Maintaining a Blog Editorial Schedule

Luckily, there are strategies for maintaining an editorial schedule that makes content creation simple.  Consistently providing information that makes your reader’s life easier will help to establish your expertise in your field and will cultivate a greater following.  You want to be a resource that your customers and clients can rely upon.  One of the best ways to do that is to continue to provide them with solution-driven content.

Frequency is one of the first decisions to make when establishing an editorial schedule for your blog.  How often can you deliver meaningful content to your readers?  While it is tempting to post daily and to rapidly accumulate pages of content, it’s worthwhile to fiercely guard the quality of the articles in order to maintain the integrity of your brand.  Your readers would rather hear from you a few times a week with the certainty that you will bring them information that is informative and implementable than be bombarded with daily chatter.

Once you have established a schedule, stick to it.  We are habit-driven creatures.  If readers expect your site to be updated daily, don’t disappoint them.  If there are usually two new posts a week, deliver on that (unspoken) promise.  With the goals of growing and maintaining readership, the last thing you want is to disappoint.

Creating a content strategy schedule can be as simple as making a spreadsheet. Some of the column to include are:

• Date - List the publication date for the article or post.  Consider season and relevance to the reader based on the time of year.  Leave some room for flexibility.  As topics related to your field develop or if there is trending news, it may be wise to reach out to your readers with your take on a hot topic. Become a resource and establish yourself as an industry leader by staying on topic and adding to the conversation.
• Content/Details - Focus on the main idea of the post.  You may want brainstorm your thoughts and a few questions related to the topic.
• Author - If you have multiple contributors, determine who is best suited to work on this topic.  Encourage collaboration by sharing the editorial schedule.  You never know where the best ideas will germinate.
• Working Title - Crafting a compelling title is an important part of creating content.  You might want to consider keywords and search terms when drafting a title.  Always keep titles relevant and brief, but don’t be afraid to be playful with language.
• Resources - As collaborators and authors come across links, studies or research material related to the topics you have chosen, it may be useful for them to have a place to keep track of them.
• Category - As part of your overall content strategy, you will likely have several categories of information that you will be cultivating for your readers.  By noting the category, you can be sure that your blog is staying on task and is serving your mission.
• Call To Action - As with most marketing strategies, your posts and articles will often have a Call To Action.  List the Call To Action and keep it simple and easy to implement.  It can be as simple as asking a reader to click on a video, take a one-question survey or leave a comment.

By organizing an editorial schedule, you will manage your ideas more efficiently. While you may still write your brilliant thoughts on cocktail napkins, when you transfer them to your editorial schedule, they become much easier to manage.  Having a specific place to input ideas,  list resources and to check on timing can mean no more midnight, “What am I going to write about?” panic attacks.