Content marketing is driving readers to websites.

Startups that produce their own content can become an authoritative voice in the industry that they cater to. That creates trust, which can lead to higher sales of products and services.

But it’s not just about throwing content onto a website and hoping something resonates with the audience. The entrepreneurs who do the best job of creating content spend a lot of time planning their posts, surveying and understanding their audience and creating a mission statement that focuses their content and achieves the goals they set out.

And a key component to content marketing success? An editorial calendar that plans posts by the day, week, month and year. These calendars can be paper-based, online software tools and do-it-yourself excel spreadsheets or Google calendar and tasks integrated templates.

So why does an entrepreneur need a content calendar?

  1. Saves time and keeps content organized and on track.
  2. Allows for collaboration among teams, freelancers, partners and others.
  3. Plans content around key dates.
  4. A key tool for content marketing.
  5. Search engine optimization or SEO relies on content and that can generate more sales.

On Wednesday, a group met at Galvanize in downtown Austin for a workshop on creating a content calendar. This is the SlideShare presentation from that event: