If you’ve been in the marketing game a short while, you know the importance of an editorial calendar.  It’s likely the core of your content strategy.

Earlier this year, we gave you some quick tips to get your editorial calendar up and running. Now it’s time to take it to the next level with a few more ideas to keep your marketing strategy organized and effective:

  1. Use status updates. Keep your team informed as a piece of content moves along the production process. Use status updates like edited, out for review and published. Not only will everyone stay informed, it will also help you schedule and keep track of what content you’ve used, and what is still waiting in the queue.
  2. Assign content every step of the way. Team communication is crucial to a good content strategy. Your editorial calendar should be clear about who is writing each piece of content, who is in charge of editing and who needs to review. It may also be helpful to include who will be in charge of publishing or distributing the content when it is finished.
  3. Develop categories. Determine the topics your channel will cover and use these to categorize your content. What are you hoping to teach your audience? What areas of expertise will you focus on? How does each topic align with your strategic goals? Each piece of content you add to your editorial calendar should fall into one of your pre-set categories. This will help you prioritize content, and prevent you from over-saturating one area or another.
  4. Consider multiple calendars. It’s important to have one master calendar that includes all of your content, but you may want to think about keeping separate calendars for each channel or project. This can help you stay on top of content-heavy channels like a blog or Twitter, and keep projects organized and on track. You can tie them all together in one database program or store them all in a similar app, like Google Drive.
  5. Keep future content in mind. Is there an annual event or conference you always cover? Do you know about a future announcement you will want to feature on your website? Put it in your editorial calendar. It’s OK if you don’t know all the details yet, or the exact date it will run. For example, you may want to write a press release for an important fundraising event, or have an infographic ready for American Heart Month. If it is on your team’s radar, it will be easier to prepare quality, timely content.

Do you have tips for a useful, organized editorial calendar? Share your ideas with us!