how to build your content calendar in  5 steps

Make Sure You Have an Overall Marketing Plan

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1

Creating good content takes precious time, so make sure your efforts are aligned with your overall goals.  A marketing plan will help you determine your marketing goals and what efforts you can realistically put into meeting them.

Outline Your Buyer’s Journey

2

Outline every stage that your buyer goes through on their journey.  This may look different depending on your business, but your stages will generally look something like this:

– Realizing there’s a problem – Researching solutions – Deciding on a solution – Experiencing the solution – Upkeep or follow-up care – Repurchasing service and/or        recommending to friends

Outline Your Promotions, Holidays and Seasons

3

Fill in (Most of)  the Blanks

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4

Now that you have your promotional and seasonal content planned out, it’s time to fill in most of the blanks. (In step five, we’ll go over why it’s good to leave a few blanks on your content calendar.)

Leave Space for Reactive Marketing

5

Ultimately, your content calendar is simply a guide, not a rule book. You don’t have to follow it to a T. Throughout the year, customers might ask unexpected questions. Something big might happen in your industry — or your own business. Leave space in your calendar for the surprises. Move things around when you need to.