Business marketing isn’t just about throwing money at influencers or trying to find out when to post on social media. It needs to be a complete and total project that is ongoing, timed, creative and budgeted.

Marketers usually use the word “campaign,” which is a series of maneuvers they are using to aggressively market a product or service.

You don’t have to have a marketing degree to implement some of this at your own small business. The first step is to create an editorial calendar.

What is an editorial calendar? In the most basic of descriptions, it’s a calendar that tracks when, where, and why you post to your website/social media/print media.

So, let’s say you are creating an editorial calendar for August. Grab a big paper calendar or use an online one.

Now, take a look at any sales you may have planned, who is working, how busy you are and how much you really need to sell that month. Or how many jobs you must pull if you’re in the service industry.

What a savvy business person would do now is look up the best times to post on social media and actually schedule in those times on their calendar. Then, go back one or two days and schedule what you need to take a photo of or write about.

Are you having a great sale? Awesome, take lots of pictures, edit them, and schedule to post them onto social media.

Did you just realize you haven’t posted a blog post or YouTube video in a long time? Schedule that in too! If you have a really busy day that day and don’t get around to it, you can move it around easily.

Share your calendar with employees, too! Let them see what you are planning and maybe they will want to help too!

The point of an editorial calendar is more than keeping you on track with marketing, it’s to make you think about and plan your content. Real, organic content is fantastic for Instagram or Snapchat stories and Facebook Live videos, but no one ever said you can’t plan those, too.

Being more mindful and planning out your content and social media can help you out so much in the long run. Creating an editorial calendar is a big step towards reigning in all of your marketing efforts and making them march to the beat of your drum.