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Essential Guide for Content Creation in 2018: The Content Marketing Calendar and Its Uses

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Essential Guide for Content Creation in 2018: The Content Marketing Calendar and Its Uses

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JANUARY 2018

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Most people will agree that content marketing is not simply writing blogs or sending out email campaigns. Content creation in 2018 will require more planning and a more organized approach to content marketing. In order to facilitate this planning process, a content calendar can prove to be a very useful tool for 2018 content. A content calendar can help marketers develop, organize, plan and maintain all their ideas in one place.

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Photograph by Rawpixel.com via Bigstock

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Calendar for Content Creation in 2018

A content calendar provides a more streamlined process for organization, planning and preparing content. Content marketing is an important business component and performing tasks randomly can lead to inefficiency. The biggest advantage of a content calendar is that it allows marketers to know what they have to do ahead of time. In other words, it helps bring structure to content marketing activities.

If you want to ensure that your 2018 content marketing activities are well-planned and that you are prepared to implement these plans, it will make content creation in 2018 a breeze. You will know what you are expected to do and you will do so effectively and without any unnecessary stress or delays.

With a content calendar, you can plan the release of each different type of content, set up interviews, guest posts, website updates and so on. Clearly, a content calendar can prevent chaos and will also decrease the risk of mistakes and errors.

Making a Content Calendar

Before you make a content calendar, you should know the following:

  1. Available time

  2. Your workload

  3. Meeting frequencies

  4. The time required to write content for email campaigns, blogs, website etc.

  5. Conducting interviews

  6. Time required for brainstorming

  7. Time spent with clients

  8. Time off

You can thus allocate the frequency and percentage of your time to all the 2018 content creation activities that you have planned in your content calendar.

Selecting the Calendar Format

A content calendar is not a novel idea – it is simply unfortunate that most people have not made use of this concept for everyday use. If you really want to ensure effective content creation in 2018, you should definitely utilize this tool. There are numerous content calendar templates available online. Some of these templates are free while others require a subscription. Simply evaluate the templates based on your needs and identify the one that will suit you best.

Keep in mind that if you have a complex work-schedule, some of these templates may not work for you. But that does not mean your content creation in 2018 will end up unorganized. You can always create your own calendar. It really depends on what you consider best for your needs. You can choose to make your own calendar or customise an existing template.

Customizing a Content Calendar for Content in 2018

One simple way to make your own content calendar is to use Microsoft Excel. Excel is very easy to use. But if you don’t have the time or you don’t have the inclination to make your own content calendar, just use a template and customize it as per your needs.

Some key elements that you should include in your content calendar are:

  1. Date

  2. Month

  3. Time

  4. Work Category (Email, blogs, podcasts)

  5. Important points

  6. Vacation

  7. Travel

  8. Meetings

  9. Due dates

  10. Audience

  11. Location

Other subtitles that you may want to add include:

  1. SEO keyword(s)

  2. Type of post (e.g. Twitter Facebook, video, podcast)

  3. Theme of post

  4. Platforms for posting

  5. Status

  6. Date and time of posting

  7. Published date

Some people hesitate using a content calendar because they think that it is an unnecessary and tedious task that will just simply end up wasting their time. That could be a mistake. As far as content advice is concerned, developing a content calendar can really help you build an effective content plan. To make it even more effective, you can conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis, evaluate what your competition is doing and then plan your strategies accordingly that would help you beat the competition at its own game.

The point is that making a content calendar is not that difficult but the benefits can be plenty. You can ensure content creation in 2018 is more organized and your content needs are clearly identified.

If you are in need of any help writing content or outlining the type of content in 2018, you can count on the professional team at Iris Content. We have one of the best and most experienced content writers working for us and they have the skills and the experience to help you achieve your content creation goals and stay on track with your timelines as per your content calendar. It is our commitment to provide you the best content which is in line with your business needs and requirements. Contact us today and we can discuss your content needs for 2018.

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Annie has 20 years of experience as an editor, content marketer and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.

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