If you’re in the content marketing business, then you’ll soon realize that a content calendar is probably one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself.

Perhaps I’m being biased since I am a huge fan of lists - I just love having everything spelled out for me on what has to be accomplished on a daily basis. For me, this type of organization gives me the motivation to accomplish the maximum amount of work throughout the day, and I’m held personally accountable for how productive I was. A content calendar does just that for a content marketing campaign.

Within a content calendar, you’re able to see what is due when and who is responsible for it. Additionally, you’re able to map out what audiences are beingtargeted for a specific post and where you’re pushing that content out.

As a result, a content calendar is a great tool to measure your results, see how much you have accomplished, and look for other opportunities to expand your reach and engage your audience.

So, what should you consider before creating a content calendar? There are a few questions you should ask yourself:

Who is your target audience?

Deciding who your target audience is, is very important before beginning any content marketing campaign. This is the foundation upon which your content is planned around. You must know who they are so that you can not only provide information that accurately targets both them and their interests, but provide it at the appropriate times when they are most likely to view and consume it.

What types of information do they enjoy consuming?

This will depend upon the type of audience that you are targeting. However, once you have narrowed this down,consider the following: Do they like blog posts, webinars, infographics, videos? What type of information do they enjoy consuming? Written or visual? Placing accurate and effective types of content on your calendar is just as important as having one. A calendar full of the wrong mediums only wastes time and effort.

Have you checked out your competition?

Scoping out the competition and understanding how their content relates to their audience, in addition to what is working for them and what is not, is a great way for you to understand your audience even more. “Spying” on your competitors and understanding what they’re posting is one of the best ways to stay relevant. Sometimes posting "competing" content is a good idea, and sometimes posting when you know they are not can be equally effective.

What keywords and phrases is your target audience looking for?

Although I fully support never focusing on SEO (to learn more click here), I do recommend that you keep in mind the keywords and phrases that your target audience is looking for during a Google search. Knowing these keywords and phrases will provide you with a guideline regarding the creation and placement of your content, and therefore how often or frequently you should revisit keywords and themes on your calendar.

What is the main message of your blog?

Your blog cannot be all over the place. You need to understand what the message or focus of your blog will be. Perhaps your blog will encompass the best ways to test mobile apps – therefore providing information on the best practices of mobile app testing in addition to industry news. You must know what the “theme” of your blog is. This themed message or messages should flow in and out of your content regularly, so mapping it on a calendar is vital.

Why are you creating the blog?

What is your end game? Hopefully it’s to inform your audience about recent developments within your industry and to create a loyal target audience by providing some awesome information. Why you’re creating your blog is going to affect the message that you’re sending – the content that you create to nurture leads is a lot different than the content you create to generate them. Perhaps you need both, that is ok, but the order that your content is structured is why a calendar is so important. Nurturing leads before you generated them is not the best strategy.

One of the hardest parts in the editorial process is to figure out what your business wants to accomplish through their content marketing strategy. However, once you have answered these six pivotal questions, you’ll be one step closer to creating content that your audience enjoys.

This post was originally published on the nDash Marketing blog.