Are you out of inspiration to write your content? You don’t know what the next few months will be like and if you will be able to captivate your audience? Are you wasting a lot of time managing your editors’ articles? You don’t even dare to take a vacation anymore for fear of sinking your blog? It’s time to plan your work for the long term. Creating an editorial calendar saves you a good dose of stress and ensures a regular and fluid production of content. It is an excellent organizational tool to drive your editorial strategy. Here are 8 good reasons to opt for the creation of an editorial planning.
1. Create an editorial calendar for publishing regularity
One of the biggest challenges of blogging is posting content on a regular basis, isn’t it? No more inspiration, lack of time and now your audience, however loyal, begins to get bored and look elsewhere. Then, you have less motivation to submit new articles and the vicious circle begins… By opting for the creation of an editorial calendar, you give yourself a methodical framework. Forecasting your posting dates helps you maintain a steady stream of content editing, with consistent frequency. In addition, thinking ahead about your next articles allows you to boost your creativity.
2. Have a global overview by strengthening the internal network
Difficult also, when one is overwhelmed, to see more than a few weeks in advance. However, one of the key elements of a successful blog is to have a global overview. Indeed, you must try to predict how your content will complement each other. Creating an editorial schedule for your site makes it possible in particular to avoid repetitions, while working on very similar requests, to strengthen its internal network. It ensures that you are never short of inspiration. This planning toolhelps you keep a consistent editorial line and produce content that follows a logic.
3. Readjust your content strategy
The editorial calendar also allows you to work on different types of content and analyze its views. This way, you can highlight which ones are getting the most engagementfrom your audience and driving traffic to your blog. Then develop this type of articles. In addition, if you have a precise vision of your sales funnel and you observe losses at one of its stages, you can remedy it easily. This is where you need to focus your efforts in the coming months. Imbalances (a theme covered more than the others, a type of content neglected, etc.) are easily avoided.
4. Work from clear objectives
Creating an effective editorial calendar also means having clear objectives, so well-defined content marketing. You must know precisely what the different articles you publish will be used for. Your content may aim to:
- promote your business;
- retain your customers;
- attract more visitors;
- generate leads;
- create a community;
- expand your network with influential people;
- etc.
So, remember to add a section to your editorial schedule that informs the purpose of each of your content. It also allows you to give clear briefings to the authors to whom you delegate the best ghostwriter for hire of your eBook writing, when this is the case.
5. Know your personas and develop an SEO strategy
Fill in the target of each of your articles in your editorial schedule. Because when you don’t know who you’re talking to, it’s easy to lose track and produce disorganized content. All your articles do not necessarily have the same targets. opt for an editorial strategy that takes into account all the types of people, or “personas” that you want to reach. Couple this reflection with an SEO approach. Imagine the queries that could be typed on Google by your audience and add them to your editorial calendar, as ideas for future articles. This way you will find topics with high potential for natural referencing of your content. They will be more likely to appear in the first results of search engines.
6. Distribute writing work effectively
When you call on editors to create your articles, the editorial planning helps you to distribute the contributions of each other as well as possible. You see in the blink of an eye the authors to relaunch according to your requirements or the subjects to prioritize. Editors have better visibility of the work to be done over the long term and can organize themselves more easily. If they have “carte blanche” for the themes, they can, thanks to the planning, know which content and formats to favor, and when. The creation of an editorial calendar allows the different actors of your team to also become more autonomous, because they can directly add their article ideas and respect their deadline.
7. Anticipate important events with an editorial plan
The advantage of editorial planning is also to plan and anticipate the editing of content according to specific events (national holiday, days related to your sector of activity, etc.). You can thus highlight the marketing and commercial actions that you are planning. Whether it’s for chestnut trees (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, sales, etc.), or even the anniversary date of your blog, you have plenty to diversify your offers. As an event approaches, do you want to approach a theme already covered on your site from another angle? The editorial calendar allows you to easily find your previously published content to bring it up to date.
8. Being able to go on vacation serenely
Finally, you give yourself the opportunity to go on vacation with complete peace of mind! Surround yourself with a good team of writers and schedule the automatic publication of content on the dates you choose. This will ensure that there will be no gaps in your communication plan during your holidays or in low season. Creating an editorial calendar for your blog provides a good position for it throughout the year. No more stress during off- peak periods and long live relaxation! Be careful all the same to check and approve the articles to be published upstream, in particular those written by your collaborators, so as not to discover any unpleasant surprises on your return.
Being organized doesn’t mean becoming rigid: stay flexible in your planning. Feel free to change your plans and experiment. Now that you know how to organize yourself, get started, and you will see that the editorial calendar is the lever of your creativity!
