Managing content material at scale is a problem — staying organized, deciding what to submit, assigning writers and editors, and monitoring outcomes requires plenty of transferring elements. The extra individuals concerned, the extra advanced the system.
Editorial calendars simplify all of this. They supply a big-picture overview, making it a lot simpler to strategize and schedule out the week, month, or yr.
After almost a decade of managing excessive quantity content material groups, listed below are my favourite no price editorial calendar templates for various instruments.
Monday.com: A complete editorial calendar template
Monday.com’s editorial calendar template delivers a pre-built content material calendar that’s simple to customise alongside workforce collaboration options and process administration capabilities from among the finest challenge administration options available on the market.
It’s nice for top degree technique, work administration, and centralized content material operations out of the field.
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This template can be utilized for any and all sorts of content material — from weblog posts and ebooks to social media and video, it’s versatile sufficient to help all your publishing exercise.
You possibly can arrange a color-coded system to prioritize your most vital content material and use customized tags to filter all the things in a manner that’s simple to know. Regardless of how stacked your publishing schedule turns into, you’ll all the time know what’s forward.
In the event you’re a solo consumer, it’s seemingly overkill except you customise it. Nevertheless, it’s excellent should you’re working with at the least a number of different individuals or a full content material workforce.
You should use this template, together with 200 others, for gratis with monday.com’s free plan.
ClickUp: A beginner-friendly editorial calendar template
Just like monday.com, ClickUp is a whole challenge administration resolution. The 2 platforms are almost an identical when it comes to options and capabilities, so selecting one over the opposite largely comes down to private choice and worth.
That stated, ClickUp’s editorial calendar template is a bit simpler to make use of out of the gate, particularly for novices.
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Other than the standard calendar, ClickUp offers you 5 further views, together with a listing view, content material request view, useful resource view, and key phrases view. Thanks to those additional views, protecting observe of deadlines and managing each facet of your manufacturing circulate is a breeze.
You can too add customized attributes to every piece of content material, just like the channel, publication date, editor, and even the CTA you’re utilizing.
When you add these, you possibly can observe the efficiency of granular particulars for all of the content material you publish. Including customized attributes takes a couple of clicks and you may add as many as you want.
As a result of ClickUp is a challenge administration device, you’re additionally getting all the necessities for workforce collaboration, assigning duties, and setting due dates.
Total, this template is nice whether or not you’re planning years prematurely or just some weeks.
You can begin utilizing this template with ClickUp’s free plan within the subsequent 5 minutes. Plus, ClickUp’s paid plans are extra reasonably priced than monday.com.
Smartsheet: A template for brainstorming and managing content material
Smartsheet’s editorial calendar template consists of an space for brainstorming content material concepts and transferring one of the best concepts into your manufacturing workflow.
It really works properly for any sort of content material from movies and pictures to weblog posts, podcasts, and visitor posts. It additionally offers you all the things you want to see your schedule by month or yr at a look.
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You should use this template with Smartsheet, however the device itself doesn’t have a free plan. In the event you don’t wish to pay, you possibly can obtain the template and use it with Excel or Google Sheets as an alternative.
Both manner, you’ll be capable of assign duties, set publishing dates, take notes, go away feedback, and keep on high of missed deadlines.
That stated, it doesn’t historically appear like a calendar except you utilize it with Smartsheet. As an alternative, you’ll see a desk with all your scheduled content material for every month.
In the event you’re a fan of lists and tables, it’s greater than sufficient.
Utilizing it with Smartsheet additionally offers you further capabilities, together with a Gantt chart, automations, fundamental workload monitoring, attachment storage, and extra. Nevertheless, Smartsheet is on the dearer finish of challenge administration and relational database options.
Airtable: A digital and print editorial calendar template
Airtable is a complicated relational database resolution that provides you all the things you want to construct a customized editorial calendar that matches your workflow. Consider it as a clean slate you possibly can customise as a lot (or as little) as you’d like.
In the event you deal with print media, the print editorial calendar template allows you to simply handle print and digital media in the identical place.
Extra on Airtable: Airtable overview | Airtable vs monday.com | Airtable vs Notion.
Not like different templates thus far, this one allows you to set up content material by subject and print schedule, permitting you to fulfill tight deadlines and keep on high of publishing exercise.
You can too arrange totally different classes for every subject. For instance, you might have separate duties assigned to totally different individuals with distinctive deadlines for information, life-style, and meals — all to your December 2024 print subject which has its personal due date.
Airtable additionally makes it simple to take content material out of your print schedule and switch it right into a digital launch with a built-in relationship again to the unique print.
The pliability of this template means you possibly can deal with nearly any state of affairs you could end up in. You can too add further fields and relationships, supplying you with full management to make your system work such as you do.
I wouldn’t use this template should you’re not working with a workforce or dealing with conventional media, nevertheless it’s excellent for giant publishers and information websites.
Notion: A easy editorial calendar template for small groups and solo customers
Notion, like Airtable, affords relational databases. Nevertheless, Notion is simpler to make use of, extra reasonably priced, and extra approachable for small groups and solo publishers.
The editorial calendar template is streamlined and easy, bringing all publishing exercise into one view.
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You can too simply set up content material by sort, author, standing, due date, and extra. There’s even a area for illustrations and visuals and one other for the viewers you’re focusing on. The viewers area means you possibly can simply see the pipeline for every section of your viewers to make sure a balanced publishing schedule.
Certainly one of Notion’s built-in views is a calendar, so it’s simple to modify between a typical checklist of content material and a high-level editorial calendar any time.
Alternatively, you need to use Kanban view for a visible indication of the standing of every piece.
Regardless of its simplicity, you and your workforce can view all your content material in no matter manner works greatest for you.
You should use the template by itself or join it to different Notion workspaces you’re planning to arrange or have already got. Though it’s not as scalable as others, it’s an ideal place to begin with loads of room to customise and add on as you develop.
Asana: An approachable editorial calendar template for bloggers
Asana is a extra conventional challenge administration resolution in comparison with the opposite instruments we’ve talked about thus far. It’s less complicated and rather a lot simpler to make use of with out sacrificing necessities.
The streamlined nature and ease of use of Asana’s free editorial calendar template make it an ideal possibility for busy bloggers, small content material groups, and enterprise web sites who don’t want something fancy.
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One of the best half about this template is how seamlessly it really works for people or groups. Regardless of how you’re employed, it’s simple to plan months, quarters, or perhaps a yr prematurely and assign work to everybody at every stage of the publishing course of.
On high of that, it really works for almost any sort of content material – blogs, movies, pictures, information tales, podcasts, and print to call a couple of.
You possibly can arrange a easy color-coded system on the calendar primarily based on content material sort or distribution channel, so you’ve got a birds-eye view of your complete schedule.
As a challenge administration resolution, Asana additionally makes it simple to set deadlines, observe duties, and collaborate along with your workforce. You can too regulate due dates or re-assigning work primarily based on useful resource capability or precedence shifts in a couple of clicks.
Asana affords a beneficiant free plan that’s greater than sufficient to get began.
HubSpot: A low-volume template for Excel and Google Sheets
In the event you’re publishing at low quantity and want a easy method to see upcoming posts for the week or month, this free template from HubSpot covers all of the fundamentals.
This template is about so simple as it will get — there are columns for publish date, due date, title, particulars, key phrases, and a CTA. For publishing a couple of items of content material per week or month, it’s greater than sufficient.
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You possibly can obtain it as an Excel file or open it in Google Sheets. The formatting is an identical for each choices. HubSpot additionally not too long ago added an possibility to make use of it along with your Google Calendar should you want that as an alternative.
There are three predominant sheets — one for all your content material, a weekly view, and a month-to-month view.
One of the best strategy is duplicating all three tabs earlier than you begin so that you all the time have a clean model of every for the next month. This fashion, you may as well plan a number of months forward.
The most important disadvantage of this template is what makes it nice within the first place. It’s easy. However there’s no method to view a quarterly or annual schedule. You possibly can set this up if you already know your manner round spreadsheets, however at that time you would possibly as properly use a special template.
Total, it’s an ideal place to begin for low quantity publishing. Whereas the template itself is free, you’ll have to present an electronic mail deal with to obtain it.
What’s an editorial calendar?
An editorial content material is a high-level useful resource that outlines publishing schedules for the month or yr. It’s a good way to plan various kinds of content material and guarantee your publishing exercise aligns with enterprise goals.
Because the identify implies, an editorial calendar usually seems to be like an precise calendar — displaying days, weeks, and months over the course of a yr.
However most trendy editorial calendar templates embrace different views like desk, Kanban, Gantt, and checklist.
I like to consider editorial calendars like a blueprint or roadmap. They’re designed to indicate the place you wish to go, and the way you’re going to get there.
Who makes use of editorial calendars?
Regardless of the identify, editorial calendars aren’t only for editors. They can be utilized by any skilled who oversees content material manufacturing or creates long-term advertising and marketing plans.
That might be the proprietor of a small weblog or YouTube channel or a challenge supervisor dealing with the schedule for dozens of channels.
Different examples embrace:
- Web site house owners.
- Impartial bloggers.
- Social influencers.
- Small enterprise house owners.
- Weblog editors.
- Content material entrepreneurs.
- Social media specialists.
- PR groups.
- Undertaking managers.
- Media coordinators.
As a result of the primary good thing about an editorial calendar is a high-level overview of planning and publishing exercise, they’re largely utilized by managers and supervisors in knowledgeable setting.
Outdoors of that, they’re a very good match for anybody who desires a high down view, whether or not or not they’re assigning work to different individuals or doing all the things themselves.
What’s the distinction between an editorial calendar and a content material calendar?
The phrases editorial calendar and content material calendar are sometimes confused with one another, however they’re not the identical factor.
Content material calendars are usually used for day-to-day content material administration — like assigning duties and transferring content material via your workflow. Editorial calendars are for big-picture planning and managing strategic targets.
That stated, a lot of the editorial calendars you’ll discover as we speak (together with a number of on my checklist) embrace content material administration options. Slightly than having to make use of a number of instruments and templates for every, you can begin with an editorial calendar and slowly flip it right into a full content material calendar with assignees, due dates, classes, and different areas you wish to hold observe of.
For instance, you might have a high-level calendar in a single view for planning and technique with a separate Kanban board that organizes the identical info in a manner that’s extra helpful for writers and editors actively engaged on content material.
That’s why a lot of the templates you’ll discover are constructed utilizing challenge administration software program.