On Words and Business

You’ve probably read about how much I like editorial calendars and how I wouldn’t be able to write posts with out.
If not, check out these links:

• Content Marketing Quick Tips 
• Editorial Calendar
• Integrating Plans: Implementing your content marketing program (part 2)

The great thing about writing an editorial calendar is that it enables me to tie content to specific milestones–reminding myself it’s time for an end-of-the-year roundup or to address a topic covered at a particular conference. And that enables me to plan ahead and prepare content in advance when possible.

In fact, known milestones and events are a great place to start creating the calendar.  I take specific events or important dates and fill in content I know I’ll need for that, then work backwards to fill out the rest of the calendar.

Maybe it’s because I’m a planner, but this stuff is fun for me. I hope you can find a way to make it fun, too.

If you haven’t already done so this calendar year, it is time to review your marketing editorial calendar.

Things to consider:

• Is this topic still relevant?
• Should we go into more or less detail about a particular subject?
• Do the plan and schedule still mesh with our marketing and pr plans, product or service launch schedule, or company or industry milestones?
• Is there something we missed or forgot to include?
• Are there topics we can break into smaller items, or bundle together to create a single piece of content?
• Do we have access to new experts who can introduce fresh ideas?

In the last five months you have learned a lot and there are ideas on your radar screen that you didn’t even imagine when you first wrote the calendar.

This review and/or reworking doesn’t have to be an in-depth process, like when you originally created the document. You can probably just take a quick look and identify areas that need attention. Only if your company or industry have changed considerably in the past few months will you need to consider recreating the calendar significantly.