As you create and expand your content, consider creating an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a planning document that will outline what content and when you will deliver it. It can help your firm oversee your marketing strategy by providing a centralized spot to see when/what content is being created and if it’s achieving your firm’s goals.
Why is an editorial calendar important? It will help your blogs, articles, website updates, and so on to stay organized. Your content will be more likely to get published on time, without awkward lapses during busy times in your schedule. Read our tips below for starting your editorial calendar.
Create an overall goal for your content
This should be high-level thinking. What are you trying to do with your websites? Perhaps you want to educate readers on all of the areas of law you work in, so they know more about your firm. Or, you want to provide resources for your readers in your areas of expertise. Alternatively, maybe you want to make sure your content is optimized so that your sites rank highly.
Generate ideas to achieve your goal
Once you figure out your overarching goal, think of content ideas to achieve your goal. One important factor is to avoid boring content. After all, you want your readers to actually read your content, stay on your page, and go through some call to action, such as contacting you.
To do this, speak with different departments in your firm to find new perspectives. Think outside the box when you write. After you post blogs, figure out what’s working and not working by analyzing which articles get many visitors and which get high bounce rates.
Readers like to know that your content is being updated, and one way to do this is to notify them of any updates in your firm, industry events, and holidays. Write about conferences you attended, any new awards you received or cases you settled, or any changes that happened at the firm.
If you need some suggestions, we’re happy to help. Read our blogs for specific suggestions for Social Security disability, personal injury, and employment law content.
Fill in your calendar
Figure out when and what you will post in a given time frame, such as a quarter. Add the due dates for all of your content.
Make sure your posting schedule is consistent. This will help ensure that you have a consistent online presence, you are relevant in the industry, and your SEO rankings are high.
Make the calendar clear so your team members know what they need to do. It should be easy to follow so each member knows what he/she is writing and when, along with what else is happing in your content world. This will be especially helpful if you hire freelance writers who will require extra communication.
Speaking of communication, your calendar should make it clear what team members are working with each other. For example, if you have one writer writing about an interesting case, he/she should know which editor will review the work and which graphic designer will provide any images.
It’s fine if you don’t have all of your ideas generated yet. It’s hard to come up with all ideas at once! Filling in an editorial calendar will help you have a general outline and due dates and you can fill in the specifics as the quarter continues.
Implement your calendar
Remember that after compiling it, you’ll also need to implement it. Stick to your calendar and track your results to determine which pieces of content are helping you and which ones need to be fixed. An editorial calendar isn’t just for new content - it can also serve to help you clean up your old content.
Your editorial calendar does not have to be set in stone. As you analyze your results and figure out what works and doesn’t work, you should revisit your calendar to adjust due dates or content ideas. This is another great perk of the calendar. Since it’s centralized, any affected individuals will be easily made aware of the changes and can continue to produce appropriate content.
It’s completely up to you how robust your editorial calendar is. If you already have a calendar system in your firm, perhaps adding a separate section or color for the editorial content will accomplish your goals. If you want something more robust that allows collaboration with team members, integration, and uploading your content as back ups, there are many editorial calendar softwares that are available and they range in prices.
Whichever route you go, commit to putting together your editorial calendar and implementing improvements as time goes on. Your employees will be happy that your goals, deadlines, and assignments are outlined. Your readers will thank you as well because you will have stronger and more consistent content that will help them stay engaged and educated.