 include more than just dates and timelines. They include information that helps you and your team create effective content for wherever you are on the internet in this sort of streamlined way. We recently did a video on the importance of having a content calendar for your brand, but today we're gonna be doing a bit of a deep dive into how to structure one that helps you consistently achieve your goals. So Emma, let's go ahead and jump on in what to include in your editorial calendar. Yes, a great question. What to include? Well, how you structure your calendar is going to depend on the type of content and how often you're creating. So it's really up to you if you want one just like mega calendar, right? For your blog posts, TikToks, tweets, et cetera. Or if you wanna be able to build them out individually, so you'd have like separate calendars. So for example, if you're using Google Sheets, you can have an overview of all the content and then create tabs to focus on the different platforms that you are posting to. However, here are some of the must haves when optimizing an effective content calendar. And now when I think of must haves, target keywords is key to your content strategy. Keyword research is the foundation of content marketing because keeping your content relevant and on topic for your target audience just makes it easy for them to see and engage with everything you're doing. Also by identifying niche content, it creates opportunities for your brands to join the conversation or just simply celebrate what you and your customers care most about. Research and assign the target keywords that the content will be optimized for. And then try to use a unique target keyword for each post, but also keep a running list of that cornerstone keyword content that your brand can rely on. And lastly, you can also assign three or four secondary relevant keywords and use them in your content really depending on what you're posting to support the SEO of your post. Which that brings us to goals. You gotta have goals. You don't wanna just be posting for the sake of posting. You wanna be intentional about each post that you're taking the time to put out there and then assign a goal to each piece. And the whole point of having a content calendar is to give yourself time to plan ahead. You guys have a calendar for literally every aspect of my life. It also gives you time to create meaningful content that gives your audience value. And now is it to promote a product or service that you offer? Or are you really cross-promoting on another platform such as those people doing Instagram stories, wanting to check out their latest YouTube video? Try developing a few main goals that you wanna achieve with your content. And by having an intention, they really help you focus the direction of posts to lead to the desired result and limit last-minute panic posting because you forgot to publish on Facebook all week. All right, you've determined your goals. Next up, consider what assets are needed. This will depend on the type of content you're producing, but things like photos or videos, links to specific stats or quotes that you wanna use in the content, as well as any, ooh, my favorite customer success stories, those reel me in every time. Include those if you can. But it can be hard to keep track of all the important details that go into your creative process. So listing all the elements you'll need in order to complete the post, it's gonna help you to keep track of all the moving parts. Now, obviously it's a calendar. You're gonna need some dates, but in addition to knowing when you wanna post to go live, setting deadlines for when you need to have the images edited, captions written or videos edited will help keep things running smoothly, especially if you're working with others. You can also set dates to go back and audit old content too. So broken links and outdated information are never a good look. Schedule time to review previous content in order to keep the future content fresh. Now, if you're just starting out, you may wanna plan about a month out, a month ahead. And then when you get the swing of things, you could probably shift to planning out a whole quarter. Now, the farther you plan ahead, the better your view of your overall content strategy. Plus, it helps you prevent repeating the same type of content too often, which that drives me nuts. On the flip side though, planning really far in advance also takes a lot of work, right? And if your content needs to change with current events, which I recommend you do, it's better to be flexible rather than set in stone. And now, if you've been creating content for long enough, you've likely experienced the benefit of a content calendar, but optimizing your process can only boost your efforts. The actual scheduling of the content is easy part, once you get your format established. But the best part, nothing is set in stone. Yes, the whole point is to set a schedule, but you can adjust your publishing flow and content ideation as necessary. A strategic approach to content can make a world of difference for delivering the absolute best content for growing your audience. All right, that's a wrap, but your journey doesn't have to end here. We have over 200 videos for you to watch. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe. Thanks for watching. This is The Journey.