Content marketing is a huge part of any business’s online presence. It’s key to online marketing and SEO and is one of the best ways to engage new and existing customers. But organising content can get confusing and a little overwhelming – especially when it comes to posting, how often you should post and who’s responsible for what.
That’s where a content marketing calendar can be really useful. It helps you to keep on top of your content marketing plans so that you can stay relevant and appear in search engine results.
As a content agency in Melbourne, we offer full content management packages so that your company can regularly post informative and engaging content across multiple platforms that will attract your desired audience. And of course, a content marketing calendar allows us to plan exactly when and what we need to post for our clients.
But first, let’s clear up a couple of key terms.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is putting valuable, interesting and well-researched content online that’s useful for your pre-defined audience. By regularly uploading blog posts, videos and social media, a company can stimulate interest rather than blantantly ‘sell’ their products (through an advert or something similar).
Content marketing goes hand in hand with a good SEO strategy. By thoroughly researching keywords, you know exactly what your potential customers are looking for, meaning you can provide the answer! Working with a content agency experienced in SEO will help you rank higher so more people click on your content, engage with your brand and, ultimately, buy your product or services.
What Is A Content Marketing Calendar?
A content marketing calendar maps out exactly who should be posting what and when. It’s a visual aid that helps companies to stay organised and on top of their online content.
They come in many different forms, such as:
- A spreadsheet (like a Google sheet or excel)
- A visual workflow
- A physical calendar
- Specifically designed software
Depending on the individual business, a content strategy agency will be able to use a calendar to plan daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly content schedules.
The Benefits of Using a Content Marketing Calendar
Using a content marketing calendar (or partnering with a content agency that does) allows you to stay organised and see the bigger picture when it comes to your content marketing strategy. Here are the main benefits.
Benefit #1 – Everyone Knows What They’re Doing
Content marketing calendars should be readily available to all those who are part of the marketing teams. By doing this, everyone can see exactly what and when they need to deliver their part of the marketing plan and how this relates to other members of the team.
As well as naming the author/publisher/manager for certain content, you can also add deadlines, meetings, titles and any other relevant information. It’s a highly visual resource that can help with communication and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Benefit #2 – Ensure You’re Posting Regularly
According to Rock Content, you should be uploading new blogs one to two times per week. This really comes down to your business marketing plan and how competitive your niche is etc.
Add to that social media and making sure your website is up to date – and you have a lot of work on your hands! It’s easy to forget whether you’ve posted that week, where internal links should be heading and what post or blog you need to be written by when.
A content marketing calendar lets you simply lay out all this information. By using colours and other visuals, you can easily see what has been posted and what you still need to post. This ensures you’re updating your website regularly to keep your customers and google happy!
Benefit #3 – You Get To Plan Ahead
Having an overview of the months to come can help your company to be more organised with regard to content marketing. You can plan for major events (such as Christmas) when you might want to have promotions or drive particular sales.
You can also accommodate annual leave by ensuring you have content to upload during the time off. Being able to plan ahead allows you to concentrate on writing quality content that adds real value to your customers.
Benefit #4 – Manage Expectations
A clear content marketing calendar also allows you to see how much work teams or individuals have in a week. For instance, writing and uploading four blogs, a Youtube video and presenting a webinar may be too much for one individual alone.
Having a well-structured calendar means you can adjust workflow accordingly so that everyone can concentrate on creating and uploading the best quality content possible.
As a content strategy agency, a calendar also allows us to track different clients and ensure that we’re posting high-quality content that’s well-researched and informative. We can plan all the steps which helps with budgets and time management.
Create Your Content Marketing Plan With A Professional Content Agency
One of the best ways to stay in control of your content marketing is to partner with a content agency. At Elevate Websites, we have years of experience working with businesses across Melbourne and Australia.
We offer SEO services as well as content management services so you can be sure the content being uploaded to your company website is optimized, regular and engaging to customers.
We take our time to thoroughly understand your business and build a good working relationship with you. We’ll keep you updated on the developments but manage the whole process so that you can concentrate on other important parts of your business.
Contact the team at Elevate Websites today to see how an experienced content strategy agency can help your company and online presence.
Calem Koek is a web designer and owner of leading Melbourne-based digital marketing agency Elevate Websites. He has been helping businesses in Melbourne and across Australia scale their business online through quality website design and world class SEO services.