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How to Create a Content Calendar

Save time and stay organized. Create a content calendar. 

Your calendar is more than just a list of topics and publishing dates — it’s a delicate dance of strategy, foresight, and savvy organizational management. 

Whether you’re a dedicated Trello or Asana user, have a case of the Mondays, or use a spreadsheet, there’s no best way to create a content calendar. However, there are several elements you should always include, and a bunch more based on your goals and how elaborate you’d like your calendar to be. 

Here’s how to create a content calendar:

Know Your Audience

Content is king, but relevance is queen. You can churn out a thousand posts, but if they lack intent and a target, you might as well be throwing a dart as a dartboard you can’t see. Ten bull’s eyes are worth way more than a thousand holes in the wall and one very angry bar owner.

This all goes back to content creation 101. Ask yourself:

  • Who is my audience?
  • What are my objectives?
  • Will my audience find this useful?

And don’t forget to make your content educational, entertaining, and engaging. 

Select Your Tool

And by tool, I mean platform. Keep your minds out of the gutter. 

There are many platforms to help you stay organized, and most offer way more than you’d ever need. Whether you want a sophisticated project management tool or a simple pen and paper, stick with what works best. 

Create Your List

Do you know what looks excellent in a content calendar? Ideas.

Create a list of topics you want to cover and run them through your relevance filter. Once you’ve got a large list of topics to create content for, organize them in buckets. Are you a design and construction firm specializing in kitchen, bath, and closet remodels? Organize each of your ideas under these categories. 

Do you have twice as many kitchen ideas as you do bath or closet remodels? Consider adding more bath and closet ideas or emphasizing kitchens more frequently (e.g., two monthly blog posts about kitchens, one for baths and one for closets). 

Determine Your Frequency

How often do you want to post? You probably don’t want to overwhelm yourself or your audience, but you must maintain your presence. 

At a minimum, I’d recommend: 

  • Blog posts – once a week
  • Newsletters – once a month
  • Social media posts – three times a week

Elements of a Content Calendar

Here are the basics:

  • Title of Content: This can be the title of a blog post, something like “April Newsletter,” social media for Week 12 of 2024 — as long as you know what it is, you’re golden. 
  • Content Type: Blog post, video post, chart, newsletter, social media, ebook, etc. 
  • Content Location: Include a link to the file where the content lives. 
  • Bucket: Who is the content for? For example, you may include categories like buyers and sellers if you’re a real estate agent.
  • Dates: Include your first draft, final draft, and publishing dates.
  • Assignee: Who is in charge of creating this content? Reviewing? Publishing?
  • Status: Has the content been created? Reviewed? Scheduled? Published?
  • Notes: Leave space for relevant information, like how well this content was received, follow-up ideas, etc.

 

Schedule Your Posts

Yes, this deserves its own section — because people forget! 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve created content for clients only for them not to schedule it and miss out on lead-generating opportunities. Scheduling posts is easy, and every platform, from LinkedIn to Mailchimp, will let you do it. 

Don’t create 15 posts leading up to April’s trade show only to publish them in May. Schedule a time to schedule your posts.

Review and Refine

… While you’re scheduling time to schedule your posts, you should also schedule time to review your content calendar and the metrics you’re using to determine your success. By analyzing this data, you’ll discover what’s working and where you should be making improvements. Keep at it, and you’ll be closer and closer to hitting that proverbial bull’s eye more often. 

How to Create a Content Calendar: Final Thoughts

Do you know what’s great about a content creation package? Your content calendar is created for you! All you’ll have to do is copy and paste (and schedule your damn posts!!!). 

Why White Papers Are So Damn Good at Converting

Why White Papers Are So Damn Good at Converting

 

Ever since they originated in 19th century England, white papers have served as a relevant, influential form of content marketing. Other marketing strategies have come and gone, but white papers show no signs of going anywhere. Not only have they survived through the technological revolution, but they have also weathered the changes in how we consume content.

In this article, you will learn why white papers are so good at converting, how companies can improve upon their white papers, and what companies should be doing to deploy white papers in their content marketing.

 

Why White Papers Convert

 

White papers offer in-depth information about a problem in an industry that interested parties are looking to understand. They also offer a practical solution to this problem in the form of a product or service. They are meant to educate buyers through the Evaluation Stage by providing in-depth information on a specific subject, advocate for a solution, and make a company be seen as a subject matter expert (SME). As a result, white papers are ranked #2 in terms of the most influential content buyers read before making a purchase, just behind product brochures and data sheets.

When done well, white papers are able to make your brand more persuasive and bring about meaningful change as your platform and influence increases. They can boost your brand’s exposure within your industry, media, and other critical circles, and can increase your brand’s strategic visibility. By having a well-crafted white paper, your clients, customers, partners, and investing will feel more confident in your brand.

White papers have no time for fluff. They are carefully crafted documents full of quantitative data written in an academic format. They are the thick textbooks of marketing: They are not always the most fun to read, but if your company is looking to make a significant business decision, you are grateful that they exist because of the breadth of information they provide.

However, this doesn’t mean that the white paper hasn’t evolved in its own ways. Modern-day white papers are often filled with infographics, images and videos, and interactive content.

White paper designs and templates have also gotten more modern. Here are a few examples from Venngage that you may find useful. 

 

How Companies Can Create or Make Their White Papers Better

 

First, companies need to understand what a White Paper is and what it isn’t:

 

A white paper isn’t like a research paper, it’s like your graduate thesis or capstone project! It requires a lot of in-depth information complete with credible data to back up every one of your claims. By writing a white paper, your company is looking to become the SME of your industry. If a sentence that you have written or if the fact that you have inserted can be disproven, your credibility will take a hit, and your buyers will mistrust you.

Carefully plan your White Paper, and take your time writing it. This is a document that will be valid for your company for at least a year or two and then revised to remain relevant. Make sure that it goes the approval from your company’s most scrutinous of editors, and don’t consider it a completed project until you are 100% satisfied with it.

Given the importance of this document, the amount of time it may take to put together all of the relevant information, and the writing skills necessary to create a well-crafted White Paper, many companies find that their best solution is to outsource writing one.

 

This is what should be included in every white paper:

  • Market trends and changes in your industry that make your product necessary (without actually selling your product)
  • Statistics, expert testimony, and quotes from industry professionals
  • Fully explore what your target audience’s key challenges, more so than a web page or brochure would do
  • Create a list of things to consider that is well-rounded and thoroughly discusses the problem at hand, potential solutions, and market drivers
  • At the very end, pitch why your product can help your audience. *Note: this isn’t the bulk of your white paper, merely the last page or two.

 

What Companies Should Be Doing to Market Their White Papers

 

Once a white paper is created, it should be marketed, so that leads in the later stages of the marketing funnel can evaluate them during their buyer’s journey. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Direct Email Campaigns and Newsletters: Email has an average  ROI of 122%, which is more than four times higher than other marketing formats like direct social and social media. Feature your white paper in your newsletter or as a downloadable PDF in your next e-mail marketing campaign.

Free Gift: Promote your white paper as a ‘free gift’ or ‘downloadable content’ on your website. If you want to get something out of it in return, offer your white paper as a gift that someone gets when subscribing to your site or e-mail list

Press Releases: Promote it as part of a press release complete with a link to your white paper, landing page, or site where the white paper is easily accessible. Press releases are submitted to search engines, social platforms, and industry journals and allow for a broad reach and more potential leads. On average, press releases generate traffic that is 38.9% less expensive than comparable traffic from a PPC campaign.

Reach Out: Contact influential bloggers, editors, and industry experts who work with or cater to your target market and pitch your white paper to them.

Social Media: 83% of B2B marketers use social media as a content marketing vehicle. Promote your white paper on your various platforms, again offering it as an ‘extra’ or ‘gift.’

Utilize Your Sales Team: Give it to your sales team to help them further nurture leads.

 

No matter what you are selling, a white paper is an excellent addition to your content arsenal. Not only does it make you appear to be an SME, but just about 2/3rds of B2B marketers actually use them, which gives you a significant advantage over your competitors that don’t. Keep that in mind for the next time you are spearheading a marketing campaign.