You probably know that effective marketing content is important for success. But it can be tricky! Over the years, Marketing Strategy Solutions has refined its approach to scheduling and managing a monthly content calendar, and we’d like to share what we’ve learned with you.
How Marketing Strategy Solutions Plans and Manages a Monthly Content Calendar
Here’s how we plan and manage our marketing content calendar month by month, balancing structured routines with the flexibility to adjust as needed. We’ll use September 2024 as an illustrative example.
Step 1: Starting with a Fresh Calendar
Each month, we begin with a clear, organized plan for its content calendar. We use Excel set up to show a month at a glance, but you can use whatever program you’re comfortable with. While the month’s schedule may already be mostly planned, our team creates a new, blank calendar to lay out each post and adjust as needed. This flexibility allows us to prioritize early-week posts first and finalize other content at least two to three weeks in advance. For consistency, each post is typically ready and polished one week before it’s set to go live.
Step 2: Marking Key Dates and Events
The first task in building the monthly calendar is identifying significant dates, such as public holidays or key events. For instance, in September, we highlighted Labor Day and the week of HubSpot’s INBOUND conference, which our founder attended. This event is noted in the calendar, with a social media announcement planned for the Monday of that week. We use color coding to make these events stand out, which is especially helpful in coordinating content with busy schedules or planned absences.
Step 3: Structuring Weekly Content
We focus on scheduling 2–3 posts per week, with a primary focus on LinkedIn, followed by Instagram (obviously, you’ll want to adjust these based on your organization’s needs). We structure our posts around a few key categories that are repeated in a strategic rhythm:
Marketing Strategy Jumpstart: In our case, we have a biweekly content segment called “Marketing Strategy Jumpstart,” which is often accompanied by educational infographics, and is scheduled for Tuesdays every other week. For September, we opted to promote the contributions of our summer interns in Jumpstart, leading to some adjustments in the usual schedule. The Jumpstart series includes a three-day promotional run, meaning each post is accompanied by follow-up content over the next two days. This method ensures consistent visibility and maximizes engagement for key insights shared with our audience.
Blog Article Promotion: We dedicate Thursdays to promoting our latest blog post. Marketing Strategy Solutions publishes a new article each month, and Thursdays become the highlight for sharing this content. You might want to select another day that is good for your audience. While Thursday promotions are generally consistent, we can shift them around as needed to accommodate other campaign priorities.
Flexible Content Day: For us, since we dedicate every other week to our Marketing Strategy Jumpstart, every non-Jumpstart Tuesday is the day for flexible, more dynamic content. Our team fills this day with various posts, such as company updates, shout-outs, special announcements, or repurposed content from prior posts. This flexibility lets us keep the content fresh and engage the audience with real-time updates and highlights of ongoing projects.
Staying Agile with Content Adjustments
While we follow a structured schedule, our team remains flexible enough to adapt to changing needs. If an unexpected event or high-priority topic comes up, we can reshuffle posts to maintain relevance and timeliness. This agility is key to delivering engaging, valuable content that resonates with our audience.
The Bottom Line
By following this structured yet adaptable content calendar approach, we at Marketing Strategy Solutions successfully manage a steady flow of social media and blog content that reflects our expertise and goals. Through consistent routines — like biweekly Jumpstarts and monthly blog promotions — alongside agile planning, we ensure our content remains both organized and responsive to real-time opportunities.
We have shared this information in hopes that you, too, will glean some insights into creating or maintaining a successful marketing content calendar.