72% of digital marketers feel that content creation is their most effective SEO tactic. That means (whether you like it or not) if you want to see the ROI for your social media marketing, you need to consistently create and share valuable, high-quality content with your audience. As your online presence grows, content calendar tools are increasingly crucial resources you can use to efficiently and effectively support your marketing strategy.
What Are Content Calendar Tools?
No more tears over the ol’ spreadsheet! Content calendar tools can help you manage your content creation workflows and organize your publishing timeframe. Content calendar tools can have all kinds of helpful features like:
- Bulk scheduling on multiple platforms
- Suggested hashtags
- Social media analytics and statistic reporting tools to measure growth and engagement
- Social Media ad management
- Third-party integrations with other social media tools
- Calendars that make it easy to see scheduled content at a glance
We honestly can’t believe anyone has gone this long without one!
Why Your Business Needs a Content Calendar Tool
- Save Time & Money
If you’re not using a content calendar tool, you are wasting time and money. Successful executives know that you can’t run a business AND be a CMO. A content calendar tool can save you the hassle of babysitting your Instagram feed every day waiting for the right time to post and free up your time to do what you do best! Content calendar tools can also help you save time by batching your workload and establishing an efficient system for creating content.
- Post Smarter, Not Harder
When you plan your content in advance, you can more efficiently evaluate what should be published and when. Having a bird’s-eye view of your feed will help you iron out any inconsistencies or redundancies. Content calendar tools give you the opportunity to catch totally avoidable (and potentially embarrassing) mistakes by planning ahead.
- Support your marketing strategy
Content calendar tools keep track of what your audience engages with so you can tailor your content accordingly and develop a consistent publishing schedule. Tools like this also encourage more effective collaboration with your team.
Examples of Content Calendar Tools
Here are a few you can experiment with to see what works best for your business.
How to Choose the Right Content Calendar Tool
Choosing the right platform content calendar tool depends on the size of your company, breadth of your online presence, and various other details of your business.
It may take a bit of trial and error to find the content calendar tool that works best for you, but that’s part of the process! Luckily many of these programs have free trial versions of their software so you can test them out to see what best fits your company’s needs.
Here’s an insider secret to get you started. Remember, when you are considering which content calendar tool to use, your brain is trying to figure out how difficult the platform is to use. If you try a content calendar tool that feels too overwhelming, move on! You will likely find yourself discouraged, uninspired, and unmotivated to keep up with it.
Choose a content calendar tool with a visual layout that feels user-friendly and resonates with you. This will make post scheduling feel much more doable and preserve your motivation to create awesome content.
If you’re just getting the hang of this whole social media thing, you may want to start by crafting a killer bio that makes you stand out or figuring out how reels can help your content go viral, then come back to this post. Pin it for later! OR we can always give you a little nudge in the right direction with an Online Impact Audit and help you create a simple plan to maximize your social media strategy, create visibility, make a bigger impact, and attract your ideal customer.