Manage Your Blog Schedule With Trello and Excel
Watch our blogging related webinar to see more tools that make business blogging easier!
We all know the importance of maintaining a business blog. It’s crucial for website ranking and also for converting site visitors to customers. The challenge is that blogging can be a chore to keep up with.
Thankfully, there is a ton of technology available to make your life as a blogger easier. Here, we’ll focus on staying organized. With a couple free tools to plan out a blogging schedule and track the editorial process, you’ll have no trouble consistently publishing great content for your site.
Content: Managing the Editorial Process Using Trello
We love Trello’s simple, visual approach to project management, and running our blog editorial process is just one of many ways we use Trello over at Qebot. Click here for free access to the template used below.
If you’re new to Trello: Trello projects are called “boards" (the template used here is an example of a board). Trello boards are made up of columns, or “lists" (here, Ideas, Writing, Editing, etc.). Lists are made up of individual items, called “cards,” which can be dragged between lists.
This functionality makes Trello great for moving projects through phases: When you’re ready to start writing a blog, move its card from the Ideas list to the Writing list. When it’s read for editing, move it to the Editing list, and so on.
Coming up with new blog ideas
Keep all of your blog ideas in one place! At Qebot, we use the Ideas list of our Trello board. Oftentimes, you’ll be struck with an idea for a blog topic spontaneously. With the Trello mobile app, you can easily add a new blog idea card from anywhere, without the risk of it being lost as a random note.
Trello is also great for fleshing out ideas. Team members can add comments to cards, creating a discussion around a blog topic, and vote on which ideas they like most.
Tracking your blog from ideation through publishing
Trello makes it simple to manage a blog through each phase of the project, from ideation through publishing. Once you’ve committed to a blog idea, simply drag it from the Ideas list to the Writing list, and assign an author by adding one of your team members to the card.
The blog can be project managed right from the card. Authors can create todo lists for researching and writing tasks, and they can enlist the help of other team members by adding them to the card.
Once a blog is written, its author can move it into the Editing column, and assign an editor. Edited blogs get moved to the Ready to Post column, and posted blogs get moved to Published.
One simple template gives you a repository for your content ideas, a platform for team collaboration throughout the writing process, and a way to track your blog from start to finish. Access the free Trello board template here!
The Big Picture: Maintaining a Blogging Calendar Using Excel
While Trello is great for managing the editorial process, it’s also important to maintain a high-level calendar of your blogging activity. A blogging calendar ensures that you have enough content prepared to release regular blogs, and it will keep your authors accountable for writing deadlines.
There are plenty of tools to that will work for creating a blogging calendar, but we love a simple spreadsheet. Download our free Excel template. Or if you’re collaborating with many users in your company, give our Google Sheets version a try.
When it comes to content marketing, we always recommend businesses set goals that they can realistically meet. For small businesses new to blogging, we suggest starting with one blog a week.
Creating a link between Trello and Excel
Once you’ve committed to one of your blog ideas, move it to the idea column in Trello. Click on the card to open its details, and then click Share and more… Copy the card link to your clipboard and head over to your blog calendar spreadsheet.
Paste the Trello card link in the Trello Link column of your calendar. Now you have direct link to your Trello card as it moves through the editorial process.
Filling out your calendar
Complete the Title and Details columns, so you have a general idea of what the blog will cover. If you haven’t thought of a title, make sure you have the Trello Link field complete, so you don’t lose track of your project.
The Author and Post Date columns may seem unnecessary, but we find them helpful in making clear who’s doing what and when each blog is due. Your blog authors will appreciate it too, knowing there’s a place where all deadlines are laid out.
Remember: blogging is a marketing activity! Use the Keywords and Target Demo columns to make sure you have a clear idea of which keywords you want to rank for and who you’re targeting. Once you’ve decided on targeting, consider how you will convert your readers. Do you want them to download content? Fill out a web form? Include your call-to-action in the CTA column to make sure it’s included in your blog.
Stick to this procedure and you should find it much easier to keep up with your blogging goals. The best part is, both tools are free! Shoot for a blog a week, at first. Before you know it, content marketing will feel like second nature.
Download the templates:
Watch our blogging related webinar to see more tools that make business blogging easier!
Want to learn more about how Qebot can help you grow you business? Check us out at qebot.com.