up content topics may cause a slip up with procrastination. Set up weekly, monthly or quarterly editorial brainstorm sessions, whether it’s with yourself or members of your team, and get creative! Do some pre-brainstorm research, create charts, doodle, scope out competitors, feed off each other’s ideas and stir up enough content ideas that’ll hold you over until next time. No one wants to eat a half-cooked cake (or read a frantically whipped up blog post), so don’t leave your brainstorm session until your content calendar is bursting with juicy ideas.
At VerticalResponse, we have quarterly brainstorm sessions for our marketing blog, weekly sessions for the VR Buzz newsletter, and daily ones for our social posts. The longer the content takes to produce (blog post vs. tweet), the earlier you should plan ahead. Once you have your ideas, place them into a content calendar so you don’t forget them.
Shoot: (and set a) goal!
Once you’ve decided on desired content types and ideas, give yourself frequency goals: I will update Twitter twice a day, I will send an email newsletter twice a month, I will write a blog post three times a month, etc. Once you’ve determined your content and frequency goals, it’s time to get crafty and put them into play!
Pick a tool, any tool
Simply put, use whatever’s easiest. At VR, we rely heavily on Google Calendars and Google Docs. A simple Excel sheet or Word doc, even your email calendar (Outlook or iCal) will easily suffice, as well. We’ve also recently discovered a handy project management tool called Basecamp that allows you to create projects, to-do lists and assign them to people. Anything that’s been assigned with a deadline automatically shows up in a calendar – snazzy.
We know producing quality content is at the core of keeping our customers engaged, buying, liking, talking and subscribing. But oh, how do we find the time! It’s pretty simple if/and when you create a calendar. Organization is power! Build a content marketing calendar and customers will come. Here’s how:
Make decisions
First, decide what type of content you’re going to wow your customers with. Will you uae whatsapp number database create promotional emails, newsletters, videos, blog posts, Twitter and/or Facebook updates? Write down every type of “content” you want or need to produce, plus how often you’ll publish or send it. This will give you a better understanding of how and when you want to communicate with your audience.
Get cookin’
Determining content type is fine and dandy, but cooking up content topics may cause a slip up with procrastination. Set up weekly, monthly or quarterly editorial brainstorm sessions, whether it’s with yourself or members of your team, and get creative! Do some pre-brainstorm research, create charts, doodle, scope out competitors, feed off each other’s ideas and stir up enough content ideas that’ll hold you over until next time. No one wants to eat a half-cooked cake (or read a frantically whipped up blog post), so don’t leave your brainstorm session until your content calendar is bursting with juicy ideas.
At VerticalResponse, we have quarterly brainstorm sessions for our marketing blog, weekly sessions for the VR Buzz newsletter, and daily ones for our social posts. The longer the content takes to produce (blog post vs. tweet), the earlier you should plan ahead. Once you have your ideas, place them into a content calendar so you don’t forget them.
Shoot: (and set a) goal!
Once you’ve decided on desired content types and ideas, give yourself frequency goals: I will update Twitter twice a day, I will send an email newsletter twice a month, I will write a blog post three times a month, etc. Once you’ve determined your content and frequency goals, it’s time to get crafty and put them into play!
Pick a tool, any tool
Simply put, use whatever’s easiest. At VR, we rely heavily on Google Calendars and Google Docs. A simple Excel sheet or Word doc, even your email calendar (Outlook or iCal) will easily suffice, as well. We’ve also recently discovered a handy project management tool called Basecamp that allows you to create projects, to-do lists and assign them to people. Anything that’s been assigned with a deadline automatically shows up in a calendar – snazzy.