The editorial calendar is a tool for content planning. In the context of digital marketing, it is often used to plan articles for the corporate blog on a monthly basis.

What is an editorial calendar for?

The editorial calendar helps to keep web content creation under control, according to the strategic goals. These goals go from the general (i.e. positioning and traffic) to the particular.

For instance, a company that wants to increase traffic derived from social networks could appoint a whole month of their editorial calendar to generating articles that might easily become viral on Facebook. The following month, they could focus the tone of their contents to the typical Buyer persona from Instagram, and so on.

Another example. A pet food company has just launched a new line for small breeds, and wants to position related keywords. The editorial calendar for that period should be aimed at the SEO goals to achieve relevance and visibility in searches including those keywords.

See more in: Why does your business need a blog and how to ask for one from our freelancers?

Which are the elements that an editorial calendar should include?

Every editorial calendar is built according to corporate needs –they are all different. All of them, however, should comprise the following:

• Frequency: How long will each period take in the calendar? How much content will be generated in that period? One of the clearest examples is the monthly editorial calendar, with one or two articles per week.
• Goals: Which is the general goal of all the contents over the period? Which is the individual goal of every piece of content? Of course, individual goals will have to be related to the general, larger one. For instance, if they want more brand visibility on social networks, one of the contents might be focused on increasing visibility on a specific social network.
• Target audience: Who is the content addressed at? The range of target audiences for brands may be very large and have several subtle variations, but these variations are important. For instance, content focused on young backpacker women is not the same as content aimed at young women looking for an affordable way of travelling.
• Name or topic of every piece of content: If content means to increase Instagram traffic of women looking for an affordable way of travelling, it could consist of “gallery of the best backpacking trips of adventurers like you”.
• Keywords: It might happen that the goal of some content is to position a keyword. Even if that’s not the case, it will be of help to improve the positioning of keywords that may not be so strong in the site.
• Format: Is it going to be a traditional blog article? An infographic? A downloadable? A checklist? A video? It is important to keep control as it facilitates content recycling later in time, with a different format. Besides, it allows comparing how effective the same information is in different presentations and for a different audience.
• Deadlines and project owners: When should content be ready? When should they be edited? When should they be uploaded on the blog? How often and where will they be shared? Who are responsible for these actions?
• Results: The work is not done once all the monthly articles have been posted and disseminated. Performance needs to be assessed in terms of traffic, conversion, engagement and other digital metrics, and that data should be written down below every piece of content. This will help improve strategy on an ongoing basis.

See more in: Learn the metrics that a freelance social media expert should analyze about your business.

The best editorial calendar templates

The editorial calendar can be designed on a simple worksheet. To make your life easier, we’ve made a small selection of pre-designed templates which will be of great help.

• [Download] Inspire yourself with our editorial calendar and improve your content planning – From Workana blog
• Easy to adapt editorial calendar template – from Asana
• 9 Social Media Templates to Save You Hours of Work – Hootsuite
• Editorial Calendar Template 2020 – by Demand Metric
• Ultimate 2019 Content Calendar Template to Get a Grip on Your Social Media Content FAST – From Pam Moore

To learn more about editorial calendar

Below you’ll find some extra resources to learn more about the topic and become an expert at content planning with an editorial calendar.

• 8 Reasons to Use an Editorial Calendar for Publishing – from Enginess
• How to Create an Editorial Calendar and Boost Conversions – from OptinMonster
• How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar: Tips and Templates – from Hootsuite
• 4 tips for successfully planning and executing your editorial calendar – from Asana Blog
• Marketing Calendar: The Definitive Guide & Templates [2020 Update] – From Evinex

Do you need help with your editorial calendar?

At Workana you can find your next project leader in content creation, who will help you plan and manage an effective editorial calendar to bring about the best results.

What is Workana?

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