You spend a lot of time generating fabulous content for your blog or your business. Do you schedule your content marketing so you have time to do it all successfully?
You want to get that content shared out with your audience. What good is your content if it doesn’t get read or shared? You will be wasting your time writing fabulous content if it doesn’t get read or shared.
Imagine spending eight to twenty hours righting the perfect post. Looking for great images, maybe purchasing something on Canva and then designing it for your blog?
After all that time, wouldn’t it be nicer to have it seen and read by more people?
Table of Contents
Scheduling Content Marketing
I know you feel frazzled after doing all the work for the post. But that’s only 20% of the job. 80% of it is sharing that content and other relevant content.
Content Marketing Rule of Thumb: 20% of the time to generate content, 80% of the time sharing content. That means you need much more time for planning your content marketing for others to find it.
What is Content Marketing Exactly? By Definition it is: “A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services. Social media is an integral part of content marketing.”
Start Monthly To Schedule Content Out
Schedule your content marketing starts out with a calendar. I use an Excel spreadsheet to begin mine each and every month and then go week by week to break it down.
Starting out with a small content marketing plan that you can increase or decrease is best. If you plan much further out you may get overwhelmed before you even start. Decide how often first you will create your content.
Create your content at least once weekly on your blog and maybe 2 or 3 contributor posts unless you are a Ryan Biddulph who probably writes in his sleep.
Do stay flexible as events in the past have shown us, the need to be flexible and pivot quickly when needed. Some months you may have more blog posts than others, as long as you stick to your minimum quantity that is fine.
Then fill out your social media schedule on the calendar. Figure out how many posts per week you want to have going out on each of the social networks.
For example, my husband was in a recent snowmobile accident and I had to attend to his medical needs. Thankfully I had scheduled my client’s social media posts several weeks in advance on Agorapulse as we were preparing to go on a vacation.
Start With A Title For Your Content
I like to start with a blog title. I know many others have said they end with a title. Pick which method works for you but have an outline of what and why you want to write about. (You can always change your title afterward as I suggest you do as titles can work magic.)
Next, think about images and others you may want to mention in your post. Decide how much time you will need to research. Leave yourself that time to do the research and create some images with Canva.
However, you can always outsource that part to a great designer.
Start Now or You Will Never Start
If you don’t start now you may never start. Starting something is always the hardest part. Procrastinators love to put it off till tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes.
I like to start by writing down ideas. Then I used to begin my blog posts in Jasper to help me write them. If I don’t have ideas Jasper had helped with that too. Jasper can give you ideas when you have writer’s block. They can also help you create incredible images. Finally, I import the Jasper verbiage into my WordPress and find or create the images.
Today, however I prefer The Right Blogger suite of tools as the AI can create more longer form content suited for SEO.
I like to see how a post will look with images, links, and so forth. That assures me I will finish the post.
Lisa, Inspire To Thrive
So, start at the beginning. It will ensure YOU finish the blog post to the end. And, you can always edit along the way. The edit button is one of my favorite buttons in WordPress.
You probably may even get excited about it once you see your new blog post for yourself!
Planning Your Blog Posts is Your First Step To Schedule Content Marketing
You need to have content to share right? So, begin with the content, set up your time, and then you will know what is left to do.
You should spend 20% of your time generating content. Having a really good blog schedule is really important to help keep you efficient. Your time is of high value.
You can keep it simple like the one below:
Schedule Your Content Marketing Next
See the above example to start scheduling your content marketing. Start by figuring out what you want to accomplish by the month. Then break it down by a week and repeat.
Once you can break it down by a day it gets easier. It’s always easier when you have a big task at hand and then BREAK it DOWN. It won’t seem so daunting and you won’t feel frazzled.
Where will you share your content? Will you spend money on ads or just use social media? You may need to write more for LinkedIn Pulse or Medium. Therefore, decide which places you want to work within and set the schedule accordingly.
Fabulous Content Marketing Tools
Having a great social media calendar is important but no doubt tools are a must for content marketers today. I love using Agorapulse. Â This social media management tool has been a huge timesaver for me.
However, if you are a solopreneur with one blog you may prefer MissingLttr.
Many other content marketers and bloggers swear by Hootsuite, Co-Schedule, or Buffer which I used to love. Find the one that you are most comfortable with and stick with it.
The Right Blogger Headline tool has been a lifesaver for me in writing my headlines. Actually, you can try it for free.
Find a content marketing tool that you feel comfortable with and that is in your budget. – Lisa, Inspire To Thrive.
You can use other tools where other content marketers will share your content if you share their content. As long as their content is relevant to your readers feel free to use these extra services.
Of course, many of these tools are free and some require fees for more shares with bells and whistles.
For instance, some good tools are Triberr, Flipboard, and ViralContentBee, to name a few. There are a ton of these types of content marketing tools out there. Find ones that you are comfortable using.
Analyze Your Overall Marketing Efforts
Afterward, begin to analyze what is working on the various networks. No doubt you need to kick it up a notch here or eliminate one there. Use your Google Analytics to see where the traffic is coming from.
This screenshot below was from a few years ago when I first wrote the post. Now, today for the first time ever, I see Facebook is ahead of Twitter for Inspire To Thrive for traffic. I found that amazing since I don’t spend much time over there but have been creating stories on Facebook.
For example, you can see how mine showed up back in May 2020. The order changes over time. For the first time in 2022, Quora came up in the top 5. Today it has dropped back some.
Then in 2022, you can see where the referral traffic was coming from below. However, notice that Quora was the #1 source of referral traffic still. But note, that 85% of traffic is organic now in 2023 and 2024. (Organic traffic was 75% last year).Â
Notice how other search engines have grown and generated traffic too?
I had been working consistently over on the Quora network for the past 5+ years. When this blog post was first written in July of 2017, Quora was #15 in the spot of referrals.Â
Oftentimes, you will notice where you spend your time is where the traffic will come from. However, I stopped last year with the changes that took place on that Quora network.
An ironic note is that I don’t participate over on Facebook but the MissingLettr scheduling tool draws traffic from there to my site. As you can see it increased over the 2-year period. It’s a fabulous tool for solopreneurs with others to share your content as well from there.
I’ve switched from Facebook to LinkedIn recently with MissingLettr and added Instagram to schedule content. (Stay tuned!)
Today you’ll need to set this up in Google Analytics today to track your traffic.
Contributor Posts for Content Marketing
Aside from generating content on your own blog or website, you need to schedule some elsewhere. It’s a great way to get you in front of new audiences. Some of them will begin to follow you as well.
When you are on the networks like Triberr, BizSugar, Growth Hackers, or Viral Content Bee you’ll meet other like-minded bloggers who you may inquire to contribute to their blogs.
I loved this quote: “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” Gordon B. Hinckley. This quote holds true for content marketing. It takes hard work to continuously work the cycle.
For this reason, I hope these ways to schedule your content marketing help you to be able to work without losing your sanity.
Summary: Staying Sane While You Schedule Your Content Marketing
Finally, make time for fun and rest. Rest is necessary to regenerate your creativity and you will need to generate more content and curate others.
You will need your energy to fill up your blog posts and share with creativity and energy. Without that rest, you can burn out.
Consequently, I’ve seen many bloggers burn out over the years. Ultimately save yourself a little time for yourself. Schedule that time for you, like you would with your content schedule.
How do you stay sane as you schedule your content marketing? Do you take breaks often?
Are you using a content marketing schedule? I’d love to know more from YOU in the comments below so we can discuss it!
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 11 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
You can purchase her eBook about Twitter on Amazon.
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Hi Lisa,
Thanks for highlighting an issue that most bloggers are facing. They are just creating the content without knowing that it will go in vain if they don’t spread it to the audience.
This article will help many bloggers to grow their audience.
Hi Nitin, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. You are most welcome. Scheduling it out helps keep you on focus and better able to create better content in the future. Thanks for coming by, have a great day.
Hello Lisa, You nailed it very well.
Yes, social media scheduling is a great feature. it saves a lot of time and energy and boost productivity.
Social media platforms need consistency, we can add consistently content on social media with this feature.
Thank you for this post.
Keep bring such awesome content here.
Thank you Venkat. Scheduling your social media also keeps you better focused and on target with your content. Otherwise, you will be all over the place. Thanks for your input and have a great day!
I missed this one years ago Lisa. Not sure how. Thanks for the shoutout. Yep; scheduling content helps breed consistency and persistence, too. I try to write and publish one post daily and also intend to update one post daily, too. But focusing on SEO-optimizing each post sometimes disrupts the sked. No worries; it is all about targeting readers these days, whenever I publish.
Ryan
Hi Ryan. I’m 100% with you on this one. I’ve been spending more time on updating posts and writing new ones than I’ve been lax on scheduling my own content. However, I still have clients I schedule out for and I like to be 2 weeks out. Even if something changes with their needs, I can reschedule things easier than always having to come up with something at the last minute. Thanks for coming by Ryan and make it a great Friday!
Hi Lisa,
All of these points are so valid! When I first started blogging I spent 80% of my time on writing the blog. Now 50% or more time is spent in distribution and posting on Quora or social media like Twitter/ Pinterest, which are big traffic drivers from me. Many bloggers make the same mistake of ignoring distribution, sometimes because of the sheer number of ways to do it. It can be overwhelming. Working with a structured calendar like you’ve suggested definitely helps to get a lot done.
Hi Poulomi, thank you. Yes, it can surely be overwhelming, and even with this calendar at times I can feel overwhelmed. Distribution can be cut down on some posts and added to others. It is a delicate balancing act for many. I don’t believe I’ve seen you over on Quora. I’ll have to follow you there as well. Thanks for coming by Poulomi and have a wonderful weekend.
Lisa, a lovely reminder for me as I’m currently struggling with even writing a short 500-word post. I don’t have a content schedule for 2018 and it seems like my idea well is dried up. I’ve implemented 1-minute and 5-minute writing sessions because it seems my brain can’t get going as quickly as it used to. I REALLY like the last tip about staying sane in this content marketing world – Have Fun and Rest.
Hi Sarah, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. I’ve been there Sarah and it does happen. But you can definitely get back into it in a just a few days of writing. You need to make it habit again. I think it’s also great to take some breaks / vacations. All work and no play means you will burn out! I’m glad you liked this one Sarah. Take care and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
I just discovered you Lisa in my new effort to learn more about content marketing. You are the second person to endorse having a content schedule, making a calendar, and writing whether you feel like it or not. I feel just like so many others here who put marketing and promoting others ahead of themselves! Glad I’m not the only one.
Hi Joanne, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Without a plan or a path, how can you get to where you want to go – right? Of course there will always be things that get in the way and you have to adjust it along the way. One step at a time 🙂 Thanks for coming by Joanne and have a great day!
Lisa,
Blogger burnout is the worst! I have ran into it as a freelancer with certain clients and certain types of content. It can be hard to get over when you’re facing the same subjects over and over again.
It’s so important to take breaks regularly and take a solid 48 hours away from writing at least once a month (preferably weekly). Creating content can be wonderful when you’re writing about what you live, but it can quickly send you into burnout if you’re not writing within your calling/passion/purpose.
Sorry, no idea what that weed is called!
Hi Benjamin, I agree. I’ve also found if you stop writing for a few days it gets harder to start up again. It’s best to write all the time even if not always 1000 words a day.
You do make a great point too – you have to love what you write about – that passion keeps you going with it.
Thanks for coming by and welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Have a a wonderful day!
Hey Lisa!
I do schedule my content marketing but I am not strict about my schedule. I devote certain days to writing or updating blog post, and other days to promoting content. I keep a list of topic ideas that I have already researched and usually write more blog posts than I need for any particular week so I have some in the queue. It’s been helpful in case my schedule changes I always have something to publish.
i love that you mentioned the Coschedule headline analyzer. I love it! It’s one of the most helpful tools I’ve ever used. I also use it for subheadings much of the time as Google pays attention to those and sometimes shows the subhead in search results instead of the headline.
Thanks for your insights here!
Hi Lisa, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Interesting how you do yours – very similar to mine own 🙂 I don’t always stick to my schedule like glue but have it as a guideline. It really helps to keep me more focused as my tasks have expanded over the years.
It’s wonderful to have posts in the que and ready to go. I’ve been caught a few times with nothing to write and no idea what I’ll post – that’s not good. Once you get in a flow too it helps keep your creative juices going.
I too love their Coschedule headline analyzer. I haven’t used it for subheadings – good idea Lisa, thank you!
I appreciate your coming by and contributing here today. Have a wonderful day.
I have a fairly detailed content marketing strategy as it pertains to Twitter. It’s much looser for all the other sites because they’re more dependent on what I produce during the week, as I don’t share as much older stuff on those platforms. It’s not just marketing my own stuff, because I share the content of others on Twitter also, but I don’t want to overwhelm my audience by posting too much within a short period of time.
Hi Mitch, yes, I hear you on that. I probably post at least every 1/2 hour on good days. Between the Buffer, Triberr, Elkozen and Klout to name a few and being live. How about your blog posts Mitch? Do you have them in a calendar as well?
I’m mainly talking about my blog posts. I have my weekly schedule of when I post all my blog posts, and the system I set up is easy to remember. I also have my work week schedule of when I post the items I’m sharing from other people and my quotes during the day; weekends are a crapshoot. 🙂 I use Tweetdeck for all of those things.
Hi Mitch, wow, Tweetdeck must have really come a long way since I’ve used it. Thanks for that tip! Have a great rest of the weekend.
Hey Lisa,
I’ll admit that I don’t really schedule my own content. I know that if you write a piece of content you’re supposed to aggressively promote it, and I do in other ways, but not by scheduling it on Hootsuite (which is what I use). I have no issues and actually promote and schedule other people’s content WAY more.
I need to start getting active and using Flipboard, I feel that I’m missing out on another traffic stream by not using it currently.
– Andrew
Hi Andrew, I didn’t either for many years but now I’ve had to do it. It really works too. I’m like you too – I promote others much more. It’s hard promoting my own and even thought of hiriing for it – on my bucket list!
Yes, did you check out my post on Curatti about Flipboard? It’s here https://curatti.com/flipboard-generate-traffic/
Thanks for coming by Andrew and have a great rest of the day.
Hi, Lisa!
Buffer and Pocket have been quite useful for me. I’ve used Tweetdeck and a few more in the past, but I’m sticking to Buffer and Pocket.
Scheduling is like fuel to our content marketing effort. I keep on looking at the new tools just to make sure that I keep a handful of useful tools at my disposal.
I post once a week on my blog, but I keep discovering new content from Twitter to read and share with the followers.
I’m glad to be back on your blog.
Hi Hassaan, welcome back to Inspire to Thrive. I love the Buffer – it’s great on mobile too. I haven’t used the pocket – I signed up but never got in the habit with it. There are so many places to share now besides Twitter. I really love Flipboard too. It’s a great place to read things of interest and share. It does generate traffic as well to the blog. Thanks for coming by and have a great new week ahead!
Hi, Lisa!
Thank you for the reply. I’ve heard a lot about Flipboard. I’ll give it a try. Thank you.
You are welcome Hassaan, it’s a great place to read and generate traffic – Enjoy!
Hi Lisa,
I live by my content marketing schedule. I know when I’ll publish content on my blog. In fact, I have my content written 3 months in advance. It makes it a lot easier for me to take time off.
Now I’ve got to get out there and get my content published somewhere else.
You’re right, it does seem like Ryan writes in his sleep. I see him everywhere I go.
I haven’t joined any of those blogging networks you mentioned like BizSugar and etc.
I agree you should focus on your content 20% and spend 80% focused on promotion.
Oh, I love the CoSchedule headline analyzer.
Thanks for sharing these tips.
Have a great one 🙂
Susan
Hi Susan, that is awesome that you can do that. Wow, I can’t imagine being that far in advance here. But I am doing a lot better with this schedule than ever before.
Do you account for guest blogging in your schedule? Oh yes, those networks are really helpful Susan. You will like them 🙂
You are welcome and let me know if you have questions on those networks, feel free to look me up there. Enjoy the rest of the week Susan!
Content really matters when it comes to blogging. I must admit that I have a hard time with the schedule that when it comes to blogging, but thanks to this because I have learned so many things. 🙂 Great job!! 🙂
Hi John, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Oh yes, most bloggers do struggle with it. I do as well from time to time. But having a schedule surely helps and being able to check things off that list. Thanks! Have a great day and good luck with your scheduling. I hope this helped 🙂
Great post! We all know that social media does not sleep. And as a business, if you’re on social media, it’s important that you are visible and producing engaging content. It’s definitely hard to “juggle those plates” of all your different accounts throughout the day while also being productive. I started using Hootsuite to schedule social media for my blog content, and it’s amazing! You might want to look into it.
Hello Lisa,
Very informative piece of article over here 🙂
I have always faced problems for scheduling my things, I sometimes do get confuse with the timings and sometimes
get with the whole scenario. I am doing justretweets, and it sounds goos to me as it keep my presence their
among the community and helps to get me going with he traffic.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Hi Shantanu, thank you. Oh yes scheduling things and sticking to them is key when doing content marketing and blogging. It’s easy to get sidetracked over on Twitter, Facebook or on other blogs while commenting. I hope it helps you stay more focused. Yes, Re-Tweet is a really great way to keep your presence out there. Thanks for coming by and have a great day!
Hi Lisa,
Nice Post!
I am a fan of content marketing, but I believe too much content is not the best because the web is super saturated with contenst and people are overwhelmed with the amount of information on the web that they hardly read any of them.
The information provided here are more useful for content marketers. You have given the exact tools which are very useful for content marketing.
To reach maximum number of people the content should be marketed in correct date and time.
I will tweet your post.
Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Hi Manish, thank you. Do you mean longer posts by too much content? I think if it’s done right in short paragraphs so people can skim is the best way to go about it. Some topics require more lengthy posts than others. It varies from niche to niche. Thanks for your input and have a wonderful day Manish.
Hi Lisa,
The traffic you got from Facebook is quite equal to the one you got from SU. But I bet that the quality of the traffic from Fb was way much better than the one from SU. When analyzing the traffic, a marketer should go beyond seeing the top sources that generated the biggest amount of traffic. Sometimes such a top is totally irrelevant and the top of the converting (valuable) traffic may even be upside down 😉
Hi Adrian, oh yes I agree with you on this one. I’ve seen a much higher bounce rate from Stumble Upon than most other referrers. It’s the least of my used social networks. I know some bloggers swear by it but I still don’t seem much value in Stumble Upon. Thanks for coming by Adrian and have a great day!
Hi Lisa,
I love this post! I’ve let my content marketing schedule run away from me and lately that has me feeling like I’m all over the place. I loved the content marketing calendar you shared. The ways it’s broken down looks really easy to follow and you reminded me of some places I haven’t been at in a while like Quora, Flipboard and Viral Content Bee.
I tried Just Retweet a long time ago but I wasn’t getting my attention there so I stopped. I wondering if I should try it out again.
Elokenz, I don’t think I’ve heard of that before. I hate to say this but I might have to break up with Hootsuite. I love the tool but there have been some issues lately with Facebook posts in that it’s not picking up the image or metadata. I used to be able to customize a post’s metadata if there wasn’t anything displayed but I can’t do that anymore and if bloggers don’t put in the right metadata and image, it will be left blank. And at $29 a month, I expect to be able to post to any social media platform without any issues.
I’ve beel looking around for another tool just in case I decide to switch but it’s hard to find a tool with all the features of the Hoot. 🙂
Thanks for the tips Lisa. Great post as always. No doubt I’m passing this one along!
Have a great week!
Cori
Hi Cori. I love JustRetweet, it seems more folks are using it today since CoPromote went under. Do give it a try! That is the one I use and wrote about not too long ago – Elkonez, I use it with the Buffer.
Oh no that is not good about the Facebook posts, have you contacted them?
I would say for that price you should my friend!
Check Elkonez out, you may really like it!
You are welcome and have a wonderful week too. I’ll see you back in the socialverse Cori.
Good morning, Lisa!
Fabulous post! I struggle with my schedule. There are just too many things going on. I start a few posts and get sidetracked. I need to be more diligent. However, even though I’m not blogging regularly, my business is going strong. I spend more time helping clients with their needs versus my own. I can’t wait to be able to afford a VA! 🙂
I appreciate your tips and the shout out! 😉
Have a fantabulous day!
B
Hi Bren, thank you. Oh yes, that’s why I had to break mine up from a month to week to days of the week. Less getting sidetracked that way. Keeps you more focused when you have that schedule. You can do the same for your business tasks.
Imagine you will be using a VA in the future my friend. I’ve been thinking the same.
Thanks for coming by and have a great evening!