Companies must produce assets regularly to make sure their customers and prospects have the latest information they need to make an informed decision. Keeping track of all of the different assets can be challenging which is why most marketing departments create a content calendar to mitigate confusion.
There is no wrong way to create a content calendar. It all depends on how much content you are distributing, and which template is easiest for your team to use. Simply searching for “content calendar” will give you examples of different templates that your team can mimic. Many marketing departments use a calendar template and fill it in with release dates, blog schedules, and when and what to post on social media. In the example below – each type of content is highlighted in a different color. This makes it easier for the viewer to quickly access the information that they need.
A second way that Marketing departments create content calendars is to create a table through Excel or Microsoft Word. While the above calendar has the days of the week horizontally – this particular calendar has the dates vertically with the asset categories horizontally.
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Blog Posts |
Social Media Posts |
Sales Enablement |
Channel Enablement |
Email Campaign |
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Monday March 30, 2020 |
Blog Post #1 |
Advertising blog post #1 on LinkedIn |
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Tuesday March 31, 2020 |
Email #1: Advertise Blog Post #1 to customers/prospects |
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Wednesday April 1, 2020 |
Infographic completed |
Email #2: Send infographic to Channel partners |
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Thursday April 2, 2020 |
Advertise Video Completion |
Video completion |
While the above examples of a content calendar focus on the date and category of the asset – your department’s calendar doesn’t necessarily have to. Instead some teams create a calendar that focuses on the asset itself. This is good for companies who want to plan their content far in advance. This type of calendar can be created using an Excel spreadsheet. As you can see below the categories are a bit different. A benefit of this type of calendar is that the categories can be filtered and sorted easily. Therefore, if Sara only wants to view her tasks she can filter accordingly.
Finally – a marketing department can purchase a content creation software that assemble a calendar for them. These project management platforms include Monday, Trello, and Later. While they were created for project management – they are great tools to keep track of release dates and upcoming content.
It’s important to pick the calendar that is best suited for your marketing team’s needs. Creating a calendar that is too difficult to follow will defeat the purpose. Calendars that are too busy - run the risk of missed deadlines and confusions.
