New User Question: How Many Divvy Calendars Do I Need?
Since launching Divvy back in September of 2011, we’ve had the chance to talk content with hundreds of marketers, content practitioners and media specialists. The only constant that we’ve recognized among these conversations is that every organization is unique, especially when it comes to the maturity of their overall content strategy, planning and production processes.
On the mature, well-seasoned side of the coin, an organization’s “managing editor” or “chief content officer” is typically able to set up a Divvy account and quickly understand/adapt Divvy’s multi-calendar structure, workflow and content data management offerings to fit their existing structures and processes. If Divvy fits like a glove, they’ll be nice and cozy for the foreseeable future. If the fit needs a little tailoring, then we jump on the phone and talk through it.
On the noobie side of the coin, some hand-holding is often required, but the teacher in me loves this part just as much (if not more) as talking shop with the pros. Earlier this week, we received an email asking…
“We are a church. How do you figure out how many calendars you need?”
Most churches probably don’t have a seasoned publishing veteran at the helm of their communications department. But they have a congregation to serve and lots of programs and activities to promote. How many content calendars DO they need?
Since this is one of the most important decisions that new Divvy customers need to make, I thought I’d dig into this thought process (and our methodology) a bit to help all new Divvy customers determine their ideal calendar setup (and your Divvy plan level).
Content Strategy Introspection
- Your Org Chart - How is the organization structured? Are there multiple markets, departments or business units? Do they each need a separate calendar or a set of calendars? As much as we’re not a fan of silos, some organizations are stuck with them. If that’s the case, this might be a good calendar setup for your Divvy account.
- Your Goals & Objectives - Occasionally, organizations choose to set up their calendars based on specific business objectives that they’ve identified through strategic planning efforts. Examples we’ve seen include a New Customer Acquisition calendar, a Customer Retention calendar or a Community Engagement calendar.
- Your Buyers/Audiences - We’ve talked a lot about the importance of buyer profiling as part of your organization’s ongoing content marketing effort. Some organizations have fully embraced this concept and set up individual calendars for the different buyer/audience segments, profiles or personas for which they’ve identified and created content plans.
- Your Content Topics, Categories, Themes or Campaigns - Coincidentally, I just talked with a potential Divvy customer last week and she was heading down the path of creating individual calendars for each of the major themes that they’ve identified through their content strategy efforts. We’ve also seen plenty of folks organize their calendars via specific campaigns, which helps keep all campaign-specific content separated and organized.
- Primary Content Vehicles / Channels - This is probably the most popular scenario we see organizations using. If your company has well-established, content distribution vehicles and social media channels, you can set up individual calendars for your website, blog, email marketing, video marketing, social and print (just to name a few).
- Frequencies - As you think through these different calendar-setup scenarios, it might be beneficial to keep content production/publishing frequencies in mind. If your organization simply doesn’t produce that much content each day/week, then you may be fine managing your entire content marketing effort with one calendar. If you are on the high-volume side of the coin, then Divvy’s multi-calendar architecture and color-coded master calendar will serve you well.
- Your Team - The last piece to consider is your team of contributors that will help you get all this done. You need buy-in and adoption. Which scenario would be an obvious fit that they’ll easily understand and adapt to quickly?
Quick Note for Agencies
Much of the thought process discussed above is obviously tailored for individual companies. If your agency is looking at setting up Divvy for your customers, you just need to walk through this same exercise with each client so you understand their organizational structure, content strategy and editorial schedule. Use this info to guide the setup and implementation process.
What Makes the Most Sense for Your Organization?
At the end of the day, which calendar setup fits your organization’s structure and content strategy the best? There’s really no right or wrong way. We’ve tried our best to architect Divvy to fit all possible scenarios and we hope that this blog post helps you find your ideal approach.
Need More Divvy Calendars?
One final note (shameless plug)…In the event that you want to get more content calendars added to your Divvy plan, remember that you can upgrade at any time. Just log in to your Divvy account, go to My Account and click the “Change Current Plan” link.
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