Do you ever find yourself looking at your website’s blog or business social media feed with no idea what to post next? Whether you use content as a side hustle or as an essential part of your business, it can often feel like a bit of a minefield to master.

With so many other influencers and business owners using content to reach their target audience, it can be hard to know when and what to post. Maybe you’ve even tried to put together a content marketing calendar in the past but found it to be too fiddly!

Bizzybee Bolly is here to make creating a content calendar less stressful and more productive. Whether you’d like to give it a go yourself or trust in an expert social media virtual assistant like Erin to take the lead, let’s get your content to where you want it to be.

What is a content calendar?

Let’s start with the basics. A content calendar is a tool that can help you organise, schedule, and track your content, saving you from the last-minute stress of what to post on a given day. It can be a spreadsheet, a physical printed template, or an online social media scheduler like HubSpot or Metricool

Content calendars can be used for all types of content. Social media content calendars are designed to help you plan what to post on Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms, whereas content marketing calendars focus more on long-form content — like blogs.

No matter which type of content you’d like to plan, a calendar is there to help you stay consistent — and free up that all-important brain space. After all, you’ll have planned it all out in advance! Plus, you’ll be able to learn insights about your content all in one place, helping your side hustle or business thrive.

Take a look at these free resources, where you’ll find a social media planner template to help with your planning.

Tips for putting together a marketing content calendar

It can feel daunting if you’ve never created a social content calendar or a content marketing calendar before. It can seem time-consuming at first, but it will undoubtedly free up time for future you.

Here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your content calendar:

Start with your goals

Before diving head-first into your spreadsheet or planner, take a step back and focus on what you’re trying to achieve with your content. Is your goal to stay consistent with posting? Or drive traffic to your website? Maybe it’s to increase your social media presence.

Getting clear on why you’re creating a content calendar will help you narrow down the sort of content you want to publish and make each post or blog more intentional.

Choose your content pillars

Content pillars are categories of content. Posting content from multiple content pillars will keep your content fresh, engaging, and purposeful. Depending on your business, content pillars can look a little different from person to person.

Some examples include:

Testimonials
Business story
Industry tips
Service information

With content pillars, it’s important to choose quality over quantity. Ten or more content pillars can quickly become overwhelming and turn into more of a hindrance than a help. We suggest picking three to five to keep things manageable.

2. Make repurposed content your friend

Have you ever wondered how other business owners always have something to share? It’s probably because they’re repurposing their content. This essentially uses what you already have to create different forms of content.

For instance, one blog post can be repurposed into a graphic, a reel, a newsletter, and more. And it doesn’t count as cheating, either — it’s smart and shows that you understand the value of your content and how to make it stretch.

3. Plan in batches

Creating a content calendar that includes one year’s worth of content all in one sitting is definitely not the way to go.

Start by planning your content two weeks at a time, whether that’s three to five social media posts a week for one platform or two blogs to upload onto your website.

When trying something new, start small — you’re more likely to stick to it this way.

How to create a winning content calendar without the stress

What is a content calendar?