Why your animal health content strategy needs an editorial calendar

In last month's post, I explained how inconsistent blogging can hurt your veterinary business.

To avoid those pitfalls, this month, I'm discussing how an editorial calendar can help you succeed at content marketing.

An editorial calendar is a planning tool - a place to store content topics, publication dates, and where to share them. Essentially, it's an aid to mapping a content creation and publication strategy.

The editorial calendar doesn't need to be fancy or sophisticated, but it can be if you want it to be. If you're a small vet clinic, you could build your calendar in Excel or Google Calendar.

If your animal health organization is larger, with multiple people involved in content planning and creation, you could invest in one of the many collaborative platforms available: Notion or Asana are two examples.

Regardless, I want to stress that using an editorial calendar, even if that means jotting things down in a notebook to collect ideas and develop publication timeframes, is more important than selecting the right platform.

An editorial calendar will organize you and get you in the habit of regular posting, which is vital to successful content marketing.

Seven reasons why an editorial calendar is invaluable

Still not sold on the benefits of an editorial calendar? Here are seven reasons why you should start using one today.
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1. Consistent content output – once you've established a plan, you'll create a constant flow of content on your website and social media. This activity engages your audience and keeps them attentive to your products and services.
2. Seasonal relevance – an editorial calendar helps you track when seasonal care or events occur, such as vaccination drives, pet adoption days, or spay/neuter clinics, so you can create content to promote them.
3. Diverse content – advanced knowledge of your topics gives you time to incorporate different types that appeal to a broader audience, i.e., mix things up by posting articles, videos, or infographics.
4. Improved SEO – planning allows you to research keywords and optimize your content for search engines, which helps improve your online visibility, making it easier for potential clients to find you.
5. Targeted audience engagement - you can create more engaging and relevant posts when you plan content that aligns with the needs and interests of your target audience and subsets. This approach leads to higher audience interaction and better conversion rates.
6. Measurable results – with a planned editorial calendar, you can track the performance of your content over time to monitor if your content strategy is producing positive results. Analyzing website traffic, social media engagement, and conversion rates helps you gauge what works best, allowing for data-driven decision-making.
7. Better Organization: an editorial calendar helps in organizing marketing campaigns and promotions. You can strategically plan product launches, discounts, or awareness campaigns, ensuring maximum impact.

An editorial calendar is a simple but powerful tool to enhance your content marketing strategy so your veterinary clinic or animal health business can meet its marketing goals.
 
Suzanne Quigley is a copywriter specializing in veterinary, equine, and animal health markets. If you need a copywriter experienced in blogging, case studies, white papers, web content, SEO, and more, contact her at 508-277-4929 or [email protected].