An editorial calendar is an essential resource for any team that is managing content creation and distribution for an organization (or for an agency’s roster of content marketing clients)—especially when big projects or seasonal media pitches are in the pipeline. A company that wants to get news coverage to create hype around a product in time for year-end holiday gift-giving, for example, needs to put those PR efforts in motion long before November rolls around.
While it may be a few weeks, or even a few months, before a piece of content will go live, long-lead deadlines usually require consistent work up front to ensure that the project progresses at the right pace and is ready on time. Below, members of Forbes Agency Council share their top tips for successfully preparing to meet longer editorial deadlines throughout the year.
Forbes Agency Council members share secrets to meeting long-lead deadlines in your editorial calendar.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Create A Structure And Stick To It
Start with broad content categories that are applicable across your content ecosystem—website, social media channels, external and so forth. Then, under those categories, determine which topics to promote throughout the year and the who-where-how of targeting each one. - Donna Robinson, Collective Measures
2. Use A Collaborative, Cloud-Based Editorial Calendar
In our B2B agency, we’re usually working on hundreds of content pieces in any given month. We suggest using a collaborative, cloud-based editorial calendar that can be accessed by internal team members and external clients/stakeholders. This way, all content projects can be easily viewed, managed and accessed at a glance, making it easier to manage longer lead times or more complex projects. - Azadeh Williams, AZK Media
3. Start With The End Goal In Mind
Start with the end goal in mind and work backward. How long will it take to launch, get approvals, create your content, develop concepts and so on? Outline the time needed to complete each step so you know when to start and, more importantly, what is realistic to complete within your time frame. Finally, use a cloud-based communication platform to keep all team members on the same page. - Bernard May, National Positions
4. Be Organized And Hold Team Members Accountable
The secret to a successful long-lead deadline project is to be organized and to hold team members accountable. Have a timeline of when each part of the project is expected to be done and by whom. Create a shared spreadsheet that can be hosted on a platform such as Google Sheets. This way everyone can track the progress and update the editorial calendar with comments or issues. - Geoff Crain, Kingstar Media
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5. Establish A Workback Timeline
Before your team gets ahead of itself with creative content ideas, you need to first establish a workback timeline. Start with your final deadline and work backward in the process. What date do you need approvals by? Revisions? Drafts? Proposals? Breaking down the process and assigning smaller deadlines for each task keeps your team accountable and on track for success. - Heather Kelly, Next PR
6. Try Mixing Team Roles On Long-Term Projects
Long-term projects can drain your employees’ motivation as the dullness of doing repetitive tasks kicks in. To stay on top of this, try mixing team roles from time to time so that repetitious assignments seem a bit more challenging and unexplored to everyone. Monitor project progress via project management tools and weekly meetings, but try to maintain high spirits by recognizing team achievements. - Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio
7. Research Each Industry And Each Client’s Wishlist
Have your team research each industry and each client’s wishlist. Add the targets to your editorial calendars and plan out a quarterly focus. Be sure to be upfront with clients if you’re pitching long leads, as production and reporting may look sparse before the lead-up. Communication is key, so be sure to share every little thing you and your team are doing for each account. - Jessica Kopach, The JKO Agency
8. Aim To Schedule The Content Well In Advance
I personally like to schedule our content at least 30 days in advance. A lot of the time, changes are required, and that’s normal. Having extra time avoids panic situations and gives you enough time to review and make sure the content is high-quality. Add a great project manager to this, and you are golden. - Kamaljit Singh, AMZ One Step
9. Set Concrete Deadlines For Monthly, Weekly And Daily Projects
An editorial calendar allows you to set concrete deadlines to keep long-term projects such as blogs, social media posts and public relations efforts on track. The ideas and due dates for monthly, weekly and even daily projects are created ahead of time, eliminating many organizational issues. Other projects will pop up, so an editorial calendar keeps deadlines in the forefront to ensure regular content. - Michelle Abdow, Market Mentors, LLC
10. Curate A List Of Topics Ahead Of Time
Take time to develop a curated list of topics ahead of time to minimize the time you spend searching for content ideas. To streamline these topics, it is also important to remember to focus on analytics in order to see which content generates the most engagement with audiences. - Goran Paun, ArtVersion
11. Plan For The Unexpected
With large projects that require a high volume of content, such as campaigns and product launches, there are bound to be curveballs. Be flexible—by substituting one type of content for another, for example—and use placeholders when there are unknowns so that resources can be reserved. - Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing
12. Prioritize Topics According To Consumer Intent
Strategic competitive research is critical when preparing for long-term content schedules. Topics for content based on high-value consumer intent should be prioritized. The supporting educational topics are also important but should be supplemented with internal linking to support high-value intent content. - Seth Winterer, Digital Logic
13. Make A Collective Commitment
Time does not matter. There are hundreds of great editorial calendar tools. There are mature design systems. There are great writers and designers ready to create. But do the monthly planning meetings happen? Does someone pick up the phone after the 30th Asana notification? Does someone own and care about each piece? Content is commitment, no matter the time. - John Geletka, Geletka+
14. Prioritize Content For Events With Fixed Deadlines
Certain events, such as product launches and holidays, have fixed deadlines, so content for these should be prioritized, and your entire editorial calendar should be adjusted around them. Other content that is of a more recurring nature (such as a monthly blog) can have mini-deadlines for each task, from research to posting, and can be monitored through a project management system. - Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team
