5 Essential Elements of an Effective Editorial Calendar

May 16, 2016

Lindsey Imperatore

Could you benefit from adding an editorial calendar to your real estate content marketing strategy? The answer is most likely - yes. Designed to keep your Content Marketing plan organized, an editorial calendar is the perfect way to keep your content flowing consistently to your audience.
Whether you already have an editorial calendar in place or need some tips on how to start one, putting these 5 essential elements into play can be the key to your success.
Download our free editorial calendar template to get started.

#1: Content Types

The first essential element of your editorial calendar should be the types of content you will create on a weekly or monthly basis. This includes content pieces like blog posts, press releases, social media postings, whitepapers, guest blogs, eBooks and more. This is essential for ensuring that you’re varying your content production.

In our free editorial calendar template, you’ll find a drop-down menu that allows you to choose from these content types - or you can add your own. Maybe you create videos too?

#2: Dates

The second essential element of your editorial calendar should be dates! Not just the days of the week that you’re scheduling your content, but also major milestones and events that you’ll want to custom-tailor content for. Maybe you’ll create a press release on your company’s 5-year anniversary or a blog post about an upcoming local event? Your editorial calendar should remind you these events are around the corner.

Days of the week and numerical dates are already included in our free editorial calendar template, with plenty of room for adding special don’t-miss dates, as well.

#3: Goals

The next essential element? Add your goals for the content piece to your calendar so you can stay focused and measure results. Perhaps you want to drive traffic to a specific landing page to capture email signups. Maybe you are focused on lead conversion or want to nurture not-ready leads.
By adding your goals within the editorial calendar, you’re making yourself accountable and allowing yourself to stay focused on the reason you’ve created the piece. It will also allow you to review your content pieces and their accompanying goals down the road - to see if your content is performing the way you’d like.

#4: Distribution Channels

What good is your content if it’s not reaching your target audience? We’ve written about this before: 4 Places You Must Share Your Real Estate Content for Maximum Exposure.  

Adding distribution channels - such as your blog, social media, The News Funnel, guest blogs and others - will help you organize the content flow across a variety of platforms to ensure you’re reaching your audience. We’ve created a dropdown menu in the free editorial content calendar that allows you to choose your distribution channel - or you can add your own custom selections.

#5: Content

The last and most important piece of your editorial calendar? Your content! As you brainstorm and develop new ideas, add them to your calendar. What type of content will it be? What are the goals? When will you publish? How will you distribute?

Schedule time to work on your editorial calendar the same way you schedule other business initiatives. When you make time to be creative and stay organized, your content strategy will thank you.