How to Create the Perfect Content Calendar in 10 Steps

October 3, 2020 Emily Dilworth

If you’ve had any exposure to the marketing industry, you’ve heard the saying. “Content is king.” Knowing nothing else, you can probably decipher that this means content is important. But what exactly is content, where can you find it, and how can you use it for business?

Content is everywhere. Every ad, social media post, video, podcast, blog, email, and digital download you’ve ever seen is content.

What is content marketing?

In the business world, content is closely related to marketing. But not all content is a form of marketing. The video of a cat chasing its tail that my grandma shared on Facebook last week was definitely not marketing, but it was content.

Content marketing is the strategic use of content to achieve a goal, such as gaining a bigger following, growing an email list, or making sales. And it’s not a small industry. Zazzle Media found that 96% of businesses believe content marketing is effective for their brand [1].

They’re right. Consumers aren’t only impacted by content marketing. They expect it. Consumers look at a brand’s content to help them determine whether they want to buy something. 32% of consumers look at a brand’s social media platforms before they ever make it to their website [2].

Often, content marketing funnels consumers into a sale. They may be looking for a product or service, or they may stumble upon a brand’s social media.

Either way, content marketing is essential to pull consumers in, build trust, and lead them towards a sale. 73% of consumers report the social media presence of a brand has impacted their decision to buy [2]. For this reason alone, you can see just how important content marketing is for your business.

What’s the best way to plan, organize, create, and share your content? Your marketing strategy will differ according to the industry or field you’re in. You need to consider factors such as geographic area, price, your ideal client, and what platforms perform best.

No matter your strategy, you need an easy, fool-proof way to stay organized and efficient. You can do all that and more with a content calendar.

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar is a system used to brainstorm and schedule content for your business for a certain period of time. And no, it doesn't have to be an actual calendar.

Typically, content calendars are broken into quarters or months. I prefer to plan by quarter because it helps me schedule launches. You can’t plan content for a launch the month before.

I would recommend you stay away from planning any farther than 3 months in advance. You never know what opportunities are going to arise or how your business is going to shift. If something comes up or changes, it’s a lot easier to change a couple months of content than a whole year of content. Plus, you should regularly edit your content to solidify your brand.

This is where the type-A in me flinches. Yes, your content calendar helps you plan your content in advance. But throw away the idea that once it’s on the calendar, your content or schedule is set in stone. That never happens. If you prepare yourself now, it’ll be a lot easier to shift your perspective the first time something new comes up.

Just to be clear, I’m using the term content calendar generally. Some marketing teams like to split their calendars into editorial content (blogs, emails, videos) and social media content. Personally, I don’t see the appeal in that. Why split up your calendars when you can combine them and have one less thing to keep track of?

You don’t have to have a marketing team to use a content calendar, either. I’m the only person in my business, and my content calendar has saved me so many times. It helps me plan and stay organized so I never miss a deadline. And there are so many more benefits.

Why do you need a content calendar as a wedding professional?

With a content calendar, your marketing opportunities are endless. Here are the top six reasons a content calendar is an essential tool for your content marketing strategy.

Stay organized

Do the work now, and your future self will be so grateful. Trust me on this one. I’ve definitely fallen into the planning trap in the past. You get excited about something new. Spend all this time (too much time) planning everything down to the tiniest detail. And when the time comes to actually implement – you drop the ball.

A content calendar helps avoid this. My process begins with the big picture. You only move to the small stuff once you have a solid foundation. This helps keep me from getting overwhelmed. Whether you’re a binge-planner or a one-step-at-a-time planner, having a content calendar is a great idea.

With a content calendar, you know exactly what you need to create or post and when. It breaks down a large and daunting goal (your content marketing strategy) into daily, obtainable goals.

Ever heard the phrase “stay ahead so you don’t get behind?” That definitely applies to your content marketing strategy. Block out some time, do the grunt work, and everything from there is smooth sailing. Your future self with thank you.

Create a consistent presence and brand message

Having a specific, calculated plan is so important for your business. You need a cohesive and consistent presence online for great audience engagement. The more they see you, the more familiar they will become with your business.

You need to capture and keep your audience’s attention and interest to pitch your products or services. The average consumer needs to see the same offer 7 different times before they buy. That means they need to see you, your brand message, and your offer repeatedly before you even bring up a sale.

The majority of consumers are not going to buy from you right away. And if you throw an offer in their face first, they’ll probably turn away. It’s so important to build trust and community before you produce your offer.

You can achieve this with audience-specific content. Figure out who your ideal client is, and provide them with lots of helpful information. 90% of consumers find personalized content useful [3]. To create custom content, engage with your audience genuinely. Ask them questions, get their feedback, and be open to criticism.

Free advertising

I talk about this in almost every blog post I write, because it’s such valuable information. The content you create continues to work for you after it's shared with your audience. Your posts on Instagram and Facebook are always on your profile page. The same goes for your tweets, pins, and YouTube videos.

Your social media profiles and website are content portfolios. Have you ever found a celebrity’s social media account and scrolled all the way back to their posts from 2013? We’ve all done it.

It works the same way for your business. If a new customer stumbles upon one post, video, or blog, they can easily sift through the rest of your content. This allows for quick authority and trust-building, if your content is high-quality and relevant to that customer.

Demand Metric found that for every dollar spent, content marketing generates almost 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing [4]. Here, traditional marketing refers to paid advertising and traditional promotional materials like business cards, brochures, and flyers.

As long as you stay true to your brand, your content never goes out of style. This is not only beneficial to your business, it’s also cheaper. 62% cheaper, if we’re being technical [4]. You can also reuse your content (after an adequate amount of time has passed, of course). There’s no question about which type of marketing you should use.

But to have a successful content marketing strategy, you need to have a plan. That’s where the content calendar comes in. If you plan ahead, you can ensure you’re only spending your time on content that is going to work for you well into the future.

Gather market research

A content calendar gives you a documented plan that will help you stay consistent and improve your strategy. Only 37% of businesses have a documented marketing strategy. That means a whopping 63% of businesses are flying by the seat of their pants [5].

This is not the way to go. Not only does it leave you unprepared – without a plan, you have no way to track your progress, set and meet goals, and improve.

One of the best things about a content calendar is that you can refer to it later on. This is super helpful after a launch, at the end of the year, or whenever you like to reflect and make changes to your business.

A content calendar is a clear map of everything you’ve done. It can help you determine what worked well, what flopped, and what you could tweak to make better. You can use your content calendar to track your efficiency, audience engagement, the best times of the day or week to post, and so much more.

Produce higher quality content

Staying true to your brand is super important. So is creating content your audience actually wants to read. You could create new content every day for the rest of your life – if it’s not high-quality, it’s not going to get you anywhere.

I delve deep into the importance of creating quality content in a recent blog post.

A content calendar allows you to plan ahead, so you create better ideas and have fewer mistakes. The more time you have to prepare for something, the better it can be.

Create or improve your workflow

Unfortunately, creating content isn’t a universal process. You’re sharing content on many platforms throughout the week, and each has its own process. This can make your workflow sporadic and stressful.

Creating a content calendar can help. If you plan your content ahead of time, you’ll know how much you need to post on each platform and what your priority content is. From there, you can create a workflow that efficiently fits together all the steps you need to take to get from an idea to a published product.

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) found that 91% of marketers use content marketing, but only 59% deliver content consistently [6]. Creating a workflow is one way to avoid this common problem. You can save so much time if you know exactly what you need to do before you start.

I think I’ve badgered you enough with the reasons you need to have a content calendar. How do you get started? Here’s the 10-step process I’ve perfected for my own content marketing strategy.

Take a look, take what you like, get rid of what you don’t. It might take some trial and error, but once you find a process that works for you, you’ll feel so much better. The best thing about perfecting a process is getting to make it work for you, not the other way around.

My 10-Step Content Calendar Process

1.Choose your focus topic

When I’m creating content I start big. Your content should revolve around a specific topic, theme, or concept. If you’re planning a launch, your content can be about your service or product.

If you’re not launching anything for that quarter or month, pick something relevant to your work. For example, a wedding planner could focus on guest experience as a general theme. Make sure your theme is broad enough for you to easily create 1-3 months of content.

2. Brainstorm ideas

This is usually the most fun part of my process. I love sifting through ideas I’ve gathered to pick out the ones that are interesting. If you’re excited about the content, it will be more fun to create.

I also love the snowball effect that occurs when I get into the brainstorming zone. Gathering ideas starts slow, but eventually picks up momentum until my brain is swimming in ideas.

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, there are plenty of methods you can use to find content. I like to sift through my social media feeds. You can use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook groups, emails you’ve received, and magazines (digital or print). You can also pull content ideas from everyday life.

I find it most helpful to save content ideas as I come across them. That way, you can create a bank of content ideas to pull from when you plan your content.

3. Pick your pillar content format

You only have to do this the first time you create your content calendar, though I recommend revisiting this step every once in a while.

Think of your content calendar as a pyramid. The very top is your monthly or quarterly theme. Directly under that is what many call your pillar content. Pillar content is long-form content that provides in-depth information on a topic.

Before you determine what your pillar content will be, you need to figure out what kind of content you want to use. Pillar content is usually a blog post, podcast, or video. These formats allow for lots of information to be shared in an optimal way.

If you’re trying to start or scale your business, or preparing for a launch, creating one piece of pillar content each week is optimal. Your pillar content has the best chance of bringing real revenue to your business.

Generally, quality pillar content does better for business than paid advertisements do. This is because 70% of people would rather learn about a brand in an article or blog post than in an advertisement [7]. Remember, your audience wants to get to know you before you throw an offer in their face.

Pillar content is about more than making a sale. It’s the bread and butter of your brand. It gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge and allows your audience to get to know your brand.

4. Determine where you want to post

After you’ve picked the format of your pillar content, you need to decide what other platforms you’d like to use.

Do some research, if you haven’t already, to figure out where your ideal clients hang out. You don't want to waste your time (or your kick-ass content) on a platform where you’ll see no engagement.

If you aren’t sure where to start, the top three distribution platforms for marketers overall are email (93%), social media (92%), and blogs (79%) [8]. Start there, and you can always grow your reach once you’ve mastered one or two platforms.

5. Determine how often you can post

This depends completely on what works best for you. Personally, I try to post 4-5 times a week on Instagram, 3 times a week on LinkedIn, and 4-5 times a week on Pinterest. All that content is supplementary content for my pillar, which is my weekly blog post.

Those amounts don’t include sharing content that isn’t mine. I spend about an hour total each day across the social media platforms I post on. I share content that is relevant or helpful for my audience, like and comment on other posts, and look for people to follow or reach out to.

Spending some time on social media (in a professional capacity) should be part of your daily routine, even if it’s just scrolling while you’re winding down in front of the TV at night. I try to split my time into smaller chunks throughout the day so I don’t get distracted.

Do some research to determine how often you should be posting on each platform you use, and adjust that number to fit your schedule. It’s important to remember that you’re not going to hit that number every week. If you’re swamped with other work, you might lessen your posting frequency. And that’s okay! Creating a plan is just a way for you to stay on track and hold yourself accountable.

6. Create content pyramid

I got this idea from copywriting queen Ashlyn Carter, who uses a system she calls The 3H Method to map out her content before big launches. I’ve taken a few things from Ashlyn and added my own to make this method work well for me.

As I said earlier, you want to think of your content as a pyramid. The very top is your monthly or quarterly theme. Directly under that is your pillar content. Under your pillar content sits your supporting content. For me, these are tips, shareable quotes from my blog, and other relevant content that educates my audience.

Finally, the bottom of your pyramid is what I call your fun content (Ashlyn refers to it as Hygiene content). This is where I post my BTS photos, personal updates or fun facts, quotes I love, and anything else not directly related to my theme.

My fun content builds community, my supporting content builds trust, and my pillar content “seals the deal,” so to speak. Without a healthy mix of all three, I wouldn’t have a well-rounded marketing strategy.

My pillar content is always my blog, which is housed on my website. I regularly share links to my pillar content (current and past) on my social media platforms. This is very on-trend with other marketers. 94% use social media to distribute content [9]. So don’t forget to share your links! Otherwise, how is your audience going to find your pillar content each week?

Create a rough outline of what your pyramid would look like week-to-week. Mine looks something like this:

7. Pick your pillar ideas

Once you have a rough pyramid plan mapped out, it’s time to get into your content. Look at the ideas you found during your brainstorm and determine which topics would work best as long-form content. Remember, you want your pillar content to be in-depth, so pick your topics accordingly.

Your topic needs to be interesting enough to hook your audience at the beginning of the piece and keep their attention all the way to the end. If you can't write roughly 2000 words or talk for 10 minutes on a topic, it’s probably not a great choice for your pillar content.

8. Fill in content pyramid for each week

Once you have your pillar content for each week, you can fill out your pyramids. You don’t have to put your content ideas into a literal pyramid. I put mine in a Google spreadsheet. But if you’re a visual person, go for it!

You can do a second round of content mining at this step if you need some supporting or fun content ideas. Once I have my topic I can pick supporting content pretty easily, but every once in a while I get stuck and head over to social media for inspiration.

For fun content, I usually rotate through a list of general ideas. Some of these include:

Quotes I love
What I’m reading/watching this week or month
Personal updates
Client project BTS (always get permission first!)
To-do list or “what’s on my desk this week”
“This just happened to me today and I wanted to share” content

My fun content is the content that changes the most after I fill out my content calendar. I really just post whatever I’m feeling that week!

9. Research hashtags and SEO keywords

In my spreadsheet, I have a section dedicated to hashtags, blog tags and categories, and SEO keywords.

It’s important to research this before you start writing, so you can determine if that topic is going to be beneficial to you. Generally, if you can’t find hashtags or keywords that are popular, that topic isn’t the best choice.

Hashtags go on social media posts. You can search for these right on the platform. Make your hashtags short and specific. You want to find low competition hashtags with a lot of posts.

For example, if I was posting a picture of my dog, I wouldn’t want to use #dog, because it’s oversaturated and my post would never be found. To get better results, I could use #doglife, #doggielove, or #dogsworld. Doing research is quick and painless, and it will help boost exposure for each post.

Blog tags and categories are important for organizing your blog posts. Look at your blog and see what tags already exist and where you could create a new tag. Once you have a decent number of blogs, you can also separate them by category to make it easier for your audience to find exactly what they’re looking for.

SEO keywords are only necessary for blog posts and some social media platforms like Pinterest. You want to find 3-5 strong keywords that are popular but not too competitive. I do a deep dive into finding the right keywords for your pillar content in this free guide I created with my step-by-step process for writing compelling copy. Check it out to learn more!

10. Fill in your content calendar

After you have your content topics picked, you can fill in your calendar! For me, this looks like an excel sheet where I list the publish date, content topic, SEO keywords (if applicable), tags, target audience, and call to action.

Pick dates and times that are optimal for the content you are creating. I keep my blog posts and newsletters on the same day each week for consistency. Everything else depends on what my workload looks like that week.

After I have my content calendar filled out, I transfer all the due dates into Asana, the platform I use to keep track of all my tasks and projects. You can transfer your due dates into a calendar like this, or you can reference right from your content calendar.

We made it to the end! This process might seem long when you first begin, but each time you complete your content calendar, it gets easier. Before you know it, you’ll be able to breeze through this process. Now, it only takes me about 2-3 hours, which I break into smaller chunks I complete throughout the day.

Across the board, business owners understand the importance of content marketing. But not everyone is using it. Why? 67% say they have a small team. 44% say it’s because of a lack of time [10]. And don’t forget as I mentioned earlier, 63% don’t have a documented content marketing strategy [11].

Don’t use these excuses. Even if you’re a one-person show (I am!) you can do this. In fact, it’s essential to keep your business running efficiently. Don’t waste time putting together haphazard content last minute. Create a plan, follow a process, and execute your content consistently.

Once you’ve mastered your content calendar process, you’ll need to tackle the next daunting step in the content marketing process: creating content. Luckily, I have a fool-proof process for that too, which you can download for free today. You don’t need to be a professional writer to create great content (though there are benefits to hiring a copywriter, especially if you struggle with content creation or lack of time). You just need the right process.

You’ve got this, my friend. It’s time to tackle your content marketing strategy and start creating content that will turn your audience into paying clients.

Did you find this blog helpful? If so, make sure you share it with other people who could benefit!

Emily Dilworth Creative