Posts

Where to Find Data for Your Storytelling Content

Would you like to take your content marketing to the next level?

Using data in your content marketing is what will help.

As the name suggests, data-driven storytelling is creating stories based on data.

Why Use Data for Storytelling?

There are two heavily interconnected reasons here:

  • Data makes stories more trustworthy
  • Storytelling makes data easier to understand and relate to.

In short, that’s the perfect match right there: Data helps influence how people perceive a topic. Stories are how we help numbers make sense.

A story helps marketers communicate complex ideas and accelerate the decision-making process for decision makers.

Data makes stories share-worthy and link-worthy.

With all of that in mind, data-driven storytelling can help boost the performance of many of your current marketing tactics:

  • Link building (just about any form of data is known to attract links, especially if it’s packages as a story)
  • Viral marketing (data told as a story drives people to uncover theories and concepts they’ve never thought of previously, so they are likely to share it around)
  • Sales (thanks to its ability to simplify and hence accelerate the decision making process)

How to Create a Good Data-Driven Story

There are three key factors that make a good story:

  • It needs to be relevant
  • It needs to use good visuals
  • It needs to be clear and relatable

Now, add data to that equation. 

As it sounds pretty vague, let’s look at one perfect example of all of that done absolutely ingeniously. Meet the “Examining Inequality” report from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The report examines how people are actually born unequal, visualizing how for someone born in a poor country getting to a healthy, quality life requires overcoming “hurdle after hurdle after hurdle.”

Examining Inequality

The report uses publicly available data to tell a story of a girl born in the Sahel, one of the poorest regions in the world, and how it takes it longer for her to achieve what people in the United States may take for granted.

The trick is, we all knew that already but the way this story is built makes it eye-opening. By the time we are done reading and looking at the visuals, we are saying to ourselves, “This shouldn’t be like this!”

The report closes with another convincing part: How the foundation is making a difference (and how you can help as well).

drive action with data

This is another set of data that makes a perfect conclusion and drives action.

That’s exactly the goal of data-driven storytelling: Data brings up points to base your story on, and then data provides solutions to drive action from the readers. This particular story accomplishes everything, from driving conversions (donations) to attracting links and shares.

Data-driven stories can be text-based and visual (or both as the above example). They can be based on public and private data (or both as, again, the above example).

Let’s see if we can learn create stories using data:

Use Public Data to Tell Stories

There is a ton of data available publicly. Some tools are free, some of them are paid, but there’s a variety. Let’s look at the three main tools:

Google

Google provides a huge amount of data you can use to re-package into beautiful stories. Here are a few ideas for you to get started:

  • Here are a few great ideas on using Google Trends for writers: Some very actionable tips you can implement while reading.
  • Here’s another example of using Google Trends to tell a story of a brand during global lockdowns.
  • Here’s my own guide on using Google’s Autocomplete as the data source.

There are multiple platforms that use Google to collect even more data. SE Ranking offers an advanced keyword suggestion tool that reports on ranking fluctuations, traffic costs and related trends. It is a great source of data (albeit not free).

SE Ranking suggestion tool

Zoho Surveys

While the above tools are free, Zoho offers a paid tool allowing anyone to collect data by surveying people.

Zoho Market Research Surveys offers a few targeting options allowing you to collect responses based on an industry, age, gender, location and more. 1000 responses cost about $2000.

Zoho Market Research Surveys target audience

It is not cheap, so you need to have a clear idea of the kind of a story you are shaping here before investing. There are many more market research tools you can use to create stories that fit your niche and product.

GOV Resources

Government provides an abundance of freely accessible data for you to repackage into convincing stories. You can find lots of that data using Google and site:GOV filter to force Google to only search official government sources:

Google GOV filter

You can also filter results by publication date to see more recent data:

gov filter publication dates

Wikipedia is another great source of both data and inspiration. So I would highly recommend monitoring the most important Wikipedia pages in your category. Visualping can help you do that easily, so you never miss the most recent updates or data added to anyWikipedia page (or pages).

Visualping wiki

Use Your Customers’ Data to Tell Stories

This is the data you own (provided your customers have granted you their permission to use that data). It includes:

  • Your web analytics information (including eye- and clicking software like heatmaps)
  • Your customer survey data. You can use free Google Forms to collect answers from your customers or audience.

This sort of data can make perfect social proof, especially case studies illustrating your customers’ success stories with your products.

Nextiva is a great example of promoting its contact center solutions by using its customers’ stories.

Nextiva customer stories

Apart from publicly available social proof, private data-driven stories make perfect material for sales materials that your team can utilize to close sales. Visual case studies make great Tumblr content, Instagram posts and even Pinterest boards.

Conclusion

In short, data-driven storytelling is more than using data to create nice visuals. It is about making data explain real life.

Data can make any story more convincing and shareable, if you use it well. The stories are there not to beautify your data, but to make it more relatable and easier to understand. It may take quite a lot of time brainstorming and researching before you come up with the right data and the right story (as well as the right package). Good luck!

The post Where to Find Data for Your Storytelling Content appeared first on Convince & Convert.

Now that I’m putting a greater focus on Reels and short-form video, the next step is figuring out how to leverage this engagement with ads. I want to target the people who are most engaged with my Reels, both on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s clear that these videos are making an impact, even though they don’t drive traffic to my website. I’m getting better engagement than I’ve seen on Facebook and Instagram in years.

But, most importantly, I keep hearing from people who are seeing my content again. They had stopped seeing my stuff, even though I kept sharing links that went into the abyss. Many of the consumers who fall into this group are now buying from me.

So, I need to figure out some creative ways to use this to my advantage. First, I’ll need to figure out the best way to target them.

Create the Audience

Let’s consider our options.

I don’t want to target all people who are engaging with my posts. That’s just too broad. This can be done with both my Facebook page and Instagram account.

Instagram Post Custom Audience

No, I want to focus on my videos. So, let’s use the Video Views Custom Audiences.

Video Views Custom Audiences

I’ll want to focus on those who watched the entire video (or at least 95%).

Video Views Custom Audiences

But, the immediate problem is that we need to select at least one video. So, we could go through and select all of my recent Facebook videos from the past couple of months…

Video Views Custom Audiences

Side note: It’s an obvious bug that all of my Facebook videos show they have 0 3-second views.

You’ll also want to select all of your Instagram videos…

Video Views Custom Audiences

The result is 118 videos, which may be a bit overkill.

Video Views Custom Audiences

I’ve decided that I want to focus on recency since I can’t isolate people who watch the most of these videos. Otherwise, someone who watched one video could be targeted perpetually.

So, let’s use the last 7 days…

Video Views Custom Audiences

Unfortunately, I’ll also need to update this audience every time I create a new video. Not ideal, but the lengths I’ll go to create good targeting.

Video Views Custom Audiences

How to Leverage this Group

There’s obviously plenty we can do with this. I could promote products and opt-ins. But for now, let’s just make sure we can reach these people.

So, I created a video indicating that if you’re seeing it, I have a feeling you’re my people. You’re someone who is watching my Reels to completion, and that seems to be a good indicator.

Since this is a small group (under 1,000 people), I’m using an Awareness campaign optimized for Reach.

Reach Campaign

And since it’s a small but relevant group, I’m using worldwide targeting. You can do this by simply removing any targeting from the location field.

Reach Campaign

I’m targeting the custom audience we just created. But I’m also excluding anyone who watched the video that I’m promoting in this ad. I created that audience after this campaign was published, then updated the targeting in the ad set.

Custom Audience Targeting and Exclusion

I’ve focused on the more relevant video-first placements.

And I’m sticking with the default of 1 impression every 7 days.

Facebook Ads Frequency Cap

The reason for that is I may keep this campaign running a while, and I don’t need to keep showing the same people the ad all the time. The exclusion helps prevent that, but this control helps as well.

Am I Reaching People?

Yeah, I am. Since I started this campaign on Thursday, I’ve reached a grand total of 147 people.

Not a lot, but these are important people. And due to the frequency cap, that size has shrunk pretty fast. I only reached 9 people yesterday and 13 so far today. But, the main thing is that it’s still running.

If delivery becomes an issue, I may need to update the frequency cap to something like 1 impression in every 3 days. But, we’ll worry about that if and when we need to.

One of the nice things is that it’s incredibly cheap to reach this very relevant group. I’ve only spent about $5 so far to run this campaign.

If I were to leverage this audience for something like list building or selling products, it has the potential to be very efficient.

What Could Have Been Better?

It’s fun to experiment with this, but the truth is that this isn’t my preferred approach. Two reasons.

1. Why can’t I target anyone who watched any Reel or video during the past 7 days?

I went to a lot of effort to create this audience based on people who could have watched any of my Reels. Even if I wanted to only focus on the most recent videos, I’d still need to keep updating the videos included as I publish new ones.

That’s far from ideal. Why isn’t there an option to isolate engagement with all videos at 95% during a specific period of time?

2. Why can’t I target people who watched at least 3 Reels during the past two months?

A frequency element would be amazing. That way, we could widen the net and include videos over a longer period of time. But without frequency, a person who watched one video two months ago (when I publish videos every day) isn’t as valuable as someone who watched one recently.

This is actually something that can be done with website custom audiences, so it’s not completely new functionality.

Website Custom Audience by Frequency

I created a video on this, too (because of course I did!). Check it out…

@jonloomer Here’s how Facebook could improve video views custom audiences. #facebookads ♬ Ocean Chill Guitar | Trap Hip Hop Instrumental – xklbeats

Your Turn

If you publish a lot of videos now, this may be a good approach for you. What do you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post How I’m Targeting People Most Engaged with My Reels appeared first on Jon Loomer Digital.

Are you looking to take the next step in your marketing career? You’re not alone. A 2021 survey by Oracle states that 75% of employees feel personally and professionally stuck.

According to Google search trends, professionals are looking to grow their careers at an all-time high. As companies downsize due to facing this challenging economy we are in; it’s the perfect time to set yourself up to stand out.

If you are feeling stagnant in your career, ask yourself these two questions:

  • What is my mission statement?
  • What are my core beliefs that breed success?

Many people answer with their organization’s core values or mission statement. It’s written on the walls of our offices, the company mugs we drink our coffee from, and is reiterated by leadership at meetings.

To clarify, I’m not asking for your organization’s beliefs. I am asking for yours. Let’s face it; organizations have these repeated everywhere for a reason. They create unity, purpose, and sustainable growth, which collectively breed success. Successful organizations have a core set of beliefs that they reference day in and day out. There are valuable articles on how to craft a content marketing mission statement. There are fewer articles on how to craft your personal mission statement.

Since this is a foundational piece in the success formula for many organizations, shouldn’t it be for your business (your career)?

How these tips helped me:

The below tips were heavily influenced by my mentors, peers, and experiences and helped my career grow from an entry-level role to an executive leadership position, leading a $400MM advertising budget.  I’ve been blessed with my fair share of “right place, right time” moments and have made the most of these moments by applying these six beliefs.

In 2012, I was working at a small, three-person marketing agency. We had a handful of clients, and I had the opportunity of being the jack of all trades. Content, website, client pitches, paid advertising, SEO, you name it. The cons? We worked out of Panera as we didn’t have an office space. The pros? I had the opportunity to learn from the founder, a former VP of a nationally known brand. Amazing opportunity.

I then moved into a Finance role at a Fortune 200 where I felt like a number. I remember walking through the cubicle farm and seeing a small picture frame in one of the cubicles. It read, “Thank you for your 15 years of service”. I moved on from that company very shortly after. I needed a different opportunity but knew it was in the middle. Larger than the agency, smaller than a Fortune 200.

I then found my Goldilocks – it had the stability that a startup couldn’t offer but also came with career visibility that a Fortune 200 couldn’t provide. The best of both worlds.

  • That year we did $35 million in sales.
  • Fast forward 6 years, and we surpassed $1 billion in sales.

I joined a company with a great product, great people, and a hungry leadership team. That is “right place, right time.” Pair that with the below six beliefs, and anything is possible.

6 Tips to Grow Your Marketing Career:

  1. Focus on Learning Something Each Day
  2. Focus on Tangible Results First
  3. The Power of Positivity is Real
  4. Always Assume the Best Intent
  5. Focus on the Outcome, not the Process
  6. Make Yourself Replaceable (yes, seriously)

Tip #1: Focus on Learning Something Each Day 

At the end of every day, write down something you learned. Periodically look back on these learnings. Don’t force yourself to learn the same thing twice.

Content is king. Not only in the business world but also in our careers (plus, we’re marketers – the power of content is nothing we are strangers to). We have more thoughts than we know each day, and whether you realize it or not, you did learn something.

It’s not always going to be earth-shattering (believe me, there are days that I learned that I was not productive that day because I didn’t eat breakfast). Not every day is a breakthrough “shout it from the rooftop” type of learning.

Other days are the opposite – days where I realize that if I had taken a slightly different approach, the idea would have had the excitement it needed to take off.

In the end, don’t force yourself to learn the hard way. Make this learning a daily habit, and you will set yourself up to be one step ahead.

TL;DR: each night, force yourself to write down something you learned that day.

Tip #2: Focus on Tangible Results First

Ask your leadership what you can do to help – you’d be surprised at how little they’re being asked.

After leading a team of 100+ marketers over the last several years, you’d be surprised how few people ask, “what can I do to help”. Assembly line worker syndrome (I may have made this term up, but for anyone who has not worked on an assembly line, it’s the “not my job until it gets to me” syndrome) has become a habit with the increasing use of project management tools. So often, I have seen people check off that last task in a project and feel they’ve quite literally completed their job for the day. When you check that final task off your list, ask your leader about their biggest short-term challenge. Take some time to think about it and come back to them with some ideas.

Additionally, remember the bigger picture. Depending on the organization you work for, while you may not feel it each day, you are actively making a measurable difference. Remember that and use it for encouragement. You may not know it, but the work you are doing each day may be the difference between someone’s child being able to attend the paid field trip or someone’s child being able to participate in dance class that year.

TL;DR: Ask what you can do to help – you’d be surprised how rare leaders are asked this question, and remember the difference you can make.

Tip #3: The Power of Positivity is Real

Be the person who wants to go to work each day.

“Is it Friday yet?” – you hear it every week. In some organizations, you hear it on Tuesday (ouch). The best jobs are where you work with a group of people who genuinely want to go to work each day. Remember that no matter your role, there is no organizational chart for smiling. A small smile may cascade across your group, which will flow into other groups.

TL;DR: Negativity kills; positivity thrives. Be the difference maker.

Tip #4: Always Assume Best Intent

Before interpreting the tone through text, pick up the phone and make the call.

We’ve all been there. The snarky email, the short text, you name it. Before jumping to conclusions, pick up the phone and call (or video chat) your colleague. Keep it short; ask them to clarify what they’re saying. Doing so will allow you to determine the tone without being forced to read into it.

Remember, people have bad days, and it’s always better to come from a place of understanding vs. aggression. Listen and respond, don’t be tempted to react. In-person? Even better. It may be awkward initially, but you are developing a skill, and anything worth developing is uncomfortable. Consider it a workout.

Are you interested in more tips on fostering a healthy remote work culture? Check out this article on 7 ways to improve communication in a remote team.

TL;DR: No font deciphers written tone. Technology can breed misunderstanding, especially through text/email/chat. When there is a miscommunication, jump on a video call and work it out.

Tip #5: Focus on the Outcome, not the Process

Ingenuity and innovation are not born through a process. Ingenuity and innovation are born through authenticity.

What are the seven most dangerous words in business? “We have always done it this way”. Remember, the process exists to achieve a specific goal, likely one that has been achieved before. It’s to create repeatability. Sometimes process needs a slight bend or tweaks to ensure the best outcome. Do this on a case-by-case basis to remain agile and lean.

Here’s a real-life example: Company Z sells widgets. Consumers reach out to Company Z, requesting a quote. The company then contacts the consumer via phone or email but wanted to add SMS text messaging as an option. Let’s face it, consumers prefer texting, and SMS marketing is growing at 20% yearly. The problem was that adding texting to the technology stack would take 60 days based on the current workload and other projects that were a higher priority.

  • A leader focused on the process would say: “let’s set up a meeting and discuss the 60-day plan and get it into the enterprise project management system; maybe we can shorten it to 50 days if we change a few things.”
  • A leader focused on the outcome would say: “what other solutions are there to achieve the same outcome while we concurrently figure out the long-term solution?”

One interesting note is that one of these leaders is pushing forth a statement, and the other leader is pushing a question. Asking questions and finding a way to make it happen will find a way to move your career forward.

In the above example, the company launched a semi-automated solution that was live a few hours later. While it took a handful of clicks a few times per day to deploy the mass texts vs. the fully automated way, the outcome was the same. The consumers were being contacted the way they preferred, and most importantly, the difference in the bottom line was astonishing.

TL;DR: Never sacrifice the outcome for the process, but if you must, sacrifice the process for the outcome.

Tip #6: Make Yourself Replaceable (yes, seriously)

Want to know the fastest way to a promotion? Find someone to mentor, teach them everything, and return to #2 above.

I’ve seen incredibly talented digital marketers come into a new role and automate their jobs in a week. I have seen content marketers speed up their process with the latest technology. Leaders rarely hesitate to use tools to generate faster and better work, but too often, they hesitate to elevate junior team members to work alongside them.

The best advice I would give anyone in their career is to make yourself replaceable. Succession planning is necessary for anyone to take the next step in their career. Glass ceilings exist for those who don’t cultivate the next layer of talent. Be a mentor, find a way to free yourself up and raise your hand and ask what else you can do.

TL;DR: Focus on producing leaders, not followers.

Putting These Tips to Use

Remember, while your career is a big part of life, it’s not life itself. That said, if you’re committed to growth, you owe it to yourself to take your career growth as seriously as the growth of the business itself.

  • Learn something each day.
  • Focus on tangible results.
  • Be positive.
  • Assume the best intentions.
  • Focus on the outcome.
  • Lastly, make yourself replaceable.

Are you looking for additional content on career growth? Don’t forget the power of networking.

The post 6 Beliefs That Helped Grow My Career to SVP, Managing a $400MM Marketing Budget (use these to grow) appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

content calendar

We’ve been there: the next social media post or blog article is due, and you’ve been so busy that you’re just now looking for a great topic to cover. You feel the pressure as you work to get it done quickly, and once it’s published you can barely enjoy the sense of accomplishment before your next deadline arrives.

When you understand what content marketing really is, you know that means sticking to a publishing schedule. Just one small delay can throw the whole thing off.

That’s why an actionable content calendar can transform the way you’re able to develop, find, and publish content consistently. Great content calendars can be simple — as easy as working with an Excel spreadsheet. Even better? There are tons of ready-to-use templates available to help you get started.

Ready to change your entire content marketing experience? Let’s dive into why content calendars are a valuable tool and look at some awesome content marketing templates you can start using right away.

Quick Takeaways:

  • Content calendars are critical tools that keep content teams on track.
  • Using a content calendar template is a good way to start the process.
  • For a content calendar to be effective, it also needs to be actionable.
  • Dynamic content calendars allow you to be agile, and it updates in real time.

What Is a Content Calendar?

A content calendar a documented schedule of all your content projects with due dates. It encompasses planning, scheduling, and organizing content.

The best content calendars are the secret to consistently publishing relevant content? Using content calendar templates can transform the operational side of your content marketing.

Do You Really Need a Content Calendar?

Simple answer: YES!

Content Calendars are the “forcing function” of any effective content marketing strategy.

Annual content planning needs to be strategic, effective, and useful. You need to make sure you are hitting your goals, meeting the needs of internal and external stakeholders, and making the most of your resources. The bottom line is that bad a$$ content marketers run really good content calendars

And content marketing teams rely on these to plan campaigns out across different channels and tactics.

A content calendar is your content strategy in action. Of course, that may be why you’re not using one – you don’t have a content strategy. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reports that the majority of companies have one, but there are still some that are lagging.

Image: CMI

That’s the starting point to drive content marketing ROI. And your strategy should define what your content calendar will include and the parameters around the workflows that support it.

It’s easy to dismiss content calendars as another ball to juggle rather than a valuable tool to help you manage your content. But guess what? Content managers who find content calendars tedious rather than useful are likely using a bad template or not setting aside the time to make it work effectively.

Like any project management tool, content calendars take commitment, especially in the beginning when you’re building one from scratch and adjusting to the routine of updating it every week or month.

But resist the urge to throw that calendar to the wayside! Content calendars not only make the process of managing content more enjoyable and less stressful, they lead to better-performing content that’s more likely to resonate with audiences and help your brand accomplish its goals.

Here are some of the most important benefits of a good content calendar:

  • Keeps You Organized and Accountable – When you plan ahead with a content calendar, you won’t be scrambling to publish and you’ll be more accountable to the content plan because you’ve outlined it ahead of time.
  • Gives You a Better Grasp on Your Content – Your content calendar gives you a bird’s eye view of your content. Rather than always focusing on the next post, you’ll gain a more holistic understanding of your content themes and trends over time.
  • Helps You Identify Opportunities – Did you know that 90% of companies feel that their content would benefit from having more contributors? Keeping a content calendar can help you identify opportunities to collaborate and source content ideas from other team members and happenings at your company.
  • Leads to Better Content (and Better Results) – Over time, your content is going to get better as you plan it more intentionally. Better content means better engagement, and more engagement means higher marketing ROI.

What Are the Benefits of Content Calendars?

Using a calendar delivers a bounty of benefits, including:

  • It keeps you honest with your production goals: If you say you’re producing six pieces of content a month but aren’t tracking deadlines and tasks, you won’t meet your goals.
  • It provides transparency for all: Anyone should be able to look at your content calendar and know what’s in the queue. In addition, it enables a 360-degree view of content projects.
  • You’ll find where your bottlenecks are: When due dates slip by, and things fall off the rails, you can see why. Is it the approval process? Lack of design resources? Or something else? You can identify it and work to address it.
  • Planning out in advance takes the pressure off: Nobody likes to work in a reactive culture. A calendar enables you to be proactive and look forward for 30, 60, or 90 days, so there’s no constant feeling of being behind.
  • It keeps things organized in a central spot: The calendar uses content workflows to streamline processes, and it’s all in one place, improving productivity.
  • Collaboration is easier: Is it a struggle for some groups to work together on a project? A content calendar that includes notes, comments, files, and other information in one spot makes collaboration simple and not a heavy lift.
  • It helps with accountability: Each team member has a role. If they aren’t fulfilling it, it’s easy to see in a calendar. You can then handle it head-on.

While you can gain these advantages, not all content calendars are the same. They don’t all have the same functionality or configuration. And one of the biggest differences is static versus dynamic.

What Is a Dynamic Content Calendar, and Why Should You Use One?

We use a dynamic content calendar that is part of one of the highest-rated content marketing platforms. Dynamic means that it lives online, identifies the various steps of content production, the owners of each step and notifies users of changes to status.

Users can interact with it at the same time. It updates in real time and provides notifications based on user actions. For example, when a new project goes in with task assignments, the assignee receives an alert.

You can see how a dynamic calendar works in the video below.

If you’re using a static calendar, meaning an Excel sheet, that’s not going to be the case, even if it’s in a shared drive. It’s still just a spreadsheet. Nor can you attach documents or use tags.

A dynamic calendar is living and breathing. It’s a tool that keeps projects moving, tracking every step and offering functionality that supports productivity.

You’ll end up doing too much manual work and possibly have multiple versions of the same calendar if you just use a spreadsheet. It’s not sustainable long-term for a growing enterprise.

Before creating your dynamic content calendar, you’ll need to start with a content calendar template. There are many options and lots of different things you can include.

How Do You Build a Content Calendar, and What Should a Content Calendar Template Include?

In building a content calendar template, you may pick and choose pieces from multiple templates, which we’ll share soon. The goal is to customize it to fit your company’s specific needs.

In deciding what to put in your template, you should conduct an exercise with your team. These steps will help you do that in a logical way.

Define Your Goals

Clearly identify what your brand is trying to accomplish with its content before you start building out your calendar. List out all of your goals and then prioritize them, too. This will look different for every company.

For example, Brand A’s top priority might be building out their blog content library, while Brand B might be focused on building a larger social media following.

Your goals can evolve over time, so it’s a good idea to identify both short- and long-term goals, and reevaluate periodically to be sure your content plan still aligns.

Choose Your Tools

What tools will you use for your content calendar? We mentioned earlier the importance of a dynamic one, which you can execute in a software platform. There are lots of products on the market.

In finding one that’s the best fit for you, consider these points:

  • Does it have a repository for ideas? This keeps topics in one spot and allows you to flesh them out.
  • Can you create a request form? Multiple stakeholders, from sales to product managers, may have content needs. Make it easy for them to submit them.
  • What kind of planning features does it have? Things like drag-and-drop scheduling, filtering, task prioritization, and multiple views will all help you plan better and smarter.
  • How does the calendar architecture work? You may want to have different calendar views (by project, group, date, etc.) and share those with non-users.
  • Does it have task management functionality? Tasks are critical to building content.
  • Can you create custom workflows? Different tasks will require different workflows, so you want to have flexibility here.
  • Does it allow for automated notifications? You don’t want to have to send emails out every time something changes.
  • Can you comment and tag users? Being able to do this simplifies collaboration.
  • Does it track changes? You don’t want to have versioning issues.
  • Does it include an asset library? This makes it easy to find what you need.
  • Can the system integrate with other platforms? Again, this can be very helpful for automation and productivity.
  • How easy is it to use? You want something you can deploy and have users engage with immediately. If the learning curve is too big, your team may not adopt it.
  • What’s the fee schedule? By user? Or are there enterprise plans? Depending on your size and budget, cost structure will matter.
  • Does it track analytics? It can become a hub for you to review content performance and data.

Asking these questions and demoing multiple solutions is the best way to find what will fit your team’s requirements.

Determine What Fields Your Content Calendar Template Should Have

Before you can start using a template, you’ll need to decide what you want to include. Here are some options:

  • Content title
  • Content pillar
  • Focus keyword
  • Expected length of content
  • Type of content
  • Buyer persona
  • Funnel stage (top, middle, or bottom)
  • Dates for each task completion
  • Objective (lead generation, thought leadership, or any other goal in your content strategy)
  • Offer or CTA (call to action)
  • Suggested internal links
  • Research links
  • Miscellaneous notes
  • How you’ll distribute it (social media, email newsletter, paid channels, etc.)

List Your Channels

List every channel you use to publish content and keep this list visible so you can refer to it when you work on your content calendar. Listing your channels helps in two main ways: first, it ensures you don’t disclude any in your content plan. Second, it helps you better prioritize your content and recognize when you’re over- or under-utilizing a particular channel.

Develop Your Workflows

Calendars will make the most significant impact on production when you define your content workflows.

These will look different depending on the type of content, but most will be repeatable. They’ll each have an assignee as well. Examples include:

  • Keyword research: The SEO specialist or content marketer establishes what keywords to use.
  • Research: Content writers or researchers pull data and statistics.
  • Writing: This is the first draft.
  • Review: Multiple people may need to review the content, including managers, legal, compliance, product managers, or other SMEs (subject matter experts).
  • Edits: The writer takes the feedback from the reviewers and makes updates.
  • Copy editing: The copy editor checks for grammar, syntax, style, and more.
  • SEO optimization: An SEO specialist may review the content again to make any additional tweaks for optimization.
  • Design: Every content piece will need some design, from blog images to social media posts to larger projects like e-books. There may also be a subset review for the creative as well.
  • Publication: The content goes live!
  • Distribution: Posting the content on social or any other channel.
  • Measurement and review: Track the performance of the content around SEO rankings, social media engagement, pageviews, and conversions.

Establish Timelines

After you confirm your workflows, you need to put a timetable on them. How long do you think it will take to do each step? Do you have past data to look at that can help?

If not, you’ll make a guestimate and evaluate it as you go. For example, you may give reviewers three business days. After a few months, you may find they need longer.

It’s something you’ll have to monitor from an operational perspective to ensure that your deadlines don’t fall off.

The deadlines should be clear. You need to communicate with your team that these are hard, not just for show. It will likely be bumpy at first, but you want to keep people accountable.

Here’s what to look for in establishing your content calendar timelines:

Internal – things happening at your company

    • Product launches
    • Seasonal campaigns
    • Events
    • Special content series or pieces

External – things happening outside your company

    • Industry news and events
    • Local/national/world news and events
    • Holidays and observances
    • Social media trends and challenges

Document Everything

All the steps discussed should be documented in your content strategy. That way, when you onboard new employees, they have a source of truth about the logistics of making content.

It’s not set in stone. It’s flexible and will change as your business does. The point is to have a process and stick to it. You’ll avoid confusion and frustration.

When you do make changes, get buy-in from stakeholders. They should be part of the decision-making process.

An effective content calendar also includes all the subtasks necessary in producing a piece of content. It holds tags that ensure you’re hitting your content pillars and meeting all stakeholder needs.

Tags could include:

  • Content type (blog, infographic, e-book, whitepaper, video, emails, social media posts, etc.)
  • Buyer persona (most organizations create content for at least 3 audience segments)
  • Focus keyword
  • Funnel stage (top, middle, or bottom)

Using tags also allows you to audit so that you’re staying on course with your content strategy.

It’s also about assigning roles. It maps out each task and the resource required (writer, designer, SEO specialist, etc.).

Consider it to be the blueprint of your content operations.

Fill in the Blanks with Evergreen Content

After you add your time-bound content, you can build in your evergreen content (or content that is not time-sensitive). Identify evergreen topics you can cover that will interest your audience. Keep this list wherever you keep your content ideas and brainstorms. Then, pull from it to include evergreen topics frequently in your content calendar.

You can also identify prior content you’ve already published that falls into this category and reuse it by sharing it on other channels. You can also repurpose it in another form (like turning a blog post into an infographic) or give it new updates to make it fresh.

Make a Publishing Plan

Knowing who is responsible for creating and publishing your content is key. If you’re working with a multi-person content team, it’s not a bad idea to incorporate it into your content calendar in a way that shows who is responsible for which type of content.

You can also utilize publishing tools like Hootsuite and SproutSocial to help automate your social media publishing, and use the “schedule post” feature in WordPress or whichever web content management system you use to schedule your blog posts ahead of time.

What Makes a Content Calendar Actionable?

So, what’s an actionable content calendar? Simply put, it’s building one with the steps above that you adhere to on a regular basis.

The calendar isn’t just static; it’s dynamic, and the workflows are in place to go from task to task. An actionable content calendar is one that gets used, and that is visible to all parties.

Content Calendar Templates

You can start from scratch, but we found these content calendar templates worth checking out.

First, we created this template for use in content marketing workshops. It’s simple, and you use it for all your content marketing efforts.

I’m currently drafting an article to cover all the content marketing strategy templates I’ve created. But for now, you can download the one above including all the others in the previous link. Check back in about 2 weeks for the follow-up article…

DivvyHQ

DivvyHQ is a content marketing platform that allows you to customize your content calendar. You can download their content calendar planning template and use it to construct yours inside their platform. They’ve also created this amazing comparison of all the content marketing platforms.

Keep in mind that your content calendar doesn’t have to replicate any of these. You can make it as simple or granular as you need.

You may find that you want to remove some fields if they aren’t useful. Adding other ones may become appropriate, too. You have the freedom to tweak it as needed. You want to remain agile because you never know what might change.

Hootsuite Social Media Calendar

Hootsuite offers a free template for social media posts. You may have more than one content calendar, with one focusing purely on social posting.

Image: Hootsuite

HubSpot Content Calendar

HubSpot has several templates you can download and then customize. For example, you could use this one as the printed version of your calendar. It does color-coding well.

Image: HubSpot

Trello Board

Trello is a task management and collaboration tool that’s also great for creating content calendars. We like the flexibility of creating lists and converting them over to calendars, and it’s flexible editing options. Here’s a tutorial that walks you through the steps of creating a Trello content calendar:

Smartsheet Blog Editorial Calendar

Image Source

We like the simplicity of this blog editorial calendar template from Smartsheet, which focuses on creating monthly schedules and also includes tabs for brainstorming and keeping an archive of published content.

CoSchedule Annual Content Calendar Template

Image Source

CoSchedule’s content calendar template is really useful because it provides templates for general content, social media, and email marketing. It also includes a centralized calendar template for putting it all together and color coding to stay organized. If you’re working with a team, this is a great template to help manage all of the moving parts.

Backlinko

Backlinko offers a version for Excel or a Google Sheet. It has a lot of detail in it, specifically around SEO techniques. It also has a built-in workflow. It includes an actual calendar view for your content as well.

Taking Your Content Calendar Template to the Next Level

Content marketing is a long game. It requires a commitment to producing great content. A content calendar can certainly help, but sometimes that’s not enough.

In cases where you simply can’t do it all, you need to find a partner that can keep your content flowing. We’re here to offer that help.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.

Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post How to Make a Content Calendar You’ll Actually Use [Templates Included] appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.