What Is a Content Calendar? (And How to Make One That Works)

No matter your company’s size, industry, or goals, all businesses have one primary necessity in common when it comes to performing their daily operations — and that’s organization. That’s why content calendars are an essential part of any content marketing strategy.

What is a content calendar, though?

Keep reading to find out! Learn not only what a content calendar is but also how to use a content calendar and get the most benefit from it. With everything you’ll learn, you’ll have a strong foundation for your content marketing strategy.

What is a content calendar, anyway?

If you’re asking yourself, “What is a content calendar?” think of why you use a calendar in your everyday life. Calendars are useful for outlining dates, remaining organized, and ensuring that you never miss any crucial events — which is sort of how a content calendar works too.

There’s more to content than the creation process.

You must plan your future posts continuously, while also deciding when to release this new material. You’ll need to continue to research, plan, write, and publish your work. That’s why incorporating organization into your content marketing strategy plays a vital role in your company’s ability to reap success.

A successful content calendar can save your business both time and money, ensuring that your marketing tactics go according to plan. You’ll relieve the tension associated with delivering new work consistently too.

Whenever your clinic needs a new blog post or article, just reference your content calendar to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

How do you create a content calendar?

So, you want to create a content calendar? Then you’ve come to the right place! Below, we’ll outline the four simple steps for helping you organize, launch, and manage your content marketing plans with ease.

1.      Brainstorm your ideas

People sitting around a table brainstorming ideasBefore you can outline your calendar, you must curate your potential ideas first.

Before you begin to organize your calendar, brainstorm possible topics or areas of interest to cover in your upcoming content. This means you’ll need to reflect on your clinic’s brand and decide what your target market wants to read.

For example, what common questions do future clients and their families have about rehabilitation? Browse social media and forums for inspiration on topics your website can cover, whether through a blog post or online guide.

2.      Outline your anticipated time frames

Create enough content to plan out your calendar for the next several months. Do you want a one-month calendar plan? Or do you want to have your work in line for the next quarter? In most cases, you’ll aim for a monthly plan, rather than quarterly.

For many businesses, it’s beneficial to plan their work in advance. When the time comes to produce a new blog post, you don’t want to have your team scrambling to quickly form an idea in just a couple of days.

As an example, if you’re creating a comprehensive online guide, you’re making a significant investment. That’s why you want to research topics (and their value) beforehand. That way, you can make use of your marketing budget in the best way.

3.     Put your plans in place

Once you’ve developed some ideas and established the deadlines for your work, it’s time to start using your content calendar. Remember to prepare your work for the deadlines that you’ve established on your content calendar. You’ll have a much easier time planning for the future and producing the work required to keep your audience engaged.

4.      Make adjustments as necessary

Your business is constantly evolving — which means your content calendar is likely to change over time too. Remember to make changes in your schedule as necessary, especially if it seems like your clinic is producing too much (or too little) content.

Gradually, you’ll achieve the perfect content calendar plan.

 

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4 ways to build a better content calendar

It’s easy to see why most companies want to use a content calendar in their strategy. This simple tool can help you keep track of the work you produce, as well as ease collaboration between multiple team members and freelancers.

How do you build your content calendar and maximize its benefits for your center?

With these four simple steps:

1.      Use a program

Fortunately, content calendar prepping doesn’t force you to carry a physical schedule along with you everywhere that you go. In today’s world of technological innovations, you can now keep track of your necessary information through applications and programs instead.

If this is your first time developing a content calendar, you may not know which programs will provide you with the most helpful tools. Here’s a look at some of the best online content calendar programs that can help you plan and prepare your media for publication.

If you prefer to enter your steps and ideas into a spreadsheet manually, consider using Google Sheets to prepare your content calendar instead. The availability of filters in Google Sheets can also streamline future research on past content.

2.      Schedule diverse content

social media appsIf you schedule one blog post per week for the entire year, you won’t maximize your center’s full content marketing potential. For many, it helps to diversify the content they produce while using their content calendar as a source of guidance along the way.

Produce blog posts, infographics, and social media posts.

Remember that the content you produce may vary and differ from your competitors. However, crafting engaging and results-driven material remains crucial. This means that at times, your work can vary in length, tone, and subject matter too.

For example, your facility may write content for two separate audiences: potential clients and client families. With each audience, your team will likely adopt a different tone and content, as each audience has separate concerns and questions.

3.      Keep track of your time

You’ve done the hard part and outlined your content calendar.

Now, the next vital step is ensuring you meet your deadlines.

One of the primary goals of a content calendar focuses on developing a strategy that keeps you organized and on track when it comes to fulfilling your content development goals. You don’t want your writers to rush their work or confront a lack of content ideas.

Monitor how long it takes your team to generate viable content ideas. Keep track of how long it takes your team to write, edit, and publish content too. All this data can help your center create realistic goals for your content calendar and content marketing strategy.

When you make a goal, stick with it too.

Pushing off social media posts or blog posts until a later date can make it easier for you to fall behind on your projected plans. While delays happen, you want to commit to your due date. Create soft and hard due dates to ease this process.

4.      Pick your dates strategically

Does your clinic have an upcoming event that you’d like to promote? Or is there a time of year when you’re more interested in reaching your target audience? No matter what causes a specific date to be important to your center, prepare and organize your content for this crucial time.

At times, we feel underprepared for what we consider to be more stressful or busy times of the year. This also holds true to your business strategy. Skim through the calendar year and locate dates that are of interest to your facility.

Prepare this content in advance for publishing. That way, your center’s ready to publish and share this content with the people that matter, from future and past clients to client families to medical experts.

 

Person writing notes on a calendarCreate your center’s next content calendar

You may have begun this article with the question, “What is a content calendar?” Now, though, you’re only left with one question — “How can I use this crucial tool in my rehab center’s content marketing plan?”

While content calendars play a crucial role in creating organization in your facility’s content marketing strategy, they’re not always easy to create, fill, or maintain. Do you need a helping hand in using this valuable marketing tool? Our team is willing to help!

Reach out for more information on how you can get started today.

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