As I look out the window at the snow falling on the pine trees, I am reminded that there are millions of people, all over the northern hemisphere, who are doing the same thing. Is there a way to capitalize on this collective experience? There must be an opportunity to leverage shared experiences as part of a content marketing strategy. After all, if millions of people can relate to something, if it has meaning for them, then is also has power.

But how can I figure out what these shared experiences are, and when they will occur? How can I add them to my content plan? There is a simple and ubiquitous tool that can help with this. And there is a good chance you already have one nearby, right now…

Using a calendar for content idea generation

One of the biggest obstacles in creating consistent high quality content is idea generation. This will be a major topic on this site for a long time. But today I’m going to address the lowest of the low hanging fruit – the calendar.

Now, I’m not talking about a calendar app for your smartphone. Nor an editorial calendar plugin for your blog. This is old-school, much like the word “nor”. I am talking about a printed calendar, with dates all laid out in monthly blocks. A calendar where you can look forward and look back. And most importantly, where you can see as many national, regional, and religious holidays as possible at a single glance.

What makes a calendar so powerful for content idea generation? It is universal. It’s part of our collective consciousness. Let me illustrate…

Once the days warm up, we all think about summer days and vacations. When the leaves turn, we think about shorter days and hunkering down for winter. Once winter sets in, we think about the holidays and spending time with family. As soon as we get past the holidays, there is a brief period of consideration for the upcoming new year. And then, when you just can’t take any more cold weather, we think about spring flowers and being able to get outside again. And the cycle starts over (I wrote this from a northern hemisphere perspective, but I’m sure you folks south of the equator go through a similar cycle).

So what does this all mean for your content creation? It means that you have a structure in place. A set of constraints you can work within to create timely pieces of content that will resonate with your audience. By simply looking at a calendar, you’ll know what is likely to be on your prospects’ minds when they reach a certain date, or month, or season.

Even if your product or service has nothing to do with the weather outside, or the time of the year, or whatever holiday is coming up next, you can still weave those themes into your content. And thinking about those themes should trigger ideas for your next piece of content.

Let’s look at this calendar concept a little more tactically…

I am writing this article in the middle of February, 2017. So let’s look back at last month (or eleven months into the future) and do some content idea generation for a fictitious small business:

• The first thing I notice about January is that there are few major holidays in January. Here in the US we have Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but that’s about it. Now Dr. King is one of my favorite historical figures, so this would probably be an excellent opportunity to talk about the things he has taught me and how they apply to my business. The key to an article or podcast or video about a significant historical figure is to keep it respectful and “non-salesy”. People will definitely take offense if you try to use their hero’s name to hawk your widget.
• We have one major event that we absolutely can’t pass up – the new year itself. This is a great calendar event to weave into our content. Chances are our product or service makes someone’s life better. The new year gives us an opportunity to point this out. We could write about resolutions, or how we hate resolutions. We could record a video about making life better in 2017. It might be the perfect time for an infographic about planning for a successful “fill in the blank” in 2017.
• This January, we also had a really big event that it might be better to let sail right on past … the inauguration. Politics is almost always a sticky subject, especially if you are writing for a business blog. No matter what you write, it’s virtually guaranteed that half of your customers/prospects will disagree with you – some of them vehemently and vocally. My advice would be to spare yourself the headaches and steer clear of politics on your business website (unless, of course, politics is your business).
• Here in Colorado, and much of the US and Europe, January is a cold and dreary time. This is another theme that we could exploit in our content plan. Maybe provide a list of indoor activities that our product could facilitate. Or write about why this is the perfect time to implement our service because the prospect won’t be distracted by summer fun.
• Finally, there are some great winter time activities that people, at least here in Colorado, absolutely live for. Activities like hockey, skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing. This would be a great opportunity to tie our product or service to one of these activities. Even if the widget is completely unrelated, maybe we create this tie through an analogy or a metaphor. Or we could use it as a personal story that will add flavor to an otherwise dry topic. The point is, people will have these activities on their minds. If we can add them into our content, our prospects will feel like we understand them and know where they are coming from.

So, what ideas have we generated for our timely January content?

1. Let’s start with an article about how our widget will help our prospects with a common new-year’s resolution, or maybe a resolution they haven’t considered.
2. Next up is an infographic about how our widget can be set-up and mastered over a month of long, cold winter days.
3. On MLK Day, we’ll release a podcast episode where we discuss the lessons we have learned from studying Martin Luther King Jr. and how those lessons influenced our business strategy.
4. Toward the end of January, we will publish an article comparing our widget to the rewarding nature of snowshoeing up a mountain, enjoying the view, and then running back down the mountain (if you’ve never done this, it’s an absolute blast).

There you have it, four timely content ideas generated from spending a couple of minutes looking at a calendar.

What’s the next step?

Take some time and go through the rest of the year. Generate content ideas for each month and add them to your content calendar. Finally, as each month gets closer, take a little extra time to do some more research. Maybe there are some funny holidays or “this day in history” dates you could add to your content. Did you know that January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day? This might not be the subject of an entire article, but it could be something you work into a social media post. And you will be far safer talking about Penguins than Presidents.

The beauty of working with a calendar to generate content ideas is that it eliminates the curse of the blank page. A connection to a date, or a month, or a season gives you a place to start. And that is usually all that’s needed to get your creative juices flowing.

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Photo courtesy Gabriel Santiago / Unsplash