How to Create an Agile Content Marketing Calendar [With Templates]
Remember, agility is all about being responsive to changes and constantly iterating on your content approach based on feedback and market dynamics. By incorporating these strategies, you can maintain an agile content calendar that meets the evolving needs of your audience and industry.
How to Create a Content Plan
The author produces a lot of content and has a system in place to do so.
It’s important to be clear about your target audience (who) and content pillars (what).
One should have one main platform and one secondary platform for content creation.
Topics should fit into the content pillars, pick up trends, refer back to questions asked or competitors’ questions, and understand what the audience needs.
Content should work for you by growing email lists or revenue.
About 1 in every 4 pieces of content should grow email lists or revenue; exceptions apply if multiple pieces are created per week.
If you launch anything, plan how the content will lead to it.
Plan the main content first before going through the themes/content pillars.
Use a calendar to plan when each piece of content will be released based on platforms and launch dates/goals.
By following this system, others can copy what the author does for their own successful content planning strategy.
Agile Content Marketing Calendar 2023
Download the Abul Agile Content Marketing Calendar to manage content marketing activities.
The calendar can be easily customized in Microsoft Excel.
It helps attract different formats of repurposed content for continued marketing efforts.
Provides a more agile approach to understanding how content is shared.
Helps track and identify content marketing ideas and their implementation.
Monitors how your content is repurposed with stress-free transparency.
Allows easy monitoring of where your content is being placed as you track your ideas on the calendar landscape.
Improves tracking and identification of new content marketing ideas
Facilitates better implementation of these ideas
10.Provides greater visibility into how your existing content is being used across different channels
How Do I Create a Content Marketing Calendar?
The video is about creating a well-rounded content calendar for online brands or small businesses.
Content marketing is important to reach new audiences and grow an audience that feels connected to you.
Content helps grow your email list, which is critical for any business or brand.
Direct sales can be generated through content by taking the audience on a journey to know and trust you.
Content shows up and serves your audience well, helping you build a brand with impact.
Different types of content include email lists, blogs, podcasts, social media (Instagram, Facebook), search-driven social media (YouTube, Pinterest).
Start with two types of content that fit where your ideal audience is and one that you own (email list or blog).
Plan the content by starting with a basic long form piece that can be repurposed into other forms of content.
Mix different content pillars, such as educational and personal topics specific to your ideal client, when coming up with ideas for the long form piece.
Repurpose the longform piece into other forms of content such as Instagram captions or reels, blog posts, emails, etc., making it easier to create consistent quality content across multiple platforms over time.
How I Plan My Content Calendar
Stephanie Gilbert is the founder of Social Media CEO and creator of Social Media Manager Market.
She helps service providers start, systemize, and scale a profitable social media management business.
It uses a content calendar on Airtable to plan multi-channel content for 90-day periods.
The calendar includes important sales, promotions, holidays, product launches, evergreen content, email list builders, affiliate collaborations, and other information that needs to be shared during that specific time period.
Non-promotional content ideas are added to supplement or amplify promotional and sales content based on KPIs such as brand awareness traffic engagement, etc.
Content ideas are called Airtable Records, which can include additional notes and attachments with drop-down selection for channels where it will live color coded by channel type.
Unscheduled records are dragged into the calendar view where they make sense in relation to what’s currently being promoted to ensure each channel is represented according to social media strategy.
A kanban view is used for collaboration with a copywriter and social media manager that looks similar to Trello but is more visual than a master list or calendar view.
Once approved, everything is scheduled using the Later app.
10.Stephanie Gilbert shares her approach to multi-channel content planning using Airtable as a project management software.
How Do I Create a Content Calendar Plan with Template?
The video is sponsored by Squarespace to create a professional online presence.
The video discusses how to manage a content calendar as a professional blogger.
A content calendar is a schedule of what content will be published on the blog.
Managing multiple channels requires planning in advance to tie all content together.
Being organized helps capture every idea and make it happen, increasing creativity.
Trello is used as a content calendar planning tool based on Kanban system columns.
Each card represents a piece of content with checklists, labels, due dates, attachments, etc.
Social media posts are planned using templates and graphics designed in advance.
Weekly vlog tasks are set aside to plan upcoming newsletters, videos and photoshoots
10.Maintenance tasks include answering emails, updating media kits and checking statistics
How to Build a Content Calendar for Startup Business
Alex Burkett is the co-founder of Omniscient Digital Content and SEO Agency and host of this office hour series.
The workshop is about creating an efficient customer-focused content calendar that actually works for your startup that you actually use.
Participants are asked to state their name, where they are based, tell about the weather where they are based, and answer an icebreaker question: What is one skill that everyone should have?
The workshop will be recorded and shared with slides; it will be interactive with Q&A sessions throughout.
Arielle Kimberovsky is Head of Marketing at Balsamic, a low-fidelity wireframing tool with a strong foundation in concept marketing.
Before building a content calendar, participants need to do prep work such as setting goals, researching audience pain points/behaviors/opinions/needs online behaviors, etc., choosing core topics/categories/channels/tools/content ideas pieces/measuring performance against goals
Goals can support business growth by educating people about mental wellness or by generating qualified leads in the pipeline to build trust/credibility/boost engagement without overwhelming audiences.
Strategy connects goals to business growth by deciding on channels/frequency/performance metrics/tools/content ideas pieces/lists before building calendars
Some participants feel shaky about measuring performance/metrics while others feel that nothing has been done yet on audience research/pain points/etc.
Knowing why you’re posting when you’re posting helps avoid the stress of overloading content calendars.
What Is Agile Content Management System?
The speaker is tired of hearing that “content is king.”
The speaker will start making series-focused videos.
The speaker will discuss Altimeter Group’s report on building an agile content system.
An agile content system means producing the right kind of content at the right time, for the right person and channel.
Producing relevant content based on customer data is a challenge for 23% of Altimeter Group executives surveyed.
Audience intelligence platforms like Audience and Affinio can help understand audience affinities and characteristics.
Hiring the right people and skills is challenging for 16% of business leaders surveyed by Altimeter Group.
Analysts, copywriters, creatives, designers, paid media people, and community managers are needed to build an agile content system or engine.
Purchasing or integrating software such as Google Analytics, Brandwatch, Rival IQ or Sprout Social can help with analytics measurement to promote effective content supply chain workflow management.
- The video concludes with viewers’ feedback and conversation around this topic while inviting them back next week for more discussion on Altimeter’s report on digital content in 2021.
How to Make an Instagram Content Calendar?
Consistency in posting on Instagram is essential for growth.
A content calendar helps bridge the gap between inconsistency and confidence in posting.
Content strategy involves determining the format and subject matter of posts that will connect with your ideal audience.
A sustainable Instagram strategy considers what you love to make, what performs well for your audience, and what you have time to make.
The content calendar is a practical application of the content strategy, turning it into a daily checklist for post creation.
Assigning ideas generated through niche and content pillar brainstorming to specific dates on the calendar helps with consistency in posting.
Planning a content calendar is important for staying consistent on Instagram and boosting growth over time.
Coming up with fresh and unique ideas can be challenging, but there are methods like repurposing, research, brainstorming, and viral trends that can help generate new ideas.
Confidence as an Instagram creator is also crucial to growth.
The Instagram Roadmap course provides guidance on creating a sustainable strategy, planning a content calendar, generating fresh ideas & increasing confidence as an IG creator.
Can You Plan Your Instagram Feed on Canva?
Canva can be used to plan Instagram feeds instead of planning apps like Planoly, Unum Later or Preview.
Modern Millie is a social media influencer who posts videos every Wednesday on the latest social media strategies and trends to help grow your brand.
She uses Canva to plan her Instagram feed because she finds it easier than using her phone, and since her feed uses more graphics, it makes sense for her to stay on her laptop.
She created a template called “My Planning Feed Template” in Canva where she uploads photos and arranges them according to how she wants them displayed in her feed.
With other planning apps, you can’t plan out reels very well, but with Canva, you can have a reels cover image so that when you plug it into the feed, you can see how it will look cropped.
Millie also uses Trello to plan her content calendar by plugging in captions and photos for every day of the week from Monday to Friday.
The reason Millie prefers Canva over other planning apps is that they require payment or upgrade for certain features such as scheduling carousel posts or auto-posting unless you have a business account connected to Facebook creator studio that allows auto-scheduling of photo and carousel posts only but not video content like Reels yet.
Dollar 80 is an app designed to increase engagement by leaving meaningful comments on nine posts for ten different hashtags while making organized comments rather than manual work done via mobile phones alone.
To use the $ 80 app, use the affiliate link provided in the description box below with code 2021 Growth.
Millie encourages viewers to subscribe and turn on ringtones so they don’t miss any future videos.
To keep your content calendar agile, here are some strategies you can implement:
Set flexible goals: Instead of planning every detail far in advance, set general goals and themes for your content. This allows you to adapt and adapt to current trends, events, or changes in your audience’s needs.
Use a rolling planning approach: Instead of planning your entire content calendar for a year, consider using a rolling planning approach where you plan for a shorter period of time, such as a month or a quarter. This allows you to incorporate feedback and make necessary changes more frequently.
Perform regular content audits: periodically review your existing content to assess its performance and relevance. Identify any gaps or areas for improvement, and adjust your content calendar accordingly to address these needs.
Stay up-to-date on industry trends and news: Keep a close eye on industry trends, news, and developments. This helps you identify timely topics to include in your content calendar and ensures that your content remains relevant and valuable to your audience.
Have a backlog of ideas: Maintain a backlog of content ideas that you can draw from when needed. This helps you quickly adapt and fill any gaps in your content calendar. Whenever you come across a new idea or inspiration, add it to your backlog for future use.
Embrace flexibility in scheduling: Avoid being overly rigid with your content schedule. While it’s good to have a plan, allow room for flexibility and spontaneity. If an unexpected opportunity or event arises, be open to adjusting your content calendar to take advantage of it.
Involve your team: Collaborate with your team members or stakeholders to gather input and ideas for the content calendar. This ensures diverse perspectives and helps generate fresh ideas. In addition, involving others can distribute the workload and make the calendar more adaptable to changes.
Monitor and analyze performance metrics: Continuously track and analyze key performance metrics for your content, such as engagement, conversions, and audience feedback. This data provides insights into what’s working and what’s not, enabling you to make informed decisions and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
