Mastering the Art of Content Scheduling: Tips and Tricks
Creating an effective content calendar can really be a game changing tool in expanding the reach of your creative practice. While some creatives can see marketing and selling as “dirty” words, I prefer to think of it like American artist Emily Jeffords puts it - they are simply ways for you to generously sharing the gift of your art with the world. If you believe in your work and the value it contributes, why would you not share it? Why hide it away?
Creating a content schedule can really free up your mental capacity and remove some of the load that comes with running a creative practice (or any other small business!). In this first of a series of articles about content creation, I delve into content scheduling and how it can work for you.
What is it?
Scheduling content is mapping out the topics you want to cover and when.
What are the benefits of scheduling your content?
It offers a sense of ease because you know what you need to do
You have a list of topics to cover (and pick from!)
Thinking about what you want to cover and when offers cohersion and progress - you can tie topics in together, expand on topics, and you're less likely to repeat yourself
If you have an event or release of work to market, you can identify all the points you want to cover and time them appropriately to offer your audience the best value from the information
You can identify times in advance where creating content might be difficult (such as a family holiday or school holidays), and can schedule easy to create content or, shock/horror, you can schedule a content creation break to allow yourself time to rest
It takes some of the mental gymnastics out of it - having a long week but need to put out content - choose from your list. Not having to think of what topic to cover does take some of the drama out of it
Tips for scheduling your content
Block out important dates such as family holidays/occasions, upcoming shows/events, major business events for example a website redesign or new course launch
Blocking out these events can give you an automatic content fodder - course launch? What is the course? Who’s it for? Can you give little sample nuggets from it?
People like Gary V suggest giving lots of value (for free) without asking for things in return to build a rapport with your audience and to keep them interested. Your content schedule should reflect value to your audience with a sprinkle of asking something from them, e.g. buy my art, take my course etc.
Your content schedule should also consider the time of year - Valentine’s, birthday, mother’s/father’s day, Christmas etc etc can all act as anchors for content ideas and when you should release that content. Nobody wants to see Christmas content in May do they?! (Well maybe some people do, but it’s pretty niche!)
i like to get loads of ideas down on paper and then you can group the relevant topics together in a series of content posts that build on each other. This allows you to link back to your own content as well and builds a knowledge base for your audience to work with
The single, most important tip for scheduling your content is to give yourself grace. Sometimes, stuff happens and the timing doesn’t work out. Sometimes, it’s been a WEEK and you cannot fit content creation into it. Sometimes you are so stuck in your creativity that you can’t pull yourself away to do a blog or social media or whatever…and that’s ok. You’re human and you can re-schedule it.
Tune in next week for information on Batching Your Content.
In the meantime, leave your tips on scheduling content in the comments section!