Benjamin Franklin supposedly once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” His advice is especially true in the field of marketing, where the development of activities and publication of content can make or break any institution. Organising marketing ideas into a consistent and thorough course of action is an essential skill for marketers to succeed in any industry.
One of the most indispensable tools in organising your marketing efforts for your school is the editorial calendar. An editorial calendar serves as your reference guide for both completed projects and works in progress. By creating an editorial calendar and adhering to your schedule, you and your team can become more efficient in developing high-quality and relevant content.
Here are some of the benefits of keeping an editorial calendar for your school:
- Become more organised with your ideas
An editorial calendar allows you to become more organised in publishing posts. You can group similar entries and create proper spacing for releases to create more impact for your school community. You’ll no longer have to get confused with when, where, and how your content should be published. - See the bigger picture
Once you have properly compiled and organised your content in an editorial calendar, you may be able to see overarching themes in your material and generate several campaigns. Additionally, you can create a list of goals out of your campaigns so that you can properly track your progress. As you see the bigger picture, you are able to address the different aspects of your school and explain them to prospective parents and students in a more organised way. - Become more efficient on research
By setting up an editorial calendar, you can wisely allocate your time between research and writing. With proper coordination, you can spend more time looking for more data so you can come up with high-quality content. Also, you can be more efficient by using the same reference materials for different published content. - Post more consistently
With an editorial calendar, you’ll be able to stick to a schedule and develop a steady stream of material for your school website and social media. By becoming more consistent in your publishing dates, parents and students can regularly keep track of your updates and look forward to your next batch of releases. - Coordinate your entire team
With an editorial calendar, you can make all essential information available to your team. Your team can now access the important details related to your content and everyone will be properly coordinated. You can use the calendar to assign different tasks to your team according to their availability and level of expertise. If they are done with their assigned tasks, you can assign them to handle social media activities and generate marketing ideas. - Improve the quality of your releases
Aside from plotting release dates, you can also schedule routine checks on the quality of your existing content. By conducting regular web analytics, you can see which of your materials are well-received by your audience and adjust your content and writing style accordingly. You can use platforms like Google Analytics to help you track your progress. - Make your content more relevant with the season
Timing is everything. Whether it’s about writing or recycling material about the holidays, or skipping particular dates that have low readership traffic, you can use the editorial calendar to maximise content value. You can develop content that will resonate more with parents and students at the right time.
Having an editorial calendar will make you more effective in creating better content for your school’s marketing. It may take some time for you to effectively create and follow your own editorial calendar, but if you’re patient enough, you’ll be able to reap its benefits.
