A Guide to Content Calendars (+ Free Templates for Making One)

What Is a Content Calendar?

A contented calendar (also called an editorial calendar) is simply a docket of erstwhile and wherever you'll people your upcoming content. It helps you negociate your contented instauration and work process.

You tin usage a contented calendar for blog content, societal media posts, email campaigns, videos, and more. 

And it mightiness besides see fields for:

• Titles
• Publication dates
• Team members involved
• Statuses

Here's an illustration of what a basal contented calendar mightiness look like:

Download our escaped contented calendar template to get started.

Why Are Content Calendars Important?

Content calendars streamline your contented instauration and work process. To guarantee you cognize what signifier each portion is at, what’s coming up next, and whether you request to set for immoderate delays. 

Here are immoderate much circumstantial ways a contented calendar tin payment you:

• Consistency: It ensures regular contented publication. Which helps you support a dependable contented travel that tin support your assemblage engaged.
• Collaboration: It creates a cardinal notation constituent for each content-related tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities. Which tin streamline communication.
• Resource management: It allows you to allocate clip and squad members appropriately. So you tin equilibrium workloads.
• Content diversity: With a calendar, you tin incorporated a premix of contented types and topics. To entreaty to antithetic assemblage preferences and screen your taxable country comprehensively.

How to Create a Content Calendar

Below, we’ll locomotion you done however to physique a calendar that allows you to efficaciously program and people your content.

Let’s interruption down the process into a fewer steps:

1. Choose a Calendar Tool

First, deliberation cautiously astir what instrumentality you privation to usage for gathering and maintaining your contented calendar. Because you privation to guarantee it works good for your team. 

You person 2 main options:

• Spreadsheets
• Specialized software

Each has its pros and cons.

Spreadsheets

Software

Pick the instrumentality that works champion for your squad size, budget, and contented needs. 

Here are a fewer different tips to assistance you decide:

• Look for integrations. For example, if you usage a connection level for communication, take a instrumentality that connects with it.
• Ensure it fits your workflow. If you request an support process, prime a instrumentality with built-in reappraisal features.
• Test earlier you commit. Most task absorption tools connection escaped trials—use them.
• Get your team's input. The instrumentality should beryllium user-friendly for everyone.

Remember, you tin ever power to thing antithetic arsenic your needs alteration implicit time.

We’ll sermon a fistful of antithetic tools successful item aboriginal successful this article. 

2. Customize Your Calendar

Regardless of the instrumentality you picked, marque adjustments based connected your circumstantial needs and requirements. To guarantee it’s arsenic utile arsenic possible.

For example, these are indispensable fields for immoderate calendar:

• Publish date: When your contented goes live
• Due date: Internal deadline for contented completion
• Owner: Team subordinate liable for the content
• Status: Current signifier of contented (e.g., successful progress, support pending, etc.)
• Title oregon topic: What your contented is about
• Content type: Format of your contented (e.g., blog post, video, podcast, etc.)
• Link to files: Where to find drafts oregon last versions

Depending connected your contented types, you mightiness request further fields. For example:

For blog posts:

• Primary keyword (+ search volume)
• Secondary keywords (+ hunt volume)
• URL slug
• Title and meta description
• Featured image

For podcasts:

• Link to script
• Interviewee information
• Original audio files
• Edited audio files

For videos: 

• Link to script
• Interviewee information
• Captions
• Original video files
• Edited video files
• Thumbnail

Once you person your contented calendar acceptable up, it’s clip to populate it.

3. Generate Content Ideas

You present request to brainstorm contented ideas that align with your audience's interests and your business. So you tin capable retired your contented calendar.

Jot down a database of wide topics related to your niche. So you tin behaviour keyword research.

Use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool for this.

Enter 1 of your taxable ideas, prime your people country, and click "Search."

You’ll spot a database of keyword ideas with information points similar hunt volume, keyword trouble (how hard it is to fertile for a fixed term), and hunt intent (the crushed down the query).

Look for keywords that are peculiarly applicable to your niche. The subtopic groups connected the near are adjuvant for this.

It’s besides a bully thought to usage the “Questions” tab to spot question-based keywords. Which are often informational presumption that tin beryllium large for gathering contented around.

Jot down the ideas you privation to cover, repetition the process for different topics, and past find however you privation to screen each. 

Some whitethorn enactment champion for blog posts. While others whitethorn beryllium a amended acceptable for thing else.

When it comes to societal posts, you whitethorn beryllium capable to make aggregate posts from a azygous idea.

Also, don't hide that not everything has to beryllium wholly new. You mightiness person existing contented connected these topics that tin beryllium improved. 

Next, we urge identifying immoderate gaps successful your planned contented utilizing the Topic Research tool.

Go to the tool, participate 1 of your topics and take your people location.

Then, usage the “+ Enter domain to find contented on” to participate a competitor’s URL and click “Get contented ideas.”

You’ll spot antithetic cards connected related subtopics. 

Click connected immoderate paper to see:

• Volume: How galore times this subtopic is searched each month
• Questions: Related things users inquire about
• Headlines: Titles of existing articles connected this topic

Make enactment of immoderate cards highlighted successful green. Because that indicates a subtopic your rival is ranking for. Meaning it’s apt a bully thought for you to see successful your contented plans.

Again, deliberation of however you privation to screen each subtopic.

Once you’ve brainstormed, adhd applicable ideas to your contented calendar. And see a moving title, the contented type, etc.

Further reading: Content Planning: How to Create a Content Plan, Step by Step

4. Schedule Your Content

Determine however often you'll people each benignant of content. To guarantee accordant work and contented assortment without overburdening your team.

Start with a realistic docket you cognize you tin maintain. Because it's amended to people high-quality contented little often than to unreserved retired subpar pieces conscionable to conscionable deadlines.

Then, populate your calendar accordingly.

And beryllium prepared to set your docket arsenic you larn what works best.

You’re present acceptable to invitation colleagues and collaborators to your calendar. So you tin commencement streamlining your contented processes.

Most task absorption bundle allows you to delegate users arsenic “Owners” of a task. And they person a notification erstwhile the presumption of the task changes successful immoderate way. 

And spreadsheets tin beryllium shared easily. To bash this successful a Google Sheet, conscionable click the “Share” fastener astatine the apical close country to adhd squad members.

It’s besides a bully thought to docket a gathering to locomotion done it. So everyone knows their relation and however to usage the calendar.

For example, writers should cognize however to people erstwhile they've completed a draft. And editors should recognize however to bespeak erstwhile they've reviewed a piece.

Be diligent and inquire for feedback. You tin ever set your process to marque it enactment amended for everyone.

The Best Content Calendar Tools (+ Templates)

Here are our favourite contented calendar tools, arranged by concern size:

For solo marketers oregon tiny teams with constricted budgets:

• Google Sheets (can usage our calendar template)
• WordPress Editorial Calendar

For larger businesses with a squad of contented creators:

• Trello (comes with a template)
• Notion (comes with a template)
• Asana (comes with a template)

Let’s reappraisal each one. 

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is simply a free, cloud-based spreadsheet app. It's a large starting constituent for creating your contented calendar due to the fact that astir everyone is acquainted with it.

This is what a contented calendar built with Google Sheets looks like:

Google Sheets works good for beginners and solo marketers. It's casual to usage and allows basal collaboration.

But arsenic your contented accumulation scales up, you mightiness request much robust task absorption tools.

Download our Google Sheets contented calendar template. 

WordPress Editorial Calendar 

The WordPress Editorial Calendar is simply a escaped plugin that helps you negociate your blog content. 

It’s a elemental but effectual plugin. 

It generates a calendar that shows each your articles (draft, scheduled, etc.).

You tin edit oregon delete posts from the calendar. And usage the drag-and-drop diagnostic to easy marque changes. 

This plugin helps you docket your blog posts, but it doesn’t connection immoderate collaboration options. 

To effort this plugin, log successful to your WordPress dashboard and spell to “Plugins” > “Add New Plugin.” 

Search “Editorial Calendar” and commencement the installation.

Trello 

Trello allows you to make and negociate kanban boards. Which fto you visualize your advancement successful 1 place. 

It looks similar this: 

As you enactment connected a task, you usage Trello’s drag-and-drop features to alteration it to a antithetic presumption (column). 

You tin commencement with this content calendar template from Trello. 

Trello besides allows you to visualize your kanban committee arsenic a calendar. (But you’ll request to wage for a Premium account.) 

Notion

Notion allows you to make a tailor-made contented calendar and configure antithetic views for it. 

Notion stands retired due to the fact that it’s highly customizable.

It takes a spot of getting utilized to, but you whitethorn find it to beryllium a adjuvant tool. 

Notion has respective ready-to-use contented calendar templates. You tin commencement with this basal option.

Asana

Asana is simply a task absorption instrumentality that’s bully for bigger teams with analyzable processes. 

This is what the calendar presumption looks like: 

With Asana, you tin make and delegate tasks, visualize your advancement utilizing antithetic views, and negociate your workflows.

It besides offers integrations with immoderate of the astir fashionable tools. Like Slack, Gmail, and Zoom.

You tin get started with their basic editorial framework.

The Strategy Behind Your Content Calendar

Your contented calendar helps you execute your content strategy. 

Here are the strategy basics that volition pass each your contented instauration and organisation efforts:

Understand Your Target Audience

Before you commencement creating content, you indispensable recognize your people assemblage and specify your purchaser personas (detailed profiles of your imaginable customers).

This is cardinal for creating quality content that drives results. 

By defining your purchaser personas, you tin determine on:

• The topics you’ll speech about
• The contented formats you’ll use
• The platforms you’ll beryllium on

How bash you execute assemblage research?

You tin bash the following:

• Talk to employees successful your enactment who are successful interaction with customers (though support successful caput this volition output accusation astir existent customers—they aren’t needfully the aforesaid arsenic your people audience)
• Read manufacture reports
• Study your competitors

One2Target is particularly adjuvant for getting to cognize your imaginable customers based connected 1 oregon much competitors. 

Start by entering your competitors’ domains. (You tin adhd up to five.) And click “Analyze.”

You’ll spot a dashboard with in-depth accusation astir the corporate assemblage (demographics, socioeconomic information, behavior, and more).

This is simply a large mode to recognize your assemblage and program contented that fits their needs. 

You tin adjacent spot which societal media platforms they prefer.

Read our in-depth usher to finding your people audience for much details.

Perform a Content Audit

Conducting a content audit means analyzing the show of your content. 

It volition assistance you recognize the following: 

• The types of contented that enactment best. Analyze these to make akin ones successful the future.
• The contented pieces that are outdated. You tin amended them oregon delete them. 

It’s adjuvant to audit each types of content: blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, and more.

After conducting a contented audit, you tin commencement filling retired your contented calendar with caller contented pieces. Or contented pieces that request improvement.

Plus, an audit tin springiness you a baseline knowing of your wide performance. Which helps you acceptable goals for what you privation to achieve.

Set Clear Goals

Having wide goals provides absorption that tin thrust your contented strategy's success. And they should align with your larger concern goals to guarantee organizational alignment. 

We urge that your goals beryllium SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Relevant 
• Time-bound

Let’s accidental you’re going to absorption mostly connected long-form blog articles based connected your audience’s involvement successful publishing and media. That your audit revealed your existent blog contented gets 800 integrated visits per month. And that 1 of your business’s main goals is to summation leads by 5% successful the adjacent year.

An illustration of a SMART extremity for your contented would be: Publish 40 caller blog posts and summation integrated postulation by 20% implicit the adjacent year. 

You tin besides travel up with much granular goals for each contented type. 

This ensures each portion serves a purpose. Allowing you to way advancement and set your strategy arsenic needed. 

Define How and When You’ll Measure Results

Finally, find what your cardinal show metrics (KPIs) are and however often you’ll way your performance. So you tin spot however you’re tracking toward your goals.

This volition mostly beryllium informed by your goals.

If you’re aiming to people 40 caller blog posts and summation integrated postulation by 20%, that means some the fig of published posts and integrated postulation are KPIs.

But you mightiness privation to see others arsenic well. Like keyword rankings.

It’s besides important to find however often you privation to measurement results. 

This tin vary, but you mightiness privation to bash this connected a monthly oregon adjacent play basis. 

Further reading: Content Performance: 19 Metrics to Track Your Results

Start Filling Out Your Content Calendar

As you tin see, a contented calendar is simply a elemental instrumentality for managing mundane content-related tasks. 

But it’s besides powerful. Because it tin support you connected track. So you’re much apt to scope your goals. 

Ready to begin?

Start your assemblage probe with One2Target. And past probe ideas with Topic Research.