Market Core · Content Calendar · Module
The cadence
How often the organisation publishes, per channel and per format, set at a level it can hold through a difficult quarter rather than at its best month.
The idea
How it works
Regularity outperforms volume. An audience that knows when something arrives develops a habit; one that receives four pieces one month and none the next does not, and the second organisation is working harder.
The right cadence is the one that survives the worst quarter. Setting it at the best month guarantees an abandonment, and an abandoned schedule costs more than a modest one ever would.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Set it at your worst month, not your best
The schedule is only worth anything if it holds when things are difficult.
- 02
One cadence per channel and format
They have different production costs and different audiences. One rule for all of them fits none.
- 03
Track whether it was held
The percentage of scheduled slots actually filled is the honest measure of the calendar.
- 04
Reduce deliberately rather than drift
Announcing a lower cadence is fine. Quietly missing slots is what damages the habit.
One level in
The components of the cadence
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Announcing a lower cadence is fine. Quietly missing slots is what breaks the habit you were building.
The other modules in content calendar
The plan
What is scheduled, when, and by whom — far enough ahead that production has time, close enough that it can respond to what is happening.
LearnSeasonal moments
The fixed points in the year worth planning around, identified from the audience’s calendar rather than from the organisation’s.
LearnCapacity
How much the organisation can actually produce, approve and publish — with the buffer that lets the schedule survive an ordinary disruption.
Learn