The EF blog

Content strategy, curation & editing

At EF Educational Tours, I’m responsible for creating EF’s curating story ideas, creating the editorial calendar, and co-editing all blog content. Luckily, when it comes to educational travel, there’s no shortage of stories. The tricky part is just deciding how to narrow down a (literal) world’s worth of content to match all of EF’s business, brand, and seasonal needs. And, of course, sharing that content in creative, unique ways that inform, engage, and inspire all of our different audiences.



So, what does it look like to build the content calendar?


Step 1: Be a sponge

I work with marketing to figure out what’s coming down the pipeline for the next quarter and lean into my knowledge of the business to see what our customers are currently thinking, feeling, and questioning.


Step 2: Get the thinking cap

Now that we know the business needs, it's time to come up with creative ways to support them—whether that means leaning into one of our ongoing blog series or creating something entirely new.


Step 3: Start plotting

Up next, I schedule the stories, double-checking to make sure we have a good mix of topics and are planning for seasonal SEO needs. (See the Q1 calendar below as an example.)


Step 4: Dive into the details

Either I write the blog myself, or Heather (copy ACD) and I split the work as co-editors, working closely with the writer to determine the angle and editing the piece for craft, content, style, and SEO.


Content creation


As part of my job, I also create templated content series that 1.) give EF ownable brand content and 2.) make it easier for other writers and designers to quickly plug in new stories.  

Here are a few series I’ve created:



“Where are they now?”

This series highlights former student travelers, showing how their EF tours helped them grow in the moment and leave on the path to so much more. Read Murugi's story here. Read Marissa's story here.

Group Leader Coffee Break


This series was created to build a stronger sense of community among Group Leaders while showcasing the breadth of EF's offerings.


See the series here.

Talk the talk


Here, we film students on tour as they challenge themselves to speak the local language. In addition to highlighting how tour brings classroom lessons to life, we also show real-time examples of students getting out of their comfort zone and gaining confidence.


See an example here.

The making of


EF carefully designs each and every EF tour with the help of educators, local guides, and subject matter specialists. This series offers a behind-the-scenes look at that process.


See the series here.

Teachers on EF tours


In this multi-media series, we hand educators the mic and let them explain why they love traveling with EF in their own words.


Read Stephanie's story here.

Read Natalie's story here.

Can’t get enough blog writing? Check out this page.