How to Create an Editorial Calendar to Manage your Marketing Efforts

Having a content calendar in place helps your entire team save time and be on-point with their content-related actions.

Here are a few easy steps to get you going:

Open this Editorial Calendar Spreadsheet created by Kathryn Good Marketing and make a copy of your own by going to File > Make a copy.
Go to the Brainstorm tab at the bottom of the sheet. Brainstorm as many ideas as you can. Then, enter your thoughts in the “Concept” column. The “Scheduled?” column should be filled in when you move an idea from Brainstorming to the Editorial Calendar tab. Enter “Yes” or “No” here.
Go to the Editorial Calendar tab at the bottom of the sheet. Complete the following fields:

Publish Date. Add here a date you want your content to be published.
Due Date. Set this at least two days earlier than the Publish Date. Doing this will give you flexibility in case any of the elements are still a Work in Progress (e.g., the article is ready, but a graphic needs to be done)
Author. If you have more than one team member working on content, record who is responsible here.
Topic/Title. Write the name of the title you have approved.
Content/Details. Enter here a concise brief of what you want from this particular piece of content.
Channel. It can be your blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn account, etc.
Keywords. If it applies, enter here the keywords you are targeting in this particular piece of content.
Target Audience. Enter here the target audience you will have in mind when creating this piece of content.
Offer/CTA. Chances are, a large portion of your content will be created to support marketing offers and deals your business is putting out. Use this column in the spreadsheet to add an offer/CTA idea or links.

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