Have you ever unfollowed or unsubscribed from a brand or content creator because their content was too sporadic? Maybe they fell off the grid every few weeks or lacked a predictable publishing cadence. We’ve been there—to err is human.

What is an editorial calendar?

An editorial calendar is a plan for your company’s content over a specific time period.

Depending on your industry and company preferences, some marketers use their editorial calendar as a long-term big-picture content plan spanning months or even the calendar year. These teams often also have a short-term planner they refer to as a content calendar for planning content about a month or two in advance.

Your editorial calendar should house your content plan for your blog and other adjacent information that we'll review later in this article. This calendar can also serve as a visual representation of your team’s workflow as you brainstorm, create, schedule, and publish content.

Why do you need an editorial calendar?

Here are five reasons why you should create an organized editorial calendar.

1. To plan content strategically

Instead of publishing any topic at any time of year, an editorial calendar can be a good guide for planning content around trending or seasonal topics.

For example, if you’re an e-commerce site aimed at small business owners, it may be more valuable to share content about boosting holiday sales a month or two in advance of Q4.

But if you fly by the seat of your pants and plan content only a week or two before the holiday, you'll miss out on valuable traffic and content shares.

2. To create content consistently

Editorial calendars make it easy to quickly record the results of your brainstorming sessions. You can take note of keywords for potential posts and fill out the calendar with as many posts as you need for a steady publishing schedule—all well in advance.

With a steady stream of documented and scheduled ideas, you’ll rarely run out of content to share with your audience.

3. To keep your team aligned

It can be frustrating having to forward or share document links with the graphic designer, editor, content strategist, and everyone involved in content production.

A good editorial calendar aligns everyone and shows them what phase(s) of each project involve them. They can also see due dates and monitor the progress of each task, keeping everyone on the same page.

4. To track produced content

Editorial calendars don't only assist with planning and producing content; they also help with tracking what you've published. You’ll also have easy access to which pieces need a refresh, which ones need graphics, and have quick access to published links if your higher-ups would like to see your progress.

This allows you to refer to content easily and monitor how each piece is doing over time.

5. To save time and resources

Speaking of time, remember all that time and energy spent wondering who’s doing what and when it’s due? Count that time and energy saved.

With an editorial calendar, you and your team can work seamlessly, using an efficient workflow and trusting that you have a bank of clever content ideas to draw from for your content marketing.

What should be included in an editorial calendar?

Editorial calendars look different for different content teams. They can vary by time period, design (i.e., if you use Google Sheets or GatherContent), and topic matter.

Good to know: Download our free Editorial Calendar template to help you get organized, spot opportunities, be more user-focused, and bridge organizational silos.

Your content calendar should be organized in the best way to suit your company’s needs. Include fields that matter to you and those you’d like to know and monitor closely. Let's unpack what these fields may be.

Essential Items

At its most basic, your editorial calendar "must-haves" should answer four questions about your content:

What is being published?
Who is responsible for all phases?
When is it being published?
Where will it be published?

Everything else falls under the category of "nice-to-have." That said, these are our recommended additions to your editorial calendar:

Time period: The span of time (week, month, or year) covered by the calendar
Title: Post or content title
Content type: Depending on your organization’s standards, is this an informative post, product round-up, how-to guide, or other type?
Content status: Where is this piece of content in the workflow? Is the brief prepared? Has it been assigned? Is it in the second round of edits?
Assigned team members: Who is responsible for this content at its different phases? This section isn't only for the writer; it should also reflect any editors, designers, or strategists involved
Deadlines: When is the content due?
Publishing date: When is the content going to be published? This is especially useful for sites that do not feature a published date on their blog posts
Links to post briefs: Include links to briefs for easy access to double-check items or prepare for content refreshes
Published post links: Important for easy access, particularly if multiple team members need to review the published post

Optional Items

In addition to the vital details, some companies choose to include other information such as:

SEO details: Information like primary keywords, keyword difficulty, and other metrics if you want to measure your organization’s SEO impact
Audience information: You may include a buyer persona or information about a specific article's target audience
Content description: A brief note about the objective and narrative arc of the piece might also be helpful if other team members are reviewing the content
Funnel stage: This aligns with the buyer persona information and can provide the necessary context to other team members
Planned social media content: If you also plan for content distribution on your editorial calendar, including this content can assist your social media or email teams who help you promote your content

How to create an editorial calendar that works

Once you decide which parameters to include in your editorial calendar, you can then either develop one from scratch or use a template (we have a free one!) to set your team up for success. Follow these steps to create a standout content calendar.

Choose a system

The great thing about content calendars is that they’re versatile and can be created in multiple formats. You can create your editorial calendar in:

A content workflow platform like GatherContent (yep, that’s us!)
A spreadsheet like Airtable or Google Sheets
A Kanban board in a project management tool like Trello or Asana
A simple calendar tool like Google Calendar

Calendars like Google Calendar work well for old-school planning—just create a separate calendar for content. However, this option limits the amount of information you can include for each assignment.

Spreadsheets are helpful for organizing information but lack dynamic fields and don't provide much value in the way of project management. Project management tools are popular, but most don't utilize (or completely replace) your CMS as GatherContent does.

Good to know: If you’re looking for an all-encompassing content operations hub where you can move from your calendar to content documents to the style guide without leaving the site, you should be using GatherContent.

GatherContent is a collaborative content workflow tool that allows you to plan, create, edit, and even publish content to your CMS in one application.

Designate access

Once you’ve chosen the right system, add the required information for your company—either from scratch or using a template. When that’s done, you’ll need to regulate access to your editorial calendar.

A functional content calendar should be accessible to your team, but it's wise to limit how much access certain users have.

For example, if stakeholders only need to view the calendar for regular updates, they should only have view access. This prevents unintentional changes to painstakingly organized information. Similarly, everyone who will need to edit or update the calendar should have full access.

Update your calendar

This step is eternally ongoing. Your content calendar only works if you keep it up-to-date. Bookmark it, use it daily, and add new information when posts are published, existing content needs refreshing, or some other modification is necessary.

When you have brainstorm sessions, add new ideas to the calendar so that when you’re ready to flesh out upcoming content, your ideas will be waiting for you.

Four Great Content Marketing Editorial Calendar Examples

We’ve rounded up some excellent editorial calendars from companies that understand the value of creating high-quality content. Some of these use spreadsheets, while others use project management software. Hopefully, you’ll find one that inspires you.

1. AppSumo blog editorial calendar

AppSumo blog editorial calendar example — The AppSumo blog editorial calendar is hosted on a spreadsheet. The snippet shows relevant information like the post title, a status section amplified by color-coding, as well as assigned members and due dates. It’s simple, but it works!

2. Content Harmony blog editorial calendar

content harmony editorial calendar example — Content Harmony’s editorial calendar sample is more of a template than a real-life option, but it also shows how you can create a more detailed version. Their template includes columns for type of content, author, brief links, and even the target keyword.

3. Animalz editorial calendar

[Animalz blog editorial calendar example] — Animalz's editorial calendar template is built on Airtable and features different views including team views and the writer’s view. It’s more geared toward content agencies and features columns for the content title, description, assigned writer, and client.

4. Buffer content calendar

[Buffer blog editorial calendar example] — Social media marketing experts, Buffer have also shared a snapshot of their content calendar which is built on the project management tool, Trello. This is a simpler calendar with lists of scheduled content for specific time periods. You can also see pictures of the assigned individuals as well some kind of color-coding system.

Grab your free editorial calendar template

If you’re looking for an in-depth editorial calendar template with a big picture horizon view, daily view, and regular info and progress report, try ours!

[GatherContent editorial calendar template] — Better still, get our built-in content calendar when you use GatherContent as a content hub. All-in-one access to an editorial calendar, work in progress documents, collaborative editing, and even content templates will smooth out your content creation process.

Want to give it a spin? Start your GatherContent free trial.

However, having an airtight editorial calendar can prevent such inconsistencies. And if your audience expects consistent content, you shouldn't be publishing without an editorial calendar.

When content marketing teams operate without a calendar or schedule, they quickly run out of steam. In this article, we’ll highlight what an editorial calendar is, why you need one, and how you can create one that will make your content marketing more effective.

What is an editorial calendar?

An editorial calendar is a plan for your company’s content over a specific time period.

Depending on your industry and company preferences, some marketers use their editorial calendar as a long-term big-picture content plan spanning months or even the calendar year. These teams often also have a short-term planner they refer to as a content calendar for planning content about a month or two in advance.

Your editorial calendar should house your content plan for your blog and other adjacent information that we'll review later in this article. This calendar can also serve as a visual representation of your team’s workflow as you brainstorm, create, schedule, and publish content.