Why You Need a Marketing Content Calendar
Introduction
Whether you're a social media manager or a small business owner who creates and manages your own content, you need a marketing content calendar.
This post covers what a marketing content calendar is and why you need one, and it's my hope that this inspires you to create content in a more streamlined, strategic way.
What is a marketing content calendar?
If you're new to the online business world, you may not be familiar with the term marketing content calendar. Simply put, a marketing content calendar tracks every single piece of content that goes up for your business across all your platforms.
Your platforms could include your blog, social media accounts, email, etc. If content is being created and published, it should appear on your marketing content calendar.
What should be included in a marketing content calendar?
The actual components of your marketing content calendar depend on your unique business, but here are some things I recommend including as a marketing strategist. First, include every platform your business is active on. Personally for my marketing business, my calendar includes Instagram, email, blog, Pinterest, and Threads. In the past, I've also used LinkedIn and YouTube, but I'm not currently active there. You may also have a Podcast that you'd like to include.
You also want to track the stage of each piece of content. Are you simply brainstorming an idea? Are you ready to film? Ready for caption? Ready for review? Published or scheduled? This component is crucial and will make your life so much easier.
Bonus components are an area for comments or collaboration within team members and contractors, your content pillar, the format of the content (story, live, carousel, graphic, reel/video, text only, etc.), and a place to upload attachments and write captions.
6 Reasons Why You Need a Marketing Content Calendar
Now that you understand what a marketing content calendar is and what it should include, let's explore some reasons why you need one in your small business.
1. Planning ahead becomes easy.
If you're always flying by the seat of your pants with your content, you'll finally be able to take a deep breath and plan ahead. Planning ahead is easy when you can quickly see all of your content for the month at a glance. You'll also be able to plan content around upcoming promotions and launches.
2. It streamlines communication with clients and team members.
Tired of emailing back and forth with team members? Wish you didn't have to always wait on clients to send you content? Utilizing a marketing content calendar will streamline all communication so it's in ONE place.
On my content calendar template, I collaborate with clients directly on each content's task when we have questions, ideas, and feedback. I'm never wondering what piece of content they're referring to, because all comments are directly within that task.
3. You can visually map out how you're repurposing content.
If you're creating content from scratch every single time, please hear this: there is a better way. A more effective way. Instead of always reinventing the wheel, repurpose your content.
For example, if you see you're publishing a new blog post on Monday, send an email out about that blog post on Tuesday. Repurpose it into two different Instagram posts throughout the week. Work smarter, not harder. This blog post dives deep into the concept of repurposing content and exactly how to do it.
4. It keeps you consistent across all platforms.
Do you forget to post when life gets busy? That's absolutely normal, and it's okay to take a break if you need to. However, utilizing a marketing content calendar will hep you stay consistent across all your platforms.
When you see what content is going live when, you'll be able to plan ahead for when that content comes. I try to be a minimum of one week ahead of content for myself, and I'm often multiple weeks ahead for clients.
5. Batching work becomes the norm.
Say goodbye to creating one piece of content every time you go to post! A more efficient way of creating content is batching. Instead of creating one post a day, you block off time on your calendar to work on a handful of similar tasks (or pieces of content) for the next week/month/etc.
For me, I batch my blog posts and take chunks of time to work on all my blog posts for the month. This allows me to be anywhere from 2-6 weeks ahead on blog posts at any given time. This blog post covers an entire process for batch creating content that you can adopt in your business.
6. It makes your entire content system more professional and effortless.
Using a marketing content calendar will wow your clients if you're a social media manager—I know, because my clients are always amazed by the system I implement for them on their calendar. In fact, many clients love it so much that they continue using the calendar even after our time working together ends!
If you are only using a marketing content calendar in your own business, I promise it will make creating content effortless. It takes a lot of pressure off of you to always remember what to post and when to post. You'll feel more prepared and empowered to take over your marketing for yourself.
Marketing Content Calendar Example and Template
Here is a marketing content calendar example, featuring screenshots of my own calendar. You'll notice that the frequency of posting and platforms vary by month and whether or not I'm actively in a launch. The green color represents content that's already been published.
Without my content calendar, I'd simply forget to post—out of sight, out of mind. But, that's not my reality. Every day, I check my homepage in ClickUp (my task manager of choice), and it reminds me what content needs to be published that day.
After years of witnessing small business owners struggle with managing their own content, I decided to offer the exact content calendar template I use with all of my clients. This template will help you map out your content, stay accountable and consistent, and actually look forward to creating.
No worries if you're unsure how to use it—I include an entire step-by-step tutorial video for importing and using your marketing content calendar template! Click here to download your content calendar template!
Conclusion
Using a marketing content calendar will ease your content creation stress, save you time, make you more efficient, and overall improve the consistency of your marketing efforts. If you're ready to start using an effective marketing content calendar template today, click here to grab mine!
