Putting your excitement aside for a moment, are you sure you’re ready to talk about word counts and deadlines? This blog will address three common mistakes to avoid before etching your editorial calendar in stone.
The 3 Mistakes
Not looking at the big picture
Underestimating production timelines
Lack of alignment with existing resources
Mistake #1: Not Looking at the Big Picture
Just because you’ve been hired for the sole purpose of producing an editorial pipeline of great content, doesn’t mean you should do so without considering how your written words will contribute to the bottom line. Sure, every targeted effort to communicate with existing and future customers has the potential to generate income, but you need to think about how your future content will add business value.
Every concerted effort to reach someone is an opportunity to engage in a meaningful — and quantifiable — way. For example, let’s say you are the new managing editor of your company’s educational blog. Even blog posts can provide you with opportunities to obtain more information on your target audience, by, for example, asking readers to fill out a form before accessing your content or answering a quick, three-question survey once they've been on your site for a couple of minutes.
You can also use blog pages as opportunities to showcase the products and services your company offers through the careful placement of ads or links directing readers to different areas of your website where relevant information resides.
Mistake #2: Underestimating Production Timelines
If you are a new editor or have not been solely responsible for the success of a companywide editorial calendar, you may underestimate the amount of work that goes into publishing great content. For instance:
Have you allotted the right amount of time between issues for planning, writing, editing and publishing based on your desired frequency?
If working with writers, whether in-house or freelance, have you asked them how much time they need to realistically turn around a written assignment? While your timeline may indicate an eight-hour turnaround, you may need 24 hours depending on your writers’ time zone (if they are not local) or the length of the assignment (i.e., a simple blog post vs. a 2,500-word article featuring interviews with subject-matter experts).
Have you thought about additional steps that might require extra blocks of time, such as fact checking, proofreading, scrubbing email lists, setting up distribution emails, posting social media content, and gathering and analyzing performance data?
Have you added extra time to the editorial calendar for contingencies, such as planned vacations, holidays and other events that might impact the production schedule?
These are questions you need to consider when creating the editorial calendar, especially if you are a new content manager.
Mistake #3: Lack of Alignment With Existing Resources
Finally, you may have forgotten to align your content’s frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), type (blogs, videos, e-books, feature articles, etc.), promotional efforts (SEM and social media campaigns, retargeting ads, etc.) and other costs with your designated budget. For every great piece of content that is published, there are a lot of hidden costs that must be considered. For instance:
If working with freelance writers, does the agreed-to fee cover one or more rounds of revisions? A professionally written blog post may not be ready for publication the moment you receive it. You will probably need to request one or more revisions, which must be factored in before finalizing a contract or obtaining an estimate of work.
Does your budget account for any ongoing expenses, such as monthly fees from your social media scheduling service, cloud-based content calendar tool and external proofreader? While some of these costs could be minimal, you may be surprised how quickly they add up if you didn’t consider them upfront.
Who is hosting the blog site? Is it a separate site? Although your blog's hosting service might be paid once per year, it should always be part of your budget.
While we are on the subject of websites, did you set money aside for cosmetic changes that are not part of the yearly contract with your webmaster?
Have you allocated money for the creation of infographics, e-books and videos, if you don’t have the internal staff, skill set or time to do so?
Do you have the right ratio of writers to editors based on your publication frequency? If not, what are your options? Do you need to scale back on your content efforts, or does your budget allow for the hiring of additional staff, permanent or otherwise?
As you can see, there are many factors that need to be carefully considered before creating a content calendar, especially when you have a set amount of resources.
Bottom Line
There is nothing more rewarding than finally creating the editorial calendar. However, it is vital to consider and outline all the different factors that could significantly impact the success of your editorial efforts and plan for them accordingly.
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