Or set it as a page that automatically opens up when you open your browser. You can connect it to another calendar that you do use often (see Step #7). At minimum, use the reminder email feature. In order for this calendar to work, you have to keep it in front of you on a daily basis. Step #6: Keep this calendar in front of you. In my opinion, it's much easier to settle on topics in advance! That way, you don't have to do the work of choosing your topic the same day you decide to write it. To get a clear picture of your overall content marketing schedule, you can go back in and add blog post topics to each day. Then go back through your "Publish Dates" calendar and add your topics in. Step #5: Brainstorm a list of topics to blog about. Because, if you check the appropriate people, the author of your post will get an email the morning of the day that their blog post draft is due (reminding them to write it!). on the day of the event? That's where these really come in handy. Remember those reminders that send at 7 a.m. At Nectafy, we have longer turnaround times for approval based on the author and the situation, so here's what our "Draft Due Dates" calendar looks like. The two-calendar model not only allows you to have a clear snapshot of publish dates, but also gives you an extra "task list" of draft due dates. Then add those dates to your "Draft Due Dates" calendar.įor many businesses, there's an approval process for posting, so articles must be written in advance. Step #4: Decide how many days in advance blog posts need to be completed and approved by. Notice that there's a little checkbox that says, "Send other people an email now and a reminder at 7am the day of the event." I love these little reminders! So, I always check the appropriate author/poster to ensure they get notified about that day's post both now and on that day.Īfter you start adding your events, your "Publish Dates" calendar will start looking something like this. You simply click on the appropriate day, and this pop-up box will appear. It's so easy to add an event to your calendar. This makes it really easy to see whose article will be going up on what day. We have separate authors writing each post, so when I create our calendar, I always include the name of the author in the title of the event. Step #3: Decide which dates you'd like to publish your content and start adding events to the "Publish Dates" calendar.Īt Nectafy, our most recent goal is to publish articles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week. (Blue and orange are always our choices at Nectafy.) Also, remember to invite your co-workers to join each calendar-especially those that are participating in your content marketing. Name one "Draft Due Dates" and the other "Publish Dates." Make sure to choose a different color for each calendar for ease of viewing. To add the calendar, you'll go to the "Calendar" section. Having two separate calendars will allow you to toggle back and forth between draft due dates and publish dates when it's convenient for you to see one or the other. We're going to start by adding two calendars-one for blog post publish dates and one for draft due dates.ĭepending on your company size and approval processes for blog posts, you may want only one editorial calendar (with publish dates only), but I prefer having two. Step #1: Get a Basecamp account (if you don't already have one).īasecamp has a 30-day free trial, which means you can test it out right now! After the trial period, there's a flat rate of $99 per month. (It's pretty much a project manager's dream come true.) While it has a vast array of tools that are handy for your business, we'll just focus on the calendar today. I've been using Basecamp for about four years now, and I must say, I'm a pretty big fan. In case you haven't heard of it, Basecamp is an online project management and collaboration tool for businesses. So here's a simple way to create an editorial calendar using one of my favorite tools-Basecamp. Having this simple calendar in place will revolutionize the way you look at blogging for your business-it instantly makes it a priority, plus it makes it more fun! (Mainly because you're not scrambling at the last minute to figure out what you're going to do.) The solution? Creating an editorial calendar. Then, before you know it, it's been a month or two since you last published any new content! And that's not good. In order for your content marketing to be effective, publishing new articles on a consistent basis is key. If you've ever decided that you'll just blog "when you have time," you know that the time never really seems to come.
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