An editorial calendar is an essential part of your business if you want to gain control and manage your regular content production.

The simple calendar layout gives you an at-a-glance view of your content creation and release dates etc. and, as it can be used for blogging, social media content, product launches and advertising. It’s a great tool to utilise. So what are the main benefits of using an editorial calendar?

Helps you organise your time

Improves your time management, as you know exactly what you need and when it needs to be completed by. This gives you the opportunity to both get ahead and schedule what you’ve already completed, but stops you feeling overwhelmed at your content ‘to-do’ list.

Helps you spread out your content

Seeing everything written as a list can be quite fulfilling, but it can also be misleading too. You can end up feeling as though you have masses of content created, but it’s not until you’ve put it into a calendar that you can ascertain whether you have bunched it together or have big empty gaps.

Helps you to spread your content cross-platform

Using an editorial calendar to manage your social media platforms is an excellent idea, as it enables you to, not only manage your content on each platform, but also to ensure you?re sharing it across the different platforms. You can then make sure you’re reaching as many of your potential clients as possible, with minimum fuss.

Enables you to plan ahead

The beauty of an editorial calendar is that you can plan in advance – as far as a year, if you like. You can then tie your content in with holidays and special dates etc.

Eliminates writer’s block

Following on from the previous point and planning ahead, you’ll actually eliminate the worry of not knowing what to write about!

It’s flexible

When planning your calendar, you don’t need to worry about losing your creative spark and having to write only about the topics on your calendar as it’s not set in stone. If you suddenly get the urge to write something off the cuff, you can, and just move the other things around to suit.

Builds consistency

By sticking to your editorial calendar you can build the consistency around your blogging, social media activities, advertising and launches. This will help you to raise both your profile and help establish yourself as an expert in your niche.

Do you currently use an editorial calendar or similar to plan your content? If not, have these seven reasons given you the incentive to start? What are your experiences of planning your content? Why not share your thoughts with us in the comments box below.