As a content marketing agency, GrowTraffic is used to working months in advance with content strategies and as it’s nearly December, we’re already well into getting content nailed down for 2023.
If you are a digital marketer, or business owner juggling working on your website, now is the ideal time to start thinking about your 2023 content calendar. This article will help you get started. Download our content calendar, make your content strategic, and use our content marketing matrix to help inspire you.
Free 2023 Content Calendar Template
Creating a content calendar is a pretty big job – but if you are approaching your digital marketing strategically, it’s an important piece of work that you need to get wrapped up before Christmas or in the early part of the new year.
To give you a helping hand, we’re sharing our content calendar template with you! Simply fill in a few details below to download your free calendar straight away.
Now, the content calendar is just a template, and you need to do the leg work to get content scheduled but having access to a template sure makes the job a little bit easier! To help you along the way, our content calendar has some noteworthy dates already marked out. This is to demonstrate where you can insert relevant time-sensitive content into your schedule.
How To Use Our Content Calendar
First up, you need to think about the types of content you want to produce, this can include:
- Podcasts
- Giveaways
- Videos
- Quiz’s
- Articles
- Infographics
- Press Releases
- Trend Reports
- Influencer marketing
- Q&As
- Reviews
- Events
- Case Studies
- Price Guides
- Webinars
- White Papers
- Guides
- Newsletters
- Viral Content
Phew, that’s a lot to think about but as you can see, ‘content’ covers a wide range of materials. A content calendar is useful because it enables you to plot out the types of content you want to produce, and when you want to publish them.
Having your content laid out visually, well in advance helps with planning and assigning work. Remember to be realistic too when coming up with ideas. Weed out weaker ideas and bank them to develop at a later date. It sounds obvious but make sure the work you schedule on your content calendar is achievable – don’t schedule 30 videos when you don’t have access to resources to produce video content! And don’t schedule five articles a week if you have no idea who is going to be writing them!
Making Your Content Calendar Strategic
If you produce content and just throw it out into the void, yes, something might work but as all good marketers know, we plan, research, measure and adapt. Content takes a lot of energy to produce so everything needs to be strategically aligned with your marketing or business goals. Your goals might include:
- Growing website traffic
- Increasing web conversions
- Increasing brand recognition
- Educating customers
- Educating potential customers
- Cultivating customer loyalty and advocacy
- Generating more leads
- Growing a following on social media
- Expanding your team
Your goals will be dependent on your overall business aims and what you plan to achieve in 2023 but something that will likely be on most marketers’ minds is growing an online presence. As a digital marketing agency that’s what we specialise in, more specifically using content creation for organic, sustainable growth.
When you are planning digital content, it’s just as important that you are strategic with your content. Typically that means auditing your website, analysing existing content to look for gaps, researching your audience, and never underestimating the power of SEO. If you haven’t done keyword research for your website, make it a priority. Keywords play a large role in digital content, helping your website climb Google search result pages, and even find new audiences.
Bonus: The Content Marketing Matrix
The content marketing mix is a simple way to understand all the content options you have and where they might fall with your target audience on their buyer journey. Use the content marketing matrix to help inspire you when you’re filling out your content calendar. Easiest to view as a graphic, here is our content marketing matrix, based on the now-famous one popularised by SmartInsights.
In a nutshell, all the various types of content you produce will have a purpose and fall somewhere on your buyer’s journey. Content can broadly fall into four categories: Entertain, Inspire, Educate, and Convince. Content will also appeal to your customer’s Rational or Emotional state, and find them either in the Awareness stage, at the point of Purchase or some point between.
Sounds complicated but if you look at our graphic it’s quite easy to follow and you will soon find yourself getting the hang of it. The goal is to be able to produce content for your business that covers every single area. However, if you simply don’t have the resources, it’s better to focus on a few key types of content, with just a few goals. Spreading yourself everywhere, thinly is always a bad idea! Try picking a few types of content and become brilliant at it.
Need Help?
If you are struggling with any aspect of content marketing, creating a content calendar or strategy, or even need some help auditing your website and figuring out your keywords, please contact us.
As an award-winning digital marketing agency, we eat, breathe and sleep content. Any questions, give us a shout.
