Imagine getting thousands of monthly page views to your website. All thanks to a blog content calendar, those views result in new leads for your lesson studio, store, or other music business.
If you want to make this a reality, you need to plan out your content. Then, you’ll always have new blog posts ready to go. Read on to learn more about content calendars.
What Is a Blog Content Calendar?
A blog content calendar is a schedule that you create that centers around your blog. It covers how often you publish new content, and it gives you a general idea of what to post when.
Your content calendar is flexible, so you can move things around as necessary. But it gives you a plan for how to run and grow your blog. That way, you’ll always have a steady stream of new content ready to go.
Why You Need a Blog Content Calendar
Whether you’re just starting a blog for your business or want to grow the blog, you need a content calendar. Here are some of my favorite benefits of using one.
Maintain a Consistent Schedule
Until your blog gets decent search traffic, it’s particularly important to publish new posts regularly. That can help establish the trust of Google and other search engines to increase the chances of your blog posts ranking well.
I’d recommend publishing at least one new blog post per week. That’s a good schedule if your blog is to market your business, like a music lesson studio.
On the other hand, if you want your blog to be your business, publishing two or three posts a week is even better. No matter how often you publish, a schedule will help you always have something to post.
Then, you can build up that trust with Google. After a while, you can get away with posting less often, but I wouldn’t risk it for at least the first year or so.
Attract Your Target Audience
Another thing to think about is the target audience of your business. For example, maybe you’re a flute teacher. You can use your blog to cover flute-related topics, such as a buying guide or a basic tutorial.
As long as you use SEO, your blog posts should eventually show up under related keywords. Using the buying guide example, you may write a blog post listing the best beginner flutes.
Someone who wants to learn may search for that topic. They may not even realize that they need a private teacher. But when they click on your article, they can learn about the flutes that are worth buying.
Then, they may notice that you offer lessons. You can use the blog post to promote your studio as a way for people to learn more. A blog content calendar can help you cover all sorts of topics related to your business to attract clients.
Promote Upcoming Events
As you plan out your blog content calendar, you can make room for posts related to specific holidays or events. For example, you might plan a summer sale around Memorial Day.
So during May, you can make sure to publish blog posts related to the sale or specific items or services you’ll include in the sale. Then, you can build awareness of whatever is happening to help increase traffic and revenue.
This also works for business events, like a studio recital. You could promote the recital on your blog to get more audience members. Then, at the recital, you could talk about how you have openings in your studio if anyone is interested.
Avoid Last-Minute Decisions
Another great reason to use a blog content calendar is to plan ahead. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes don’t know what to write about. So without a calendar, I might stare at a blinking cursor for hours.
Setting up a blog content calendar allows you to schedule post topics days or weeks in advance. That way, when it comes time to publish something new, you’ll already have an idea nailed down.
Plus, if you decide to work with a blog writer, they can get the content done well ahead of the publication date. You won’t have to worry about missing a day or week of posting.
How to Create a Blog Content Calendar
Now that you know why you need a blog content calendar, you may wonder how to even create one. I’d recommend the following steps to set your blog up for success.
Start With Your Goals
First, you need to figure out what you want your blog to do for you. If you offer private lessons, your goal may be to fill up your studio. Or if you make instruments or accessories, you might want to sell more products.
Maybe you’re looking to start a blog to make money from ads or affiliate links. These are all excellent goals, but they may require slightly different blog content calendars.
For example, a private music teacher may want to publish educational content to showcase their expertise. The instrument maker may publish blog posts about choosing a quality instrument.
Knowing your goals will help you figure out what topics to cover. And you can schedule when to publish those specific topics.
Determine Post Frequency
Another thing to think about is how often you want to publish posts. If you really want to grow your business, publishing more content is ideal. That will give you more chances to rank in Google search more quickly.
On the other hand, you may want to publish less often if you’re busy with a lot of other things. Blog posts can take a long time to write, especially when you’re new to it.
If you want to publish more often than you can on your own, hiring a freelance writer can really help. I can take care of the SEO research and writing so that you can grow your business while focusing on other tasks.
Create Brand Pillars
Your brand pillars are the main categories or topics related to your brand. I’d recommend setting up your pillars before developing your blog content calendar.
That way, you can make sure you have an equal balance of all of your pillars. For example, a flute teacher may cover practice tips, flute repertoire, and types of flutes.
Using a content calendar would help that flute teacher avoid only talking about practice tips. You can rotate through your two to five brand pillars with each post to help market your brand.
I’d avoid choosing too many pillars though. That way, you won’t risk confusing people regarding what your business does.
Break Your Year Into Quarters
As I started working on my blog content calendar, I created a more general sales plan for the year. I chose one main offer to promote per quarter.
Knowing that can help you determine what types of blog posts to publish and when. Using the studio example, maybe you offer a summer camp for all of your private students.
Quarter 2 (April through June) would be a good time to promote that. So you might publish blog posts related to summer music camps or other activities.
Breaking things up into quarters also makes it easier to plan ahead. I’ve found that I can’t plan a full year of blog posts at once. But planning a few months at a time allows me to promote the offer that I want to focus on during that time.
Brainstorm Content Ideas
After you have an idea of what you want to promote and when, you can start to list out more specific content ideas. I use Trello to list out all of the blog post ideas I have.
In Trello, I have a content calendar board. Within that board, I have multiple lists for all of my content pillars. As I’m planning the next quarter of content, I’ll go through that list for inspiration.
You can also use other project management tools, the regular notes app on your phone, or the classic pen and paper. Either way, use a system that works for you and where you can access your ideas when planning content.
Do Keyword Research
Before you just write about whatever topics come to mind, I’d highly suggest doing keyword research. That way, you can make sure people are searching for a given topic in Google.
When first starting a blog, I’d focus on topics that get a decent number of searches per month, ideally at least 100. However, you should also focus on topics with low or medium levels of competition.
You can occasionally write about whatever. But if you want SEO to be a big part of your strategy, you NEED to use strategic keywords most of the time.
For example, a while ago, I published a case study on this blog. It didn’t use SEO, but the majority of my other posts do.
Fill in the Calendar
You have a more general marketing plan for the year. And you’ve come up with topics and done your keyword research. Plus, you know how often you want to publish new posts.
Now, you get to start filling out the blog content calendar. Use all of the information you’ve compiled to help plan out when to publish each topic.
Luckily, you can move things around. So if something changes in your business, it’s not the end of the world. However, it’s good to plan things out to give you a starting point.
Final Thoughts
If you want to grow your business online, you need to create and follow a blog content calendar. The plan can help you stay on track regarding what content to publish and when.
Do you need help with your content calendar and blog post writing? Learn more about how I can help!
Leave a Reply