Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
The #ContentChat Bulletin: The Unexpected Reason Your Content Calendar Keeps Falling Apart
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A few years ago, I built what I still think was one of the best editorial calendars I’ve ever created. I even use its format as a template. But the way I position it has completely changed. It was for a client with a growing content program and a lot of ambition. We mapped out the next three months of content in detail: blog posts tied to strategic themes, supporting social content, newsletter features, and even a few assets designed to support an upcoming product launch. Everything connected back to their goals. The cadence was realistic. The topics were strong. My thought leader intake questions were spot-on. On the surface, it was a beautiful, color-coded calendar that brought their content strategy to life. But within a few weeks… it started falling apart. Not because the strategy was wrong. Not because the ideas weren’t good. The problem was something much less obvious—and something I see over and over again when teams try to run their content programs from a calendar alone. You see, the editorial calendar was doing exactly what we asked it to do: organize planned content. What it couldn’t do was enforce the decisions, priorities, and workflows required to protect that plan. You see, a content calendar isn’t just a schedule for content creation. It’s the visible output of your content governance. The marketing leader had hoped the calendar would do the hard work of aligning the leadership team around their efforts and strategies. Instead, it became a graveyard of good intentions felled by lack of follow-through. So how do you keep this from happening to you? 1. Build a Content Intake Process Before You Build a CalendarMost calendars fail because content ideas and requests arrive in too many places:
Without a structured intake process, the calendar becomes reactive instead of strategic. Before adding anything to your editorial calendar, require the requestor to complete a simple request process that answers questions like:
This keeps your calendar from becoming a dumping ground for every good idea someone thinks up in an otherwise unremarkable meeting that could have been an email. 2. Document the Workflow Behind Each Piece of ContentA content calendar shows when something should publish. It rarely shows how the work actually gets done. Every piece of content requires a workflow that includes steps like:
When those steps aren’t defined, deadlines become guesses—and the calendar becomes unrealistic. Clearly documented workflows in the background make the calendar executable, not aspirational. 3. Treat the Calendar as the Output of Your Governance SystemThe strongest content calendars aren’t built until you’ve defined the systems that support them:
Once those elements are in place, the calendar stops being a fragile plan. It becomes a reliable reflection of how your team actually creates and publishes content. You can organize content with a calendar. But only governance will keep that calendar from becoming another collection of random acts of content. Check out the Content Foundations website for some free tools to help you get started on your own documented governance plan. Coming Up on #ContentChatContent Chat is my weekly LinkedIn Live video chat focused on sharing expertise and ideas amongst the content marketing community. Join the conversation on Mondays at noon Pacific / 3 p.m. Eastern. RSVP for our upcoming conversations by clicking the chat date below to get a reminder and to access the chat.
ICYMIYou aren't imagining it—AI is giving you brain fry AI is supposed to make our work easier. But a new study is surfacing a growing problem researchers are calling “brain fry”—mental fatigue from managing and overseeing too many AI tools. This HBR article explores why it’s happening and what it means for knowledge workers. Ai is quickly becoming a core part of your audience We’ve spent years optimizing content for human readers. But increasingly, machines are becoming part of our audience too. This Forrester post explores how AI systems are discovering, interpreting, and recommending content—and what that means for how we create it. Until next time, stay safe and be well! Cheers, Erika |
The #ContentChat Bulletin
Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
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