Consistency is the most crucial key to success in content creation, and a content calendar is one of the best tools to help you become more consistent as a content creator. Are you interested in learning how to create a content calendar? Read more to find out how!
Consistency is key!
Regardless of what kind of content creator you are, you’d benefit a lot from being able to produce consistent content in terms of quality, brand, and frequency. You are more likely to gain and retain supporters when people know what they can expect from you and where and when they can access it.
That’s where the content calendar comes in. It helps you plan out your content and gives you a birds-eye view of everything you’re producing. It is an integral tool in content planning and strategizing and will help you take your content to the next level.
Here are some tips to guide you in creating your own content calendar and a small GIFT from us over at Gank, so make sure you read until the end!
Tip #1: Use the Hero, Hub, and Hygiene Content Pyramid
Our first tip would likely be the most complex of the bunch, but it’s worth it when strategizing on the kinds of content you’ll make. The Hero, Hub, and Hygiene Content Pyramid is a content structure used by content marketers to channel their energies appropriately to content that gets them the most results. This also applies to content creators like us since we use our content for marketing ourselves.
Hero, Hub, and Hygiene represent your content’s three critical goals in helping you build your brand.
Hero: Authority and Impact
Hero Content is all about showcasing the best of your brand. These pieces of content should represent you as a content creator at your finest. The main goal of this type of content is to create strong emotional connections with your audience and capture their attention. This can help to increase brand awareness, build loyalty, and drive traffic to your website or social media channels.
Another important detail for Hero content is its higher production value compared to your other content. This usually means allocating more time and resources to its production and being more meticulous in its execution. Given the commitment involved in its creation, Hero Content is produced less frequently than the other two, usually just monthly or bi-monthly when starting out.
Hub: Consistency and Trust
Hub content is all about engaging and retaining your current audience. This will be the meat and potatoes of your content strategy, your regular content that keeps your audience coming back for more. The focus of your hub content will be the interests and needs of your target audience. After all, its main goal is to build a relationship between the content creator and their audience.
Your hub content will establish the tone of your brand. It is important to produce this sort of content regularly to properly set expectations and keep your audience engaged in the long term. When starting out, it’s a good idea to produce Hub Content at least once a week. While it shouldn’t be as glitzy as your Hero Content, it should still reflect the quality you want your brand to be known for.
By consistently producing high-quality Hub Content, you can establish a loyal following, drive traffic to your channels, and grow your brand’s reputation and authority in your industry or niche.
Hygiene: Discovery and Visibility
Low risk, low effort is the name of the game when it comes to your Hygiene Content. These filler content keeps your online presence active throughout the week as you work on more mindful projects. This comes in the form of content that doesn’t require a lot of planning or production, and it’s often shared on a frequent or daily basis.
While Hygiene Content may not have the same impact or reach as Hero or Hub Content, it’s still an essential part of any content strategy. By producing consistent and engaging Hygiene Content, you can still build a loyal audience, encourage engagement, and reinforce your brand’s identity and values.
Striking a balance
Balancing your content properly among these three will help you create consistent content regularly. Chart out your Hero Content well in advance to give yourself enough time to produce it to the highest quality. Make sure you get your Hub Content out according to the schedule, and it would also be awesome if they could tie into your most recent or upcoming Hero Content in some way. Keep producing fun bits of Hygiene Content that give out minor life updates or follow the latest trends to get more eyes on your brand. You can even use snippets of your Hero and Hub Content as teasers and include those in your Hygiene Content schedule.
Tip #2: Categorize your content into content buckets
While the Hero, Hub, and Hygiene Model organize your content according to purpose, your content buckets will help you manage them by topic and focus. Think of content buckets as feature columns in a magazine or website. Each bucket would offer something unique and consistent for your audience to look forward to.
Take a look at the content you’ve already made and the content you’re planning to make. Can you find similar threads that connect them together? Those are your content buckets. They’re important in ensuring that your content stays on point with your brand. It’ll allow you to see how your content is doing from a broader perspective instead of on an individual level. By strategizing and planning in content buckets, you’ll end up creating consistent content over extended periods.
For example, a game streamer might have content buckets that look something like this:
Reaction Streams, Gaming with Subscribers, Twitch Raids, Try Hard Ladder Climbs, Viewer Challenges, etc.
On the other hand, a Cosplayer might have content buckets that look like this:
Photoset Announcements, Cosplay Collaborations, Behind the Scenes, Event Coverage, Fan Requests, Supporter Shoutouts, Cosplay Teasers, etc.
These content buckets are not set in stone; they change over time as you discover more about the kind of content you like producing. If you find yourself creating similar types of content, then maybe they deserve their own content bucket.
Tip #3: Plan out your content schedule for the month
Now that you’ve more or less categorized your content in terms of purpose and topics, you can start planning your content schedule for at least a month. Planning has a considerable impact when it comes to creating consistent content. Plotting your content for an extended period allows you to create your personal process flow as a content creator.
It takes a lot of discipline when it comes to sticking to a schedule, and it may seem pretty daunting at first. However, through this discipline, you can form good habits regarding content creation.
Most important is that you don’t bite off more than you can chew; you don’t have to plan content for every day. Remember to give yourself ample time to produce quality content and make sure that you have breaks in between production cycles.
Don’t sweat it when you miss a schedule, particularly when you’re still starting out. There is value in experiencing these growing pains early and understanding what caused the delays. Don’t be afraid to opt for a lighter schedule when you frequently miss targets. Remember that our goal is consistency rather than just frequency. Consistently producing one incredible piece of content every week is better than having 3 pieces of content one week and then altogether skipping the following week.
Use your content schedule to build habits in yourself as a content creator as well as your audience and supporters.
Tip #4: Map out your social media posting schedule
Once you have your content schedule down, it’s time to create a social media posting schedule to go along with it. Social media is the perfect platform for the bulk of your Hygiene Content to primarily increase your online presence. Use your social media posts to pad the space between your main content releases to retain audience engagement during these content downtimes.
Another way to utilize social media is to help you get more eyes on your content. While your Hero and Hub content has to be purely on brand, your social media posts can pander a bit to the algorithm. That means you can experiment with the latest trends on different platforms. You’d be surprised at how much impact using a trendy song can make on your short-form videos.
When creating your social media posting schedule, be careful with oversaturating your feed with these tiny bits of content. Like everything else, we must practice moderation to avoid flooding your supporters’ feeds and becoming muted or unfollowed.
Tip #5: Keep a content repository
As with all plans, you’re expected to call audibles and make changes along the way. This will lead you to shelve some of your content ideas in favor of those which are more timely or urgent. Don’t be disheartened when this happens, as you can use these ideas later. Store these ideas in a content repository and categorize them properly, just as you would your planned content. This would allow you to slot them into your content schedule seamlessly.
Another thing is that while we strive for consistency in content creation, the creative process is not set in stone. Keeping a content repository also helps you bank evergreen content for times when you seem to be suffering from creative block. You can use these as content prompts whenever you feel like you’re running out of ideas.
Keeping an organized content repository allows you to take advantage of your burst of creativity while preparing you for unforeseen circumstances that would have otherwise messed with your content schedule.
Content Calendar Template
With these five tips, we’re sure you already know how to create a content calendar for yourself. Pretty soon, you’ll be well on your way to creating consistent content that brings in new audiences while at the same time keeping your supporters engaged and wanting more. But that’s not all we have for you!
We also created a Content Calendar Template to help you execute all the tips above to be more consistent in your content creations. You can download or make a copy of the content calendar template HERE.
Hopefully, all of these can get you closer to your content creator dreams. We’d love to be a part of your journey; join us on Gank today!
