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I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I’ve begun incorporating yoga into my regular morning routine. Each day, I rise at around 6:30am, roll out my mat and have some quiet, kid-free, stretching and meditation time to myself.
At first, it felt like a chore to pull myself out of bed. If it was raining, or too cold, I’d hit that snooze button. But, 30 days later, I’ve found that I’ve begun to enjoy my new habit. In fact, on the days I skip my yoga, I feel like I’m missing something from my mornings.
By staying consistent, I’ve begun to realise the benefits.
Try a new habit for 30 days
Experts say the key to realising the effects of a new habit is to try it consistently for 30 days.
And just like with my morning yoga routine, I’ve found this theory is also true for business. If you implement a new process into your business and try it for a few days, you may not see much effect. But by doing it consistently for a whole month – you will begin to notice a change.
Consistency is the key to success.
And when it comes to blogging, the only way to see the benefits of your writing is to remain consistent with it.
Why do you need to be consistent with your blogging?
Think about your branding. Having a consistent tone of voice, colour scheme and regular processes in place are all part of creating a coherent brand. When you unwaveringly present this branding, your customers come to know and understand exactly who you are.
It’s the same with your blogging schedule. If you consistently deliver a blog post at the same time – maybe once, twice or even three times a week – your audience begins to see you as a reliable voice in their sphere. They will hear your voice consistently and through this regularity, you will begin to make a long-lasting impression.
There’s no point blogging ad-hoc whenever you feel like it – because let’s be honest – you might not ever feel like it. As a busy business owner, it can be easy for your blogs to fall by the wayside.
Like with any business goal, it pays to have a process in place for achieving that goal. And this is where an editorial content calendar comes in.
How does having an editorial calendar help your blogging remain consistent?
One of the reasons I love our editorial calendar is that we only have to think about it once a month. Dave and I sit down, have a good brainstorm, and come up with a number of different ideas and topics to write about. We research a few links and make sure we’re headed in the right direction.
And you know what? This is half the battle of writing a blog post – coming up with the ideas and conducting the research.
We then pop these ideas and links into the editorial calendar and get organised for the month ahead. We also make sure to set ourselves a deadline for when we want the blog up on the website. In fact, we set ourselves a couple of deadlines – when we want the blog written, proofread and live on our site. This gives us ample time to get ourselves into gear so we don’t feel overwhelmed when creating regular blog posts.
Then, when the time comes to actually write the post, the idea and research is already there and it’s simply up to one of us to get the words onto the page (the part I enjoy the most).
What you should include in your content calendar
Your editorial content calendar doesn’t have to be complicated. Indeed, it should be as simple as possible if want to stick to it.
The vital information you need to include is who will be the author (if you’re not a solopreneur), who will proof it, the relevant due dates, and the topic.
To improve the calendar and make it easier to use when it comes to writing your posts, include research links, blog title ideas, who your target audience is (if you have multiple avatars for your business), the call to action, and what keywords to include.
I’ve found the best way to list all of this information is in a simple Excel spreadsheet. For example, for this blog post, my plan looked like the below:
Curate your editorial calendar today
Does that seem straightforward enough? Have I encouraged you to get an editorial calendar in place for your business? I hope so! Remember – try and stick to it for 30 days (yes, that’s 30 posts!) to truly see results. Let me know how you go.
If you’d like a hand to get started, download our free editorial calendar to replicate the method we use.
