The content marketing process comprises of content creation as well as content distribution. If you are focused on the content creation process (brainstorming on topics to pick, doing research, assessing which keywords are to be added), it is likely that you will lose focus on the second phase – i.e. smart distribution of content.
Wouldn’t it be great if you have a way to sort out all the topics for blog content development well before hand? This way, you will be freed up during the actual content creation and publishing process.
This is precisely why you need to invest a few minutes to have a content calendar in place.
What is a content calendar?
With a content calendar, you can put more time to creating and sharing compelling content rather than being troubled for hours at end about what to write. It is basically a document (generally in the spreadsheet format) that is used to schedule your postings. It is the one-stop-shop for all your questions like when what, and where to post to streamline the blog content development process. Even experts like HubSpot and Neil Patel corroborate the immense value of content calendar in blog content development process.
Benefits of a well-structured content calendar:
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A Sense of direction
A well-maintained and regularly updated content calendar can indeed go a long way. It helps you focus on the tasks that are coming up and prepare in advance for important posts which would require meticulous efforts and no haste.
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Contributes to the overall consistency
Since you have it all sorted out systematically, you find yourself at this vantage point. You can address questions like
- which post would need more of your time and effort
- which post would need reworking before publishing
- do all posts discuss unique ideas
You can monitor your entire process of content creation for a year with ease. With a content calendar, pushing unique content and having your audience coming back for more becomes easier.
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Organization:
A good content calendar does more than just give you an overview of things. It makes life easier in ways more than one. Now that you’d have all your content and associated research well organized, you would not have to dig deep for references and online statistics.
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A context for your content
Adding meaningful context to your content holds water when it comes to good quality content. You need to understand all of what has been said about the topic at hand and add it to your benefit. Reading content online gives your post an edge like no other and for to accomplish this goal, you need to know of things well in advance.
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Helps you trace down and review posts that didn’t work
There may be instances when your well-organized post didn’t fire the way you expected it to. If such a case arises, you have nothing much to sweat over. Having a content calendar helps you go back to the strategy you resorted to the last time and not repeat the exact same mistakes this time around.
Using these aids, you can make your content spread better than before. So the next time you find yourself frustrated or searching for hot topics, make sure you use a content calendar and go about your blog content development process in a strategic manner.
