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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!!!). 

featured image Active vs Passive Voice How to Engage Your Audience blog post

Active vs Passive Voice: How to Engage Your Audience

Which sentence sounds better:

  1. I grabbed the mug.
  2. The mug was grabbed by me.

The odds are that you picked option #1. “I grabbed the mug” is written in an active voice, while “The mug was grabbed by me” conveys the same idea but in a passive voice.

You should usually write web copy, blog posts, and other marketing materials in an active voice. This improves clarity and keeps your readers engaged.

Here’s everything you should know about active vs passive voice, including their benefits and when to use them:

Understanding Active Voice

When the subject of a sentence does the action conveyed by the verb, you’re using active voice. In other words, the order of the sentence is subject-verb-object. I (subject) grabbed (verb) the mug (object).

Here are a few other examples:

  • Ashley went to the store. Subject = Ashley. Verb = went. Object = The Store.
  • Carlos threw the baseball. Subject = Carlos. Verb = threw. Object = The baseball.

However, it’s not always quite that simple. For example:

  • Learn how to engage your audience.

The subject of this sentence is you, even though you aren’t in the sentence. The verb is learn, and the object is how to engage your audience. How to engage your audience is technically a complete object, but that’s a grammar lesson for another day.

Understanding Passive Voice

Passive voice occurs when the subject of a sentence receives the action of the verb, hence the term “passive.” The subject isn’t actively doing something; something’s being done to them. Passive voice focuses on a verb-object relationship. Grabbed is still the verb, and the mug is still the object, but I didn’t actively grab it. It was grabbed by me.

Here’s a visual representation to help you understand the difference:

I grabbed the mug.

In this clip, I’m actively grabbing the mug.

The mug was grabbed by me.

active vs passive voice

I’ve already grabbed the mug in this picture, so the action isn’t taking place. You’ve already missed it. I’m telling you that I’ve already grabbed the mug, rather than showing you the action of me grabbing the mug. Sorry!

Here are a few other examples of passive voice:

  • The store was gone to by Ashley.
  • The baseball was thrown by Carlos.

No actions here! Ashley and Carlos already performed them.

To recap, here’s the difference between active vs. passive voice:

  • If the subject is doing something, you’re using an active voice.
  • If something is being done to your subject, that’s passive voice.

Active vs Passive Voice: The Benefits

To enjoy the benefits of both voice types, here’s when you should use them…

Active Voice

  • Engage Readers: Active voice keeps the focus on the action. It shows you what’s happening rather than telling you it’s happened. It feels more immediate and, therefore, more engaging.
  • Clarity: Active voice tends to be more straightforward because it eliminates ambiguity. If I said the mug was picked up, instead of The mug was picked up by me, you wouldn’t know who picked the mug up. It could’ve been you, me, Ashley, Ryan Gosling, Karen from finance — anyone!
  • Directness: Sentences are shorter in active voice, which is great for conveying important information. I grabbed the mug is four words, and you know exactly what I did. The mug was grabbed by me is six words. You still know what I did, but it took you longer to get there. We live in the age of scrolling. Be concise.

Passive Voice

  • Focus on the Object: If you want to focus more on the object of the sentence rather than the subject, you can use passive voice. Is “the mug” more important than “me?” If it’s 8 a.m. and that mug has coffee in it, probably!
  • Formal Writing: If you’re writing technical manuals, scientific reports, or legal documents, passive voice may make more sense. Passive voice conveys information without attributing actions to specific individuals. The mug was grabbed. By whom? Not important!
  • Avoid Responsibility: What if you spilled the coffee, and now there’s none left for anyone in your office? That would suck! You don’t want to get blamed for that. Instead of writing a message stating You spilled the coffee, you could say, The coffee was spilled. Ashley, get more from the store before coming in. K, thanks!

Active vs Passive Voice: Final Thoughts

Usually, you want to use an active voice in your writing, but passive voice has its benefits, too. Want to learn more about the differences between active vs passive voice? Here’s an awesome academic guide.

And if you don’t give a damn about the differences between them and just want to save time, increase visibility, and get your marketing done, check out the content creation package. All of your primary marketing channels are covered with one simple plan. All you’ll have to do is copy and paste!

Content marketing for small business

Content Marketing for Small Businesses: Is It Still Worth It?

Short answer: Yes. 

Content marketing for small businesses is more important than ever before:

  • 54% of businesses will increase their content marketing budgets in 2024
  • Businesses that make blogging a main priority are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI
  • 75% of us use social media when researching brands

As consumers, we’re overwhelmed. There’s content everywhere we go — and most of it sucks! And because it sucks, you have a unique advantage: the chance to infuse your brand with personality, passion, and purpose. 

Let’s dive into what content marketing for small businesses should look like and the benefits you’ll reap when you do it well:

 

Content Marketing for Small Businesses

 

Believe it or not, content marketing isn’t about persuading someone to buy your product or service. It’s about sharing educational, entertaining, and engaging content that exemplifies you as a thought leader and strengthens the relationship between your brand and your audience. When your connections transcend transactions, you’re on the right track.

It’s also easier said than done, and there’s a lot of competition out there, and a lot of it is bigger and louder than you are. 

Luckily, that doesn’t matter nearly as much as you may think…

 

How to Break Through the Noise

 

How do you make your voice heard when everyone is vying for attention? It’s not about being the loudest; it’s about being consistent.

Be consistent in your message, authenticity, and when and how often you post. When creating something, ask yourself: What do I want my audience to get from this, and is it relevant to them? You should also be consistent in your follow-through. 

Being consistent makes you dependable, and being dependable makes you trustworthy. When you establish trust, you don’t have to worry about making your voice heard. Your audience will be listening for it. 

 

Content Marketing Benefits:

 

When you’re consistent in your content marketing, here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy:

 

Forge Authentic Relationships

 

When crafting compelling content, you’re also shaping perceptions, sparking conversations, and (hopefully) forging genuine connections with your audience. Blogs, social media, and newsletters shouldn’t be forms of one-way communication. They exist to open a dialogue with your audience and build relationships with them. 

 

Increased Organic Traffic: 

 

Paid ads can give you a boost, but it comes at a price. No, literally. They cost you money. Also, when they’re gone, they’re gone. Organic traffic won’t give you instant gratification, but it’s free and pays in perpetuity. 

Organic traffic is when people find your website through natural search engine results, like Google. It’s free, and when it ranks high on a search engine query, it signals to users that the information is authoritative and relevant. 

 

Scalability

 

Organic traffic generates a higher volume of quality leads, catalyzing scalability. It’s simple math: When you have more people interested in your products or services, you’ll have a greater opportunity to grow and hire more people and/or free up time by outsourcing tasks you don’t need to do.

 

Is Content Marketing Still Worth It?

 

Long answer: Yes. 

Content marketing gives you a competitive advantage, creates and strengthens relationships, cost-effectively increases your visibility, and helps you scale your business. 

So yeah, I’d say it’s worth it. It’s just difficult and time-consuming.

However, it doesn’t have to be difficult and time-consuming for you. Do you want to save time, increase visibility, and get your marketing done? Check out my content creation package page, or send me a message!

 

content creation 101

Content Creation 101: The 3 E’s Your Content Needs

Content Creation 101 lesson #1: Most content sucks.

Why does it suck? Because it doesn’t provide value to your audience. 

Whether you’re writing a blog, email, web copy, or something on social media, you need to ask yourself if you’re following the three E’s of content creation. Is it…

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Engaging

Not every piece of content will be all three (e.g., the information you find on PubMed will be educational, not entertaining), but you’ll start seeing results if you consistently create with the three Es in mind.

Let’s cover some content creation 101 basics, then explore each E further:

 

Content Creation 101

 

Here are a few general rules when creating content: 

 

 

Set Clear Objectives

 

 

Would you invest $10,000 in a stock because the name sounds pretty? Hopefully not. Before you even begin researching a company, its financial statements, and evaluating risks, you should understand your investment goals. 

Content creation is no different. 

What are your goals for creating content? Do you want to:

  • Boost brand visibility by 50%
  • Increase your organic traffic to your website by 80%
  • Double your current number of monthly leads

Whatever your goal may be, make it a SMART one. 

Don’t say, “I want to increase organic traffic to my website.” 

Say, “I want to increase organic traffic to my website by 80% within the next six months by writing a weekly blog post and posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram three times a week.” That’s a SMART goal. 

Also, start thinking about what you want to learn or do when engaging with your material. Knowing this ahead of time will drive the direction of your content.

 

Know Your Audience

 

How do you get your audience to view your content? Start by knowing who they are. 

  • How familiar are they with your product or service? 
  • What are their interests?
  • What platforms do they use? 

An audience interested in the latest in fashion will be different from those who follow the vast potential applications of gene editing. If your audience consists of CRISPR-loving fashionistas, then that, my friends, is what we call a niche. Now, find out where they are and what content they want to see. 

 

Encourage Feedback

 

Get your audience to participate in your posts. These types of interactions:

  • Help build brand trust
  • Strengthen customer relationships
  • Drive more engagement 

The easiest, most straightforward way to encourage feedback is by asking for it. End your post with a call to action, whether it’s to click a button or answer a question. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s break down the three Es of Content Creation 101:

 

Educational Content

 

How do you get your audience to read and learn something? Make it enjoyable for them! 

Here’s how:

  • Know your audiences’ learning styles. What types of content does your audience engage with most? Do they enjoy graphs and charts? How-to videos? Informative blog posts? When you create content they enjoy absorbing, you’ll leave a lasting impression. 
  • Diversify your content. Customers typically need to see a message 7+ times before taking action. However, that doesn’t mean you should share the same content seven times. Communicate your information by sharing it in multiple formats. Use videos, infographics, charts, quizzes, etc. 
  • Provide relatable context. Don’t be bland. Use real-world examples, pop culture references, and demonstrations to let the knowledge sink in. It works for John Oliver, and it can work for you too!
 

Entertaining Content

 

Don’t bore your audience. Beguile them!

  • Hook your audience. Grab their attention from the get-go. Use humor, suspense, curiosity, or emotion to draw them in and keep them engaged. 
  • Tell stories. We love stories, so tell us one! It can be a personal experience, an anecdote, or a work of fiction. Whatever it is, it better be interesting!
  • Are you interested? If you’re writing something you find boring, your audience will find it boring, too. Even content that’s dry as hell has an interesting angle. If you’re writing about parking lots, hook your audience with an interesting fact like: Did you know that there are eight parking spots for every car in the US?
 

Engaging Content

 

Want your audience to engage with you? Make them want to!

  • Be authentic. Being authentic and relatable helps you build trust with your audience. Don’t just tell them about a product; show them how it works. Share personal experiences and behind-the-scenes content. People love that stuff!
  • Keep it short. As it turns out, Goldfish actually do have good memories — but we still don’t. Keep your posts short and sweet; by short, I mean cut the fluff. Your audience doesn’t have time for it! 
  • Stay current. Keep your content timely, fresh, and relevant. What’s going on in your CRISPR-loving fashionista niche? Talk about it! 
 

Altogether Now!

 

When creating your content strategy, you must set clear objectives by making SMART goals. You also need to know your audience and how you want them to interact with the educational, entertaining, and engaging content you’re producing. If you’re ever unsure whether or not you’re hitting the marks, ask yourself these questions:

  • Educational: Am I communicating what I want my readers to learn?
  • Entertaining: Is this something that my audience will find interesting? Do I?
  • Engaging: Will this content help build trust and encourage my audience to take action?

That’s it! 

So… Is your content educational, entertaining, and engaging? Don’t have time to create it?

Then here’s another way to save time, increase visibility, and get your marketing done: let’s create content together! 

6 Ways to Measure the Success of Your Marketing Campaign

Companies both small and big have access to the world’s most influential marketing tool: the internet. The web helps level the playing field, giving advantages to companies who know how to use it. A small business with a tiny marketing budget, but a successful marketing campaign can outshine its much wealthier competitor.

The average business spends 12-13% of their revenue on marketing. A single marketing campaign can influence millions of people around the world. If done effectively, you can enjoy significant ROI from that campaign.

But how can you measure if your marketing campaign is successful? What qualitative and quantitative data do you need to determine whether the value of money and time you spent on this campaign was worth it?

Here are 6 ways to determine exactly that:

 

Goal Setting for Your Marketing Campaign

 
 

Before launching your successful marketing campaign, create a list of goals for yourself or with your team. How many impressions are you seeking to make, and how many leads would you like to generate? Are you looking for an increase in revenue, and if so, by how much?

Make sure you are setting tangible, attainable goals for yourself. Keep your expectations high, but be realistic. First-time actors aren’t expecting to win an Oscar. They’re just hoping to land a second, more promising gig. Your success measurement should be in terms of you, not Apple, Starbucks, or Walmart.

With a list of tangible goals in mind, it’s time to check out your quantitative data.

 

Keywords and Domain Ranking

You can use Google Analytics or any comparable search engine marketing tool to analyze your site’s traffic to determine where you were before and after the campaign. There are four types of web traffic: organic, social, referral, and direct.

  • Organic – Organic traffic comes from unpaid listing on search engines and directories, like when you type keywords into a search bar, and a link comes up.
  • Social – Social traffic refers to traffic coming from your social media platforms or networks.
  • Referral – Referral traffic is measured by link building, or when someone visits your site after being on a different site.
  • Direct – Direct traffic is most commonly the result of someone physically typing in the URL to your site, or by clicking an untagged link from an email or on a Word or PDF document.

Analyzing the web traffic you had before and after a marketing campaign will show you how influential your campaign was on all four of these different avenues. You can also input your domain and see the total change in traffic. This will further help you measure your success.

 

Analyzing Web Traffic

Google Analytics also allows you to figure out how many new and return visitors you have. Google Analytics also allows you to track your visitors by demographic.

You can track new vs. returning visitors under the audience > behavior tab on Google Analytics. This information won’t be 100% accurate, because the same new user can access your site on their mobile device, laptop, and tablet (and if they clear their cookies, they are considered a new user again). Still, it’s a helpful source to determine if your marketing campaign is influencing new people. Return visitors are people who have already accessed your site and are browsing it again.

New users can you help determine if your social and referral traffic works. Odds are most of your new users are coming from one of those two sources. If you don’t see a significant increase in new user traffic, you will want to rethink your marketing strategy for future campaigns.

You can also find demographics under the audience tab. All these can be important, depending on which demographics your campaign hopes to influence.

 

Links

Links built and inbound links are measured on Moz’s link explorer. The number and quality of links you have will increase your domain authority score. This makes it easier for people to find you organically.

Off-site content strategy can play a significant role in your marketing campaign. According to Forbes, any link you embed in your content will pass authority to your site. Using Moz’s link explorer, you can determine how many links you’ve built and how effective they are.

Inbound links are also relevant. The more times your site is linked as a point of reference, the higher your domain authority will rise. Moz’s link explorer allows you to identify a site’s influence and the inbound links to a page. It also helps you with several other analytics that could be useful in your marketing campaign.

 

Social Media

Social media offers several other ways to analyze the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. You can track the number of new followers you acquired on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. You can also view the levels of engagement on each of your posts.

Social media traffic also allows you to determine how many new email and website subscribers you have after running a campaign. All this information will help you decide whether you ran a successful marketing campaign.

 

Value of Time and Money

The final way to analyze a marketing campaign is to determine how much time and money you spent on it, and whether it was worth it. Keep a spreadsheet that lists all your advertising costs, including labor, to get an estimate of how much you budgeted for this campaign. Also, make sure you kept track of how much time you spent on this endeavor. What other projects or opportunities could you have been exploring instead of working on a marketing campaign?

Upon its conclusion, while you analyze your links, web traffic, social media, keywords, and domain authority, use this spreadsheet and compare it with the results. Compare it against your initial goal and decide whether you ran a successful marketing campaign.

 

The Importance of Marketing Campaigns

Businesses that don’t market themselves get lost in the Google algorithm abyss. Their websites predate the 2016 election, their links are dead, and their only social media link is to their MySpace account. Your campaigns won’t always be as lucrative or rewarding as you want them to be. However, with each attempt, you’ll better understand how to improve and prepare for future campaigns. If your marketing campaign beats out larger, more profitable competitors, you know you’re on the right track.

How do you measure your marketing campaigns, and what has worked for you in the past? Leave a comment below.