How to get the most out of your content calendar

You’ll probably recognise this: after a busy day at work, you get home and realise once again that you haven’t had time to post anything on your social media channels. You’ve missed it yet again. Don’t panic: with a good content calendar, you can bring more structure to your content posting. This not only ensures greater consistency, but also gives you more peace of mind and a clearer overview. How do you do this? We’ll tell you in this blog.

What is a content calendar?

The online content for your organisation refers to all the information you publish across various channels. With a content calendar, you can schedule new content for the various channels you use. Think of Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, but you can also include your website in the content calendar.

As most organisations use different channels (for example, to serve different target audiences), it is important to plan this content effectively. In this calendar, you specify exactly when, what, for whom, in what format and by whom the content is created. By coordinating this effectively, individual publications can reinforce one another. This results in a better online strategy.

Why do you use a content calendar?

A content plan helps you schedule content across various channels. There are a number of reasons to work with this plan. Firstly, it ensures that your organisation’s marketing remains organised. This allows you to better tailor your content to the needs of (potential) customers. Secondly, a content calendar ensures that your followers or customers aren’t inundated with posts, only to hear or see nothing from you the following month. You therefore generate a steady stream of content over several months. The third reason is that content planning allows you to run targeted campaigns throughout the year. This means campaigns can be perfectly timed to coincide with seasons, public holidays or other occasions.

Creating good content takes a lot of time. It’s a shame if it doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. By posting the right content at the right time, it’s valuable not only to your followers and clients, but also to you. Good planning therefore helps you to distribute your content effectively.

Benefits of the content calendar

• Does a steady stream of posts ensure returning visitors;
• Do you ensure continuity in your communications?;
• Do you get a clear overview of the content you can create and which content will be shared?
• Plan your content in advance (this reduces last-minute stress). Furthermore, this ensures there are no ‘gaps’ in your publishing schedule and that your target audience is not overwhelmed with information;
• Share your content across various channels;
• Do different departments work well together because they can see each other’s schedules?

Five tips for a good content calendar

Here are five tips to help you set up an effective content calendar.

1. Define a strategy, target audience and objective

What do you want to achieve online? Who is your target audience and what is the purpose of the content? With a clear strategy, you’ll get off to a good start when creating and planning your content. This ensures that your target audience sees the right content at the right times.

2. Look for opportunities to capitalise on current trends

Seasons, public holidays, national days or trending topics: these are all perfect opportunities to capitalise on, to which you can already link a great deal of content. Draw up an overview of relevant and important moments in your sector. By incorporating these into your content calendar, you can see exactly where and when you can capitalise on these opportunities.

3. Keep it clear and organised

A content calendar is truly effective if you ensure it provides clarity and structure. Therefore, create a document in which you list the months, weeks and dates. Use different colours. The possibilities here are endless. You can easily set this up using Microsoft Excel.

4. Specify the channel and format

Once you’ve drawn up a draft calendar, you need to start filling it in. It’s important to specify, for each channel, what content you’re going to post and in what format. After all, content isn’t just text; it can also consist of a video, an infographic or text accompanied by an image. Consider which format resonates best with the target audience and the channel.

5. Schedule posts

Got everything set up? Then you can get started with content creation. Decide how often you want to publish content. You should plan this content in advance. Many social media channels allow you to schedule content in advance. Don’t fill your content calendar completely; sometimes you’ll come across trends or topical opportunities that you can capitalise on. It’s therefore helpful not to have too much content scheduled for a particular month or week.

What does a content calendar contain?

In every content calendar, you should include a number of key elements:

• Title and subject of the content;
• Status of the content (has it been created yet, is it already scheduled?);
• The person responsible for content;
• Target audience: who is the content being created for?;
• The deadline: the time by which the content must be ready;
• The publication date.

In addition, content calendars also include a number of other key components:

• On which channels will the content be published? Is it a paid post?
• What is the purpose of the content?
• The type of content: is it a social media post, a blog, a video or, for example, a job vacancy?
• Who is responsible for which task? Who approves the task?
• At which stage of the customer journey does the content fit? What is the purpose of the content? To inform, to encourage a purchase, to inspire, etc.
• Keywords: which keywords should be included in the content?
• What is the message of the content?
• What is the (advertising) budget?
• When were the targets/KPIs achieved?

Naturally, the information you include in your content calendar will vary from one company to another. Therefore, choose the elements that are useful and relevant to you.

Using a content calendar in practice

A content plan does not mean that no further changes can be made to the plan you have drawn up. You can, in fact, respond to trends, developments or updates right up until the moment of publication. Sometimes a topic comes up that requires more attention than the one originally scheduled. The content calendar provides a clear overview of the marketing strategy and allows you to optimise it.

A content calendar is therefore never really finished. It is therefore important to keep evaluating: which posts are being read well, and what definitely doesn’t work? On which days is it best to publish? And at what times do your clients or followers engage best?

It is therefore important to stay on your toes: make sure you are up to date with the latest news and regularly check whether your content calendar is still aligned with it. So avoid creating and publishing content on autopilot. Stay creative and organise regular brainstorming sessions with different colleagues.

Final tips for using the content calendar

Finally, here are a few tips you can use when you start using the content calendar:

1. Create a content plan that aligns with your organisation’s wishes and needs;
2. Mark important dates in the calendar: public holidays, colleagues’ anniversaries and other special or significant days;
3. Schedule regular meetings to review, discuss and supplement or adjust the plan;
4. Continue to measure the effectiveness of the content and ensure you adjust the calendar based on these results.

Let’s get started!

We hope these tips will help you get started on creating your own content calendar. Could you still do with some help with your content strategy or with the calendar? Then please get in touch with us! Our content marketers would be delighted to brainstorm with you!