Establishing an Editorial Calendar: A Comprehensive Walkthrough
In the world of content marketing, having a well-organised and efficient editorial calendar is crucial for success. Hubstaff, a leading company in the field, has perfected this art, and we're going to take a look at how they do it.
Defining Content Goals and Target Audience
The first step in creating an effective editorial calendar is to define your content goals and target audience. This ensures that your calendar reflects your overall strategy, not just tasks.
Auditing Existing Content
Next, inventory what you already have by listing all content categories and sections. This helps in understanding gaps and priorities.
Setting Clear Goals and KPIs
Align calendar activities with measurable outcomes such as organic traffic growth or engagement metrics to guide content creation and evaluation.
Planning Themes and Important Dates
Identify major themes, seasonal events, and industry-specific dates to coordinate timely content delivery.
Establishing Workflow and Roles
Define who creates, reviews, approves, and publishes content. Implement an approval process to maintain quality and brand consistency.
Choosing a Functional Tool or Format
Select a calendar tool that suits your team’s needs and ease of use. Tools like Trello, Google Sheets, Asana, Notion, CoSchedule, Hootsuite, and RecurPost offer various features to cater to different needs.
Building Reusable Templates and Categorizing Content Slots
Group slots by content type to generate ideas and ensure a balanced content mix.
Integrating Media and Automating Tasks
Connect your media library to streamline content assets management and set up automations to schedule posts.
Monitoring Performance and Optimizing
Use analytics dashboards to track engagement and adjust the calendar accordingly for better audience resonance.
Recommended Tools for Editorial Calendars:
- Trello: Visual boards, reusable templates, team collaboration (Good for flexible workflow)
- Google Sheets: Custom spreadsheets, easy sharing (Simple and accessible)
- Asana: Task assignment, workflow tracking (Great for process management)
- Notion: Highly customizable, integrated docs and calendars (Ideal for all-in-one setup)
- Hootsuite: Social media scheduling, analytics (Strong for social content)
- RecurPost: Evergreen content recycling, media library integration (Automates social posting)
Additional Tips:
- Tag evergreen content for automatic recycling to keep your calendar full without constant manual input.
- Implement social listening alerts to capture trends and add relevant timely content.
- Consider AI-driven scheduling tools to optimize posting times based on audience activity.
With these steps in place, you can create a functional, efficient editorial calendar that supports consistent, audience-focused content marketing success.
At Hubstaff, each post equals one card in the content calendar to maintain organisation. The writer creates an outline of the blog post, which is then reviewed for feedback. The post is set up in WordPress when both visuals and any content upgrades are prepared. The editorial process consists of 10 steps, from ideation to publication, with the amplification team taking over once the post goes live.
However, there is no integration between Trello and WordPress, leading to wasted time on scheduling and syncing across both platforms. Despite this, Trello is used to manage Hubstaff's content calendar, providing all necessary features for content production. In Trello's Editorial Calendar Board, all content creation-related tasks are kept in distinct lists, such as Directions/Strategy, Pending, Blog post ideas, Being written, Editing and graphics, Ready for review, Scheduled, and Published and Ready for Distribution.
Competitive research is conducted to stay abreast of what people are interested in. Customer feedback is a key source of content ideas, with SEO strategy another source of inspiration, focusing on examining successful content and getting new ideas from it.
Finally, the blog designer prepares the header image and any other visual materials for the post. The post is scheduled and published according to the plan and schedule. Every Monday, the stats from the previous week are reviewed to check on the ROI. The first draft of the post is reviewed and given feedback on.
By following these steps and using the right tools, you can streamline your content marketing efforts and achieve success.
- Hubstaff's blog posts are organized in the content calendar as individual cards, with each post going through a 10-step editorial process, from ideation to publication.
- Despite a lack of integration between Trello and WordPress, Trello is still used at Hubstaff to manage the content calendar, offering features suitable for content production.
- In Trello's Editorial Calendar Board, all content creation-related tasks are categorized into distinct lists, including Directions/Strategy, Pending, Blog post ideas, Being written, Editing and graphics, Ready for review, Scheduled, Published, and Ready for Distribution.
- The blog designer at Hubstaff prepares header images and other visual materials for each post, ensuring a polished look that aligns with the brand.
- In addition to customer feedback, the SEO strategy at Hubstaff is another valuable source of content ideas, focusing on analyzing successful content and generating new ideas from it, while also staying informed about current trends through social listening.
