Developing a content calendar is an effective way to plan how your business communicates with customers. A winning content calendar is one that leads to more views, likes, shares, sales, and revenue!
Your Ideal Customers
First, think about who you are targeting–your ideal customers. When you know who you are trying to attract, then you can think about what they want to see. Why do people choose you over your competition? Reasons include your unique products and services as well as your company’s reputation.
Monthly Content Calendar
I recommend developing a content calendar for every month of the year. Think about the main messages and topics you want to communicate to potential customers. It is important to stay consistent for branding purposes. Be clear on what you’re about.
Show Consistent Themes
While sharing a variety of content is excellent, you want to convey around 10 consistent themes (this is just a suggested number). This is what you want to be known for.
This allows potential customers to get to know you and your business. As you attract followers, you can engage with them in a variety of ways including asking them questions.
Once you’ve identified your “Big 10” then you can plan your calendar. This will depend upon your company and what you want to emphasize about your business. Consider focusing on any of the following topics:
- Community participation: in local events, support of worthy organizations
- Customers: customer loyalty, your promotions, and rave reviews
- Holidays/special days: major holidays, seasons, and fun holidays
- Press: share your press coverage and latest industry news
- Products/services: share what people love about what you offer
- Promotions: your contests, discounts, partners, etc.
- Quotes: your own, funny, motivational, or thoughtful
- Tips/Trivia: industry tips, did you know? …
- Uniqueness: show what makes your business awesome
- Values: how you apply your core values as a company
Variety Is the Key
It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being social. It’s a good idea to space your posts out so that there is a variety. Think about the pictures, videos, and books you may want to share with your audience. By planning, you will save time and be more consistent. For 30 posts in 10 categories, you need 3 posts in each category.
Be sure to store your images all together. Give specific details that describe the image. For example, “Customer Smiling New Years Day.” In addition to any professional photography you have, you can create your own images. Be sure to use good lighting.
Blog Posts
At a minimum, you should be blogging at least once or twice a month. Each blog post is another way for someone to come to your website. Depending upon what they type in search engines, you can become known for your information about what you offer. Be sure to tell people about your business in part of each post. Tie it into the blog post topic.
E-Newsletter Updates
Consider sending an e-newsletter on a monthly basis (or every other week). The key to doing that is to (with their permission) enter the email addresses of your customers as they make purchases from you. In addition, you can ask them to opt into your e-newsletters on the home page of your website. That way you can develop the connection you have with previous customers as well as prospective ones.
