How To Align Your Blog, Social Media and More With A Content Calendar

In our previous blog post “How To Write Regular Blog Posts and Stay Organised”, we talked about how you can use a content calendar to plan your content. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the role a content calendar can play in your marketing strategy.

I use a spreadsheet for all of my content calendars, as it’s a simple and flexible tool you can use in whatever way you feel is right for your particular calendar. Not just for blog posts, a content calendar can incorporate all sorts of content, including social media posts, mailshots, and new pages you may want to add to your website. And it’s that incorporation of different types of content that can give you the synergy and direction your marketing strategy needs.

When you are sending similar messages through multiple content types and channels, these different pieces of content support each other and work together to help you achieve your goals. For example, if you run an IT company and you want to promote a new line of laptops you have introduced to your online store, you might want to write a blog post about this. You’ll probably also want to share that blog post on social media. But a blog post might not be enough. You might also send out an email about the new laptops, or create a series of social media posts outlining the laptop’s USPs. A content calendar can help you to decide which of these activities you should do and when, and how they will affect each other. Your blog post could be your main piece of content introducing the laptops, and you’ll need that to be live on the website before you write social media posts that link back to it. With a content calendar you can keep all of this organised.

Not all of your content will be promotional, but you can still organise it so that it coincides with times when you want to promote certain things. At Christmas, an IT reseller may want to promote gadgets such as toy robots, and as part of this they might write a blog post about choosing a great Christmas gift, or about how to make a gift extra special. Informational posts can be just as valuable for your business because they are useful to your readers, who don’t want to feel like you’re constantly doing the pushy sell. And if these posts are timed right, they could really deliver for both you and your customers.

Of course, the main benefit of a content calendar is that you can plan your timings for everything. You’ll be able to plan for events well in advance, so you’re not caught unprepared for major holidays or events in your industry. If you’re attending or hosting an event, you can use a content calendar to promote the event well beforehand, providing all the information potential attendees will need, and building anticipation. You can do the same thing when releasing new products or services.

If your offering changes around certain times of year such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day, your calendar will help you to stay competitive across all of your marketing channels. And a calendar can even help you out during low periods, by showing you the gaps in your strategy so that you can decide what to push to increase your conversions during that time.

Showing a united front across all of your marketing channels can really help you to promote the things you want to sell during certain times, and a content calendar is a great way to make sure you’ve got a good plan to follow for this. If you would like any help with your content strategy, get in touch with SilverDisc!