Writing Process 02

Website InsightsHow To Create a Manageable Blog Posting Schedule

August 19, 2021

Whether you are new to content marketing or have been producing regular content for a while, it’s always beneficial to revisit your current strategy and ensure you are creating engaging content for your site visitors while maintaining regular postings. Curating a schedule of monthly articles for your website may seem daunting, but there’s no need to worry. We are here to help! Our team at Cassandra Bryan Design has compiled the ultimate guide to managing an effective content creation process!

Review Your Goals

Before you can begin writing articles to publish on your website, you need to review your goals and determine what you want your website visitors to know about your company and your services. Keep in mind, you want to avoid publishing content just for the sake of publishing content and only focus on writing content that is working toward a broader marketing goal. Publishing articles without a clear goal in mind does very little for your overall brand, and there’s a possibility that much of this thin content will have no value to your readers and site visitors. Before you set out on a writing spree, make sure to ask yourself why you want to produce content for your brand, and if your answer is “I want to keep our blog looking active” or “Google likes to see regular content,” you may be wasting your resources. The four main reasons you should be producing content include:

  • Educating an audience
  • Driving social engagement
  • Increasing your search rankings
  • Earning links to other publications

Set a Schedule

After you have determined the purpose of your content, create a manageable posting schedule that you will be able to stick to each month. An article publishing schedule is a visual workflow that helps marketing teams plan their articles and regular blog posts monthly, helping avoid missed deadlines or unedited articles. Our team at Cassandra Bryan Design recommends publishing one to two articles each month and dividing the writing process out over a few days.

Make sure not to overwhelm yourself by setting ridiculous posting goals and find a schedule that works best for you.

Not only will this article publishing schedule help to keep everybody on the same page, but it will also help when it comes to generating new ideas and content strategies. Putting all of your article topics on a calendar can easily highlight any content gaps where you may have less content scheduled and help you focus on filling in these gaps with new article topics and ideas. Once you get a schedule put in place, these regular postings will start increasing your ranking optimization and attracting new visitors to your website! Consider outlining your monthly articles by using the following template:

Sample Quarterly Topic Outline:

  • Month 1:

    • Article 1–Culture Article (Employee Spotlight, Company Events, Community Involvement, etc.)
    • Article 2—Service-Related Article (Educational, Case Study, How-To, FAQ, etc.)

    Pro Tip: Rotate through your different services to provide you with additional article topics!

  • Month 2:

    • Article 1–Culture Article (Employee Spotlight, Company Events, Community Involvement, etc.)
    • Article 2—Service-Related Article (Educational, Case Study, How-To, FAQ, etc.)
  • Month 3:

    • Article 1–Culture Article (Employee Spotlight, Company Events, Community Involvement, etc.)
    • Article 2—Service-Related Article (Educational, Case Study, How-To, FAQ, etc.)
  • Month 4:

    • Article 1–Culture Article (Employee Spotlight, Company Events, Community Involvement, etc.)
    • Article 2—Service-Related Article (Educational, Case Study, How-To, FAQ, etc.)
  • Month 5—Review and Repeat:

    • Once you have completed your first quarter of articles, evaluate your progress and repeat this process! If you find yourself getting stuck when it comes to fresh article ideas, check out our recent article for brainstorming blog topics.

Gather Content

Once you have reviewed your goals and chosen your topics, you can begin gathering content to feature in your articles. There are endless resources you can leverage to gain content for your website postings. This content can be collected and integrated in various ways, including explaining online research, recording interviews with employees with inside information, or creating an online survey for individuals within the company to complete. You may also choose to refer to other industry blogs of competitors, but don’t feel compelled to stick to their writing style; include additional information and make the article your own!

Having trouble getting the information you need?
Pro Tip: If you are having difficulties getting information from busy people in your life, set up audio interviews so you can refer to them later. Make sure you have your questions pre-planned and know how to properly record your interview, whether it be via an old-school recorder or a Zoom session!

Outline an Article Plan

Instead of diving right in and writing your article from start to finish, make a game plan and decide how you are going to tackle the writing process, roughly outlining your key points.

First, start with your headlines, the most important group of words in your post, and allow yourself an adequate amount of time to craft attention-garnering headlines.

Then, work on writing your subheadings, ensuring they are informative enough for readers to understand the overall idea of your article through the subheading. Make them interesting enough, though, that your reader will be forced to keep reading more!

Finally, fill in the gaps by fleshing out the details of your content and writing the rest of your post.

Lastly, head into the editing process, allowing enough time away from your article before revisiting it! Make sure to send the article to any individuals that need to approve the content at least two weeks prior to the scheduled publishing date.

Create Content in Advance

It’s finally time to write the article! We recommend writing one to two month’s worth of content in advance and scheduling it for future postings. Ensure you leave enough time for another person to review the article and send it to them at least one to two weeks before your intended publishing date. After reviewing it, revisit your article and format it for readability, including things like adding bulleted lists where applicable, using block quotes to emphasize specific points, and breaking longer paragraphs into short, more digestible sections for readers. Before you publish your article, re-read it in full and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I have an intriguing headline?
  • Do my subheadings tell my story all by themselves?
  • Are my images interesting to site visitors?
  • Have I included a call-to-action for a product, service, or email list?

Publish Your Article

You’ve dedicated hours to creating an intriguing and informative article; now it’s time to publish it! Publication day is also the day to promote your post and give your article the attention it deserves by sharing it on social media. Schedule monthly social media posts to help boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and create further brand awareness!

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