Build Your 2024 Content Calendar: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Your content calendar is one of the most important building blocks of your marketing plan. By creating eye-catching content, you can inform your audience, position your brand as a thought leader, and boost SEO. 

But, you might be wondering how to even get started.

Building a content calendar is easier said than done; we know. When you have the right tools, though, it’s really not as difficult as it sounds. In just a few steps, you can plan content for your full year to ensure that you’re connecting with your audience consistently through blogs, email, social media, and other content-related channels. To get you started, we’re sharing this step-by-step guide to building your 2024 content calendar. 

How to Build a Content Calendar in 7 Simple Steps


1. Identify the types of content you need. 

Before you begin, identify the different channels that you’ll be writing content for. This might include blogging, social media, email marketing, podcasts, or webinars. Any channel that you need to be posting on consistently will need its own calendar. 

Pro tip: Build your content calendar in a spreadsheet, using a new page for each type of content. For example, the first page might be blogging, the second social media, the third email marketing, so on, and so forth. 

2. Set a schedule for each type of content. 

Set a schedule for each type of content so that your content team knows when each topic should go out. This will also help you determine how many topics you need for each type of content. Your different channels will all have a set cadence. Maybe you put out one blog a week, one podcast episode every two weeks, and an email every month. Choose a schedule that works best for your audience and your workflow, and try to stick to that schedule as closely as possible.

3. Identify your audience’s pain points. 

Your content really needs to grab the attention of your audience. You have a better chance of doing that if you key into a challenge that they are looking to solve. As an example, your pain point might be that you are ready to build a content calendar but aren’t sure where to begin. That’s how we chose this topic—we know that our audience might struggle at times to map out consistent content. 

4. Research your competitors’ content. 

Researching your competitors’ content is not to suggest that you should use the topics that your competitors write about. Rather, you should see the types of content that they share with their audience. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you must be aware of what your competitors are offering to prospects. Create a content calendar that is very much unique to your company; but, always research competing sites to ensure that you aren’t dropping the ball on any major stressors that your audience might face.

5. Identify the keywords you’re hoping to rank for. 

Using tools like SEMrush allow you to identify keywords that you want to target, increasing your chances of rising to the top of search engine results. By identifying keywords early in your content planning process, you can implement said keywords into your topic ideas.

6. Create topics for each channel. 

Now for the fun part. Begin building your content calendar piece by piece for each channel. We find it most helpful to map out our idea, the description, and target keywords for each topic. With this approach, you can easily delegate these topics to your content experts, and they will understand the direction and purpose of each piece.

7. Cross-reference your topics between channels. 

To make the most of your time and efforts, cross-reference your topics to repurpose as much as you can. For example, if you’ve written a blog article topic that would be great for a podcast episode, you can tweak the topic to fit your podcast audience.

Keep in mind that your audience consumes content differently depending on where they’re getting information. If you are writing a blog article about “10 Things to Know About X,” your podcast audience might prefer the topic to be presented in less of a listicle format and more of a thoughtful discussion. 

The Importance of Timely Content

Though it’s good practice to begin your year with a content calendar, remember that it isn’t set in stone. There will be events that happen in your industry, or even just out in the world, that will cause you to adjust your calendar accordingly.  A content calendar is a great planning tool, but you should always leave room for change. 

Would you prefer that a content marketing team helped you stay connected to your audience? We can help. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

5 Marketing Tips for Information Security Professionals


Information security is a highly technical and fast-paced industry. Its audience members range from technical novices to highly-skilled chief information security officers and other IT professionals. So, how do you speak to both? And, what is the best way to reach these two sides of your target audience? In this article, we’ll share the best ways to connect with your current and potential customers. 

The Most Important Element

When you’re in the information security industry, the most crucial element of marketing is to educate your audience. They are looking for an expert, and by positioning yourself as a thought-leader, you can show them that you are that expert. Especially as security awareness continues to grow and companies understand the weight of a potential security issue, you’ll find that customers will gravitate toward the company they see as most established and knowledgeable. How can you present yourself as both? 

1. Invest in content marketing. 

Content marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tactics that information security professionals can use to build their brand and position themselves as experts. With content marketing, you achieve multiple goals at once. You educate your audience, improve SEO through targeted keywords, and build informational pieces that can be used in various ways—social media, email marketing, blog articles, and more. This piece of your marketing strategy is integral to your overall success. And, with a well-designed strategy, you can create a platform that speaks to several different segments of your audience. 

2. Educate your audience through webinars and podcasts.

Traditional content creation isn’t the only way to reach your audience. In fact, widening your audience through multiple platforms could be the key to broadening your reach. Your company’s team of experts has insight into a variety of topics that others are searching for online. Webinars and podcasts are the perfect way to get the word out. These platforms not only educate your current and potential customers, but they also allow you to generate leads and boost your brand awareness. 

3. Become a guest on blogs, webinars, and podcasts. 

While creating your own content, you can also connect with other industry professionals and influencers to become a guest contributor on blogs, webinars, and podcasts. This tactic puts you in front of potential customers, positions you as an expert, provides you with content to share on your own channels, and creates backlinks for your website (an important element of your SEO strategy). Being a guest contributor has several of the same marketing benefits as creating your own content. It’s one more way to illustrate to your audience that you can take care of them. 

4. Boost your online presence through local SEO. 

Local SEO efforts are crucial to the success of information security professionals. It’s up to your marketing team to ensure that your company is discoverable in a comprehensive set of ways—your web presence is a significant part of that plan. By focusing on local SEO, you help your audience find you quickly online, showing up in their “near me” search results and increasing your local awareness. Among the many ways to keep your website’s SEO healthy include updating your website consistently as well as updating your Google My Business profile. Your customers want someone local they can trust. Local SEO efforts can position you as that company. 

5. Make your website easy to navigate and include resources. 

When your audience finally lands on your website, keep them there. Make your website easy to navigate with informational resources that will paint a positive picture of your brand. Your website is at the center of your customer experience, and so it’s an integral piece of your marketing puzzle. Ensure that your website is a clear representation of what you do and why you do it while giving your customer several ways to contact you, order your product, or begin using a service. 

Marketing within the information security industry can be a different ballgame—one that is much easier to play with a marketing team that has experience with this particular audience. If you need help boosting your marketing strategy, contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.