Editorial planning is the process of creating a strategic plan for producing and publishing quality content that meets your goals. It involves many reiterative steps including identifying the purpose of the content, creating a content calendar, researching topics, and establishing a workflow.
Oh, the irony of my offering advice on the subject of editorial planning when I only haphazardly stick with my own content schedule. You can have all of the best ideas for the content you want to create but without a plan, those ideas may never see the light of day. And even with the best of plans, you will need to remain flexible to accommodate changes in concept, scope, and/or availabilities come up. It’s wise to remember that very little in life is set in stone unless it’s your grave marker.
Strategic planning sets the foundation for success in any endeavor. Consciously or not, no matter the size of the project or whether it’s a single occurrence or one that’s cyclical, there is a plan of action you follow to complete that project. It’s the same with content creation.
Don’t let the word “editorial” scare you into thinking that planning of this nature is limited to newspapers or magazines or any other business where there are one or more persons with “editor” in their job title. Perhaps it conjures up scenes from any number of movies or TV shows centered on publishing/broadcasting where ideas pitched in staff meetings are sneered at by the CEO. As a content creator, you are like that CEO whether you’re heading a team of one or several (but hopefully one that doesn’t sneer).
Key steps in the editorial planning process are as follows:
Define your audience: Identifying the target audience for your content will help you create content that is relevant and engaging for them.
Set goals and objectives: Determining the purpose of your content and what you want to achieve with it will help you measure the success of your content.
Create a style guide: Developing a style guide can ensure that your content is consistent in tone, voice, formatting, and other aspects.
Conduct research: Include data/information to help in creating high-quality content.
Establish a content calendar: Scheduling the activities related to developing content includes determining when the content will be published as well as what the focus of each piece will be.
Develop a workflow: Establish a workflow that outlines how content will be created, reviewed, approved, and published. This ensures that everyone involved in the process is aware of their role and responsibilities.
Measure and analyze results: Tracking the performance of your content will help you identify what is working and what is not, and make adjustments as needed to achieve your goals.
For the purposes of this missive, I’ll assume that you’ve already defined your target audience and have set the goals and objectives you wish to achieve. Also, I’ll assume that you’ve developed a style guide to follow for your platform of choice whether that is a blog, Instagram, TikTok, etc. In creating an editorial plan, you can establish the structure and process that will help you to be more productive, organized, and efficient in your efforts.
There are any number of resources, both free and for fee, that can guide you in the full scope of editorial planning. I’m not endorsing any particular one nor is this an attempt to sell you one that I’ve developed. My goal as always is to enlighten and share. With this in mind, I’m going to focus on the step of establishing a content calendar and share with you how I do that. Not only do I use my content calendar to stay organized, but I also use it to record my ideas and notes on topics in development. And best of all, it’s free and accessible to me at all times.
Let me share a little bit of background first. When I first started this blog in August 2015, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to all that might be involved in editorial planning, much less that I should have a content calendar to help me stay on track. A month or so later when The Husband and I were getting our son settled in for his freshman year in college, I bought a composition notebook at the university bookstore. I thought I might use it to record ideas I’d come across for blog posts. My first notes in that book are about the trip through Arizona the two of us took in November of that year and what we did each day. I used those notes in preparing Nine Days, One Suitcase which summarized the highlights of that trip.
Notes on the next few pages of that book are related to topic ideas for future posts but I mostly wrote and published posts on the fly. Then in March 2016, I started using the notebook to outline blog posts and roughly schedule when they would be published. I began carrying the notebook with me just about anywhere I went, jotting down ideas as they came to me. In meetings at work, I could pretend to be taking notes when actually I was only halfway paying attention and quietly brainstorming instead. Quite quickly, this notebook became not only my repository for every blog-related idea I had but also my content calendar. It was my primary tool for editorial planning and served me well until I reached the last of its pages about 5 years later in the early part of 2021.
I was now faced with a quandary. Should I buy and start a new notebook or look for a more 21st-century option? Every once in a while, I’d run across an influencer on SM who would offer to share their insights on creating content that would go viral and generate lots of income, for a price of course. I signed up for the free introductions to one or two of them and I did pick up a few useful tips. Most of them emphasized the importance of scheduling and I recall one sharing a peek at their calendar template which was nothing more than an Excel spreadsheet. I could easily create my own calendar in Excel so to me, that didn’t seem to be a much better solution than my old-school notebook.
Then I thought about how much I missed my Outlook work calendar that I’d used to keep track of everything going on in my life. Since retiring a year earlier, there were no longer meetings on my schedule and besides, I wasn’t going much of anywhere at that point in the pandemic. Sporadically, I would note what few appointments I did have during that time on the calendar on my iPhone. I had been able to see my work calendar on my iPhone so that wasn’t something new to me but I’d never given much thought to how I might continue to use an electronic calendar in my “after-work” life.
I have/use several GMAIL accounts, each serving a different purpose. One is related exclusively to Poshmark, another is one that I use mostly for shopping and non-blog-related newsletters, and yet another that I share with The Husband for use with our household/financial accounts. Of course, there’s a fourth one that is devoted to this blog. I can access all of these accounts on my iPhone so I began to poke around and experiment with adding my content schedule to the calendar related to this blog’s GMAIL account.
It was at the beginning of March 2021 that I first started using my Google calendar and it took me some time to get used to the change. I’d been used to seeing my editorial plan and content calendar as lists as opposed to a typical monthly grid so I gave myself a transition period in which I did it both ways. By the end of that first month, I had fully transitioned and that old notebook is now a treasured keepsake.
One of the drawbacks of my notebook had been my fear of losing it. In the early days of this blog, I wasn’t yet using a cloud account to store my images. Instead, the ones for upcoming posts that I was still editing were mostly kept on a thumb drive so that I could work on them during a break at work. If not already uploaded into WordPress, I had no other copy. And of course, one day I lost that thumb drive and several posts worth of images. After that, I figured out a better and safer way to manage my images but still kept my notebook.
Nowadays, I use my Google calendar not only to keep track of scheduling plans but also to jot down notes about the topic of the post and plan the outfit I’ll wear in the accompanying images. It gives me a visual picture of the posts planned in the weeks and months ahead and I can easily move those “appointments” around as needed. When a new idea for a topic pops into my head, I can add it to a “notes” file which I will later look back on as I periodically review my content calendar. I typically spend an hour or so twice a month on editorial planning.
How does my outfit in these photos related to the topic of editorial planning? Last month in 3 Easy No-Fail Looks I’m Wearing On Repeat This Winter, I wrote about the formula I’d followed to create those looks and that it had occurred to me that I had the makings of a mini-capsule. I stated that I would be putting that theory to a test as I planned out three more looks using just those pieces, each to be featured in upcoming posts.
The look in this post is the first of those three. In this ensemble, I’ve matched up the sweater from Outfit 3 and the skirt from Outfit 2 with the jacket from Outfit 1. The boots are also from Outfit 1 as are the necklaces.
Let’s Wrap This Up
Now, onto the Fine-Whatever link-up. Today’s featured post from the last link-up, Comfy Cozy Looks, was added by Lucy over at Lucybertoldi.com: Fashion Confessions of a Montreal Styling Diva. I admire Lucy’s uncanny ability to inspire me and others to dress up for life.
If your goal is to create/produce high-quality and relevant content on a regular and consistent basis, then a good chunk of your time should be spent doing editorial planning. I hope that the steps that I’ve outlined are helpful in guiding you to success. And while I’m aware that there are calendaring tools that offer more integrated functions for scheduling and posting, I’ve found that my Google calendar fits my needs and it could be the right tool for you. What’s your approach to editorial planning?
Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: This is an unsponsored post; however, some or all of the links to clothing items are associated with an affiliate program where I earned a few cents for each click.
Photo credit: MMPerez
22 Comments
Great post! I needed to read this today. Planning and scheduling are crucial to success, and it is so easy to get distracted and slip down the rabbit hole. I appreciate this timely reminder.
Thanks for sharing how you go about planning your posts! I try to stay consistent but don’t really plan way ahead of time. I just share what I love and that flows for me. Love the idea of using a notebook to jot down ideas that pop into my head. I adore this chic look and how you mixed pieces from different outfits together. Thanks for the link up!
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
I always enjoy your well researched, intelligent and informative posts. Thank you for sharing some of your ideas on organising blog posts, I’m afraid mine have been a bit hit and miss over the years (and more miss, truth be told!) so I’m grateful for any good advice!
Thank you for running the linkup!
Donna 🤖❤️🐝
I think I need to print this post and stick it inside my calendar which I just started using. Shhh…don’t tell anyone, but I don’t even know what I’m going to write about until I start writing. I need to be more intentional in that! Thanks for all of the ideas! And, thanks for the link party! Please join me on Friday!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
I’m a real planner. I plan most things ahead and stick to a pretty tight scedule. That sounds organised, but it can be more spontaneously. I should work on that.
Excellent post. I use Powerpoint for my calendar. I also missed my work calendar when I retired. I use the Google calendar which synchronises across 3 email accounts. It’s a fun challenge to make sure there are plenty of activities!
Oh Rena, you got me with this one: It’s wise to remember that very little in life is set in stone unless it’s your grave marker.- ha!! So True! You are speaking right to the very heart of the matter here, a;; this blogging stuff looks waaaaaay easier than it is!
xo,
Kellyann
This is such a helpful post. I use Trello for my content planning. Love your winter outfit formula and these looks!
Jill – Doused in Pink
You look so chic in that outfit!
I am a paper and pencil gal so I usually take out my calendar and try to plan my fashion posts about a month ahead. If an idea comes to me when I am not home, I will jot in down in a note on my phone. My travel content comes and goes depending what we do so then I have to up my game in the fashion department. Mainly I want to be an inspiration to other women that they can be creative, shop their closets, thrift and yes sometimes splurge but that really fashion can be affordable and fun.
http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
This is great and useful advice about planning. I think anyone’s perspective that is useful for those who create different types of content can see this as great value. Love that you shared this enjoy the rest of your week.
https://www.bauchlefashion.com/2023/02/5-must-thrift-fashionphile-finds-crowd.html?m=1
Love your leopard and denim mix and all three looks you are mixing and matching from! You are super organized and have great tips for content. Thanks for sharing and the link up!
Thank you for sharing your ideas and advice about editorial planning. Thank you for sharing this post in the Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 53.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
It’s always interesting to hear what other people use for their calendar and keeping track of things. I was using the calendar app on my phone, but I like seeing everything at once so I’ve been printing out monthly calendars. I imagine I will transition to a similar electronic version at some point!
Yes, I make notes, but this is very helpful Rena, thanks for sharing. Jacqui x
I am grateful that you shared the editorial planning process with us and shared your thoughts and recommendations.
NEW POST: https://www.melodyjacob.com/2023/02/best-shampoo-for-dandruff.html
I love writing with my own hand rather than typing when I’m in the creative stage, but dislike toting around a notebook. I came across an app called Penbook. It uses an Apple Pencil. I confess, it’s not cheap. I gad to upgrade to a newer iPad, and purchase the Apple Pencil (although there are now some off-brand pencils that supposedly work, which cost less.) I can make as many notebooks and calendars in it as I want. I currently have 13 notebooks and 2 calendars.
Love your leopard skirt.
Michelle
https://funkyfashionstyle.com
Really helpful tips about the editorial calendar. My blog is mostly my hobby, but I’ve been trying to be more intentional with it since rebranding from my homeschool blog. Visiting from Marsha’s Final Friday.
So very interesting, a lot of good tips there. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you Rena for this interesting and helpful post. I use a notebook, as sometimes I am “old school” but will look into putting it on a calendar. Love the look you created from your other pieces, that leopard skirt is fabulous!
thanks for linking!
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
I really need to plan ahead more – I mostly rely on my diary but that gets full with everything else. I sometimes make notes in a notebook but then that’s something else to misplace! An electronic version would probably make life easier! Thanks for linking up!
Emma xxx
http://www.style-splash.com
It’s interesting to read how organised you have been with your blog over the years! 🙂 I started blogging every day, taking a photo then writing a post and sharing it same day. Of course now that’s a lot different, I have a backlog of outfits I need to post, and some weeks I can have the full week of posts scheduled out in advance, others I’m writing post at the last minute before publishing on my usual posting days, haha! Life is too hectic to have any routine around blogging for me. I was intending to have some posts drafted this weekend, but it hasn’t happened, so a grand total of 0 posts scheduled for next week. I better get to it! haha!
Thanks for joining the Weekday Wear Link up 🙂