Creating blogs, newsletters and posting to social media when a) you have time or b) when you have an idea isn't really a strategy...and it can drive you crazy trying to keep up with what you know you should be doing regularly.
Having a strategy and plan written down is good.
Having a content and social media calendar that echoes that strategy is better.
If you're still in the stage of needed to develop a digital marketing strategy plan, check out our template here. If you're ready to take your strategy and turn it into a calendar, keep reading.
In your plan, you should have identified the what and how often. For example, you may have identified in your industry that you should be creating a weekly blog post, and a monthly newsletter. You may have also identified three or more social networks to post to.
Let's take a look at a hair salon company that has choosen to do just that. What would their calendar look like?
As you can see, this is just one week. But consider this...could they use this same week and repeat it over and over again? Almost.
Keep in mind that digital marketing needs not just a strategy, but the ability to adapt. If your strategy is to increase blog engagement, you might find that some blog posts get more interaction than others. Great! Now you'll want to update your content calendar to include more of those types of posts.
Create your calendar a month at a time. If you reuse one week x 4 to create the month, just swap out the subject of the blogs each week and add in a monthly items, like a newsletter.
Beyond one month you can leave blank, but set aside time to create the next months plan as you get closer. You may also want to include holidays or special events. For the company above, the dates of red carpet events and celebrity happenings could be a great way to plan out media by pointing out what's in style with celebrities. Or local events that happen each year, like a Locks of Love or other charity event.
If you're ready to put your digital marketing strategy into a plan, grab the fill-in-the-blank template below.
Click here to download.
