Business publication plan
WE CREATE YOUR OWN PUBLISHING PROJECT
Publishing is no longer an elitist luxury, it’s a necessity for all companies with an internet presence. Business survival depends on the creation and dissemination of quality editorial content: useful, coherent, structured, well-conceived and properly edited content, circulated in the right medium, at the right time.
Nowadays companies can’t settle for merely being and doing. They also need to talk about what they are and what they do, showing their audience their distinctive features, the ones that set them apart from the competition. When the company becomes a benchmark in its sector, it also naturally achieves a better position in search engines and benefits from a greater demand for its products and services.
The need to publish forces the company to define an editorial program, because content can’t be created and disseminated in an improvised way. A business publications plan has to be set up as part of an editorial policy, with a particular set of objectives and a budget allocation.
Corporate editorial strategy
Your company should adopt an editorial policy that defines the following aspects:
- what you’re going to publish: the types of content and topics you want to disseminate, structured by subject categories, which will be linked to the most useful keywords for the company;
- how much content you’re going to publish: the length and frequency of the planned publications;
- when you’re going to publish: the general publication calendar, organised by months, quarters, semesters or years;
- where you’re going to publish: the chosen publication media, which may be your own or those of third parties: website, blog, social media, printed or digital magazines, newspapers, printed or digital books, ephemeral media, etc.;
- how you’re going to publish: in terms of form (general design lines and presentation criteria with defining characteristics of the corporate publishing label), the background (what the editorial line will be, what controls and limits will be imposed on the published content, what degree of interaction will be allowed with the public) and the means required (budget allocation, human and material resources to be allocated to producing publications);
- who you’ll be publishing for: the recipient of the publications (individual reader or user looking for information, potential clients, companies in certain sectors, associations or specialised circles, etc.);
- who will manage the publications: internal editorial department, external editorial team or mixed team (internal and external) in charge of creation, coordination, execution and editorial production.
Editorial programme
The editorial plan or programme is the document in which the catalogue of contents and works to be published in a certain period is set out in a more specific way, along with the set of resources assigned to its production, in accordance with the already defined editorial policy. At textinnova we help you develop this editorial plan tailored to your company. Below we outline the main points that should be dealt with in the editorial programme.
Choice of editorial content for different media
A schedule of publications is drawn up for the media where the company wants to be present:
- Small publications: company website and blog, presentations, newsletters, brochures, social media content. Deciding on the topics and categories you want to publish in and the different types of content (texts, illustrations, videos) in a structured and well-planned way.
- Large publications: books and magazines created and edited on the company's own initiative, or feature articles to be published in other newspapers or magazines.
Staying focused on the objective you're aiming for and on the characteristics of each medium. When it comes to electronic publications, it's best to decide on the keywords of the chosen topics and to plan how internal or external links will be introduced, so you can improve SEO positioning.
Publications calendar
The deadlines for creating, editing and publishing the content scheduled for the period in question (annual, semi-annual, quarterly) must be established, with a monitoring plan and alternative options in case unforeseen contingencies arise.
Content marketing plan
One of the fundamental parts of the company's editorial programme is the creation of original content, prepared by an internal or external editorial team. The editorial programme should have a team of editors under editorial management, always within the framework of the company's editorial policy.
The forms of authorship of each published piece will be set out in the programme:
- individual authorship;
- co-authorship;
- guided collective authorship;
- corporate authorship.
Graphic designers (illustrators, photographers) and translators will also be appointed. In the case of more complex publications, like technical or academic journals, an editorial board and a committee of experts should also be involved.
Editing, production and publication
The content must go through an editing and production process that ensures the quality of the publication. On other pages we explain the different phases of this process (content editing, editing and proofreading, typesetting and layout, etc.), which should be correctly managed and coordinated by an editor or editorial consulting team.
Making the editorial plan part of the marketing strategy
From a commercial point of view:
- corporate publications can have a sales objective, as in the classic model of the publishing industry, or
- they can be part of a commercial strategy that pursues sales of another product or service.
The second case is the most frequent. The pieces that are published must be consistent with this strategy, which will then be taken into account when defining the company's editorial policy.
In fact, publications have become the axis of new content marketing strategies, not only because they help to promote products and services, but also because they convey the company's know-how and give it prestige.
Are you wondering how to define or update your editorial programme for the next periods? Ask us.