Most small business owners I know start the year by defining what they want …
Most of them want to make more money. You probably do, too.
So you reverse-engineer what it will take to make more money. You ask yourself:
• How many more sales do I need per month?
• How many more clients or customers do I need to generate those sales?
• How many more prospects or leads do I need to get those clients or customers?
You may ask many more questions besides, but these are the common core.
Now, there are lots of ways to get more prospects or leads for your business, but one of the best is to offer some sort of free gift in exchange for someone giving you permission to add them to your email list.
Building an email list is smart because you can close a sale immediately if your prospect is ready to buy right now, but you can also follow up and build the relationship if they’re not quite ready to say yes … yet.
So you know you should be growing your email list, but actively growing an email list takes some organized effort and planning. You’re going to need lead magnets, promotional content, social media posts, ads, emails … and all that content needs to be properly managed.
Savvy, organized marketers use an editorial calendar to keep track of all the content they need for online marketing.
7 Easy Steps to Create Your Own Editorial Calendar
Step 1: Make a list of all the free gifts you’ve created or want to create to use as lead magnets to attract new prospects. These include special reports, checklists, resource guides, webinars, video series, etc. Be sure that you’ve updated your lead magnets if needed, to be relevant to what’s happening in your industry right now.
Step 2: Assign a different lead magnet to each month. Be strategic about this. Do any of your free gifts need to be offered in a specific order to build on each other? Are any seasonal?
Step 3: Schedule publication dates for promotional content — blog articles, podcasts, Periscopes, etc. — that support your lead magnets. Your content should provide valuable information related to the lead magnets … content that makes your reader raise their hand and request the free gift.
Step 4: Schedule dates for social media posts, ad campaigns, and emails that drive traffic to your content.
Step 5: Schedule deadlines for producing the content, posts, ads, emails, etc. needed.
Step 6: Assign the work to the appropriate staff, team member, virtual assistant, freelancer … or yourself if you’ll be the one doing it.
Step 7: Implement your plan.
Important Dates for Your Online Marketing Editorial Calendar
• Content Assignment Date
• Content Deadline Date
• Content Upload Date
• Content Publication Date
You might find it easiest to start with publication date and work in reverse order to schedule the other dates.
You can create your editorial calendar using a laminated planning calendar that you mount on a wall, a paper monthly calendar, or an electronic calendar with reminders. I’ve used all of these, and they all work.
The best method for YOU is whatever you’ll actually use!
You’ve probably heard it said that a goal without a plan is just a wish. But a plan without implementation is just words on a page.
The beauty of your online marketing editorial calendar is that it will keep you organized and on track with your implementation. With it, you will accomplish your goals, build your email list, and make more money this year.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this … please leave a comment! And don’t forget to share!
