Introduction
A content calendar is a planning document that helps you organize and track your content. It’s a simple way to keep track of what you’re creating over time, as well as how it fits into your overall strategy. A good content calendar also has room for you to record other important information like ideas, research, and audience feedback.
A lot of people create them using Excel or Google Sheets. I prefer Notion because it’s easy to use and free (I highly recommend their premium plan though). Let’s get started…
What is a content calendar?
Content calendars are a planning tool that allows you to plan content for the entire year. They can help you stay focused and avoid getting overwhelmed, and they also help your team create a workflow.
A content calendar is simply a spreadsheet where you list all your ideas for blog posts, podcasts, videos and other types of content. It’s easy to create with Excel or Google Sheets – just set up columns for the topic or campaign name, target dates (when do you want it published?), title, description and any other notes about each piece of content like keywords or who it’s aimed at. You can then add new rows as needed as more ideas come up throughout the year.
Benefits of creating a content calendar
Creating a content calendar is not just about saving time, but also about saving money. You can save money by:
How to get started with your content calendar
Define your key goals
Map out your target customer journey
Identify the types of content you’ll create
Before you can create a content calendar, it’s important to know what types of content you’ll be creating. This will help you identify how much time and effort each type requires so that you’re able to set realistic goals for yourself.
There are many different types of content that fall into three main categories:
In addition to these three major categories, there are also several smaller ones: podcasts, images for social media and emails, etc.
Content formats for different platforms
As you create your content calendar, it’s important to remember that the format of your content can vary depending on the platform. For example, if you were creating a Facebook Ad, the image should be square and at least 1,200 x 628 pixels. But if you were creating a weekly blog post for your website or blog page, then it would be best to use images with higher resolutions (like 2,000 x 1,500).
You may also need to consider what style of images would work well with each type of media outlet. For example:
For example: The above image from our USO tour was posted on our Instagram page back in 2018. It shows
one of our staff members getting ready before we head out for another day with our troops!
Video content
Video content can be a great way to reach your audience and help you tell your story. Video content is more engaging than text and images, so it’s a great way to keep people engaged on your website. You can use video to teach, inform, entertain and inspire your audience – not just sell them something.
You can also use video to help you tell your story in an authentic way. Video gives you the opportunity to share behind-the-scenes footage that might not be suitable for other mediums like print or social media advertising campaigns (e.g., videos of employees talking about what they do).
Next steps for creating your content calendar
Conclusion
And that’s it! You should now have a plan in place for your social media, videos, blog posts, and podcasts. The next step is to start putting it into practice. Remember that creating a content calendar is not just about creating content but also planning out when you will post it online so that people can see what you’re up to and follow along with your journey towards success.
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