Copy of Content Calendar Template - Updated for 2021 [Free template]

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Content Calendar Template - Updated for 2021 [Free template]
Content Calendar Template - Updated for 2021 [Free template]

A free content calendar template to make sure your content strategies and plans are executed on time in 2021. Track blog posts, podcast episodes, marketing campaigns, and more.

A free content calendar template to make sure your content strategies and plans are executed on time in 2021. Track blog posts, podcast episodes, marketing campaigns, and more.

Al Chen

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Start using this template:

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A content calendar is a system for executing your team’s content, editorial, and social media strategies.

Whether you’re a solo operation or working with a team of writers, producers, and editors, a content calendar helps you stay on track. How many pieces of content are in the “approved” stage? Which campaign does a piece of content belong to? What are the distribution channels for a piece of content? These are all questions a content calendar can help answer.

Whether you use a Google Sheet or some other online tool as your content calendar, the most important part of your content calendar is that it stays up to date and it aids your team with moving content from the idea stage to production.

I’ve been creating content (blog posts, videos, social media) for my own businesses and for Coda. I created this content calendar template based on my experience using other content calendars and put the best features from these tools into this template. This template can be used by agencies, in-house content teams, and solopreneurs who have made content a key component of their marketing strategy. Get started with this template and

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Tutorial on how to use this template:

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1. How to use a content calendar

I asked a few content experts about how they use their content calendars. The first theme I found is that everyone has their own unique processes for maintaining and updating their content calendars. The reasons for this variability in process results from two things: 1) content strategy might dictate certain types of content over others and 2) certain types of content do work better in the content expert’s industry.

Scheduling when content gets published is another key consideration in a content calendar. Dates will inevitably get shifted around as your colleagues might spend more time on a piece of content than originally planned. The content marketing manager at

ChartMogul⁠

explains how their team relies on creative to deliver assets to move content through their calendar:

The content operation is mostly a 1-person show (me). The biggest bottleneck/unknown is design, which means we have to plan and work around in a way that gives the creative team enough time to create any materials we need for content.

—

Ilia Markov⁠

, Content Marketing Manager, ChartMogul

Before creating the content calendar, some experts said you should have a solid

content strategy⁠

first. Elements of a content strategy that can make their ways into a content calendar include:

Audience you want to target

Cadence of your messaging

Tone of your messaging

Story or narrative you want to tell your audience

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Kirsten Lamb⁠

, a freelance content marketing strategist, said that proper research ensures your content calendar operates smoothly:

Strategy - it’s part of the basis of an editorial calendar. It involves research - even if it’s just secondary (news outlets, Quora, etc). Your editorial calendar should be based on customer research and research with the company (e.g, what questions does the customer service team get asked and how can you use this info for content development?).

— Kirsten Lamb, Freelance Content Marketing Strategist

2. The “work” and calendar live in the same tool

Your content calendar might live in a spreadsheet or some other tool, but where does the actual work happen? You’re writing drafts in Google Docs, Wordpress, or some other CMS. Social media posts might be created in Buffer or Hootsuite. You’re then copying and pasting links to these tools into a spreadsheet.

Instead of having a sea of browser tabs open with drafts of all the blog posts you’re working on or editing, they should be “stored” in the same place as your calendar.

This template allows you to see your content drafts (see

Drafts⁠

) in your content repository and you can do all the writing, editing, and proofreading in one place. In the gif below, you’ll see the draft for the Behind the “Wheel” content is hyperlinked in the row. When you click on that draft, it goes straight to another page where you can do all the planning and writing for that content:

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3. Variety of content types

Your

content marketing strategy⁠

for 2021 is all set. The most difficult part is tracking and executing to that strategy given all the moving parts of your strategy. Your content calendar should be flexible enough to handle all the nuances of your strategy whether you work at an agency with multiple clients or you’re working in-house for NASA.

What issues specifically should your content calendar solve? It should account for the variety of content types that your target audience wants to read and watch. While blog posts are still a great way to tell stories and good for SEO, your content calendar for 2021 should also include:

Podcast episodes

Virtual events

Infographics

Short-form videos (LinkedIn stories, Instagram stories, TikTok, etc.)

This template allows you to customize the type of content your team wants to produce. You can see the default types in the

Content Types⁠

table.

4. Setting up this content calendar template

Every content calendar tool I came across had one thing in common: a main table with every single piece of content, no matter the stage. That’s why the

Content Repository⁠

in this template is the main view in this template:

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Many of the dropdowns in each of these columns can be customized depending on your team’s unique content processes. You can see all the default values I’ve created in the

Customize columns⁠

page.

Since your content calendar will include content across multiple campaigns, I created a table just for all the over-arching campaigns your team is working on (see

Your Campaigns⁠

). Your

Content Repository⁠

and

Your Campaigns⁠

are connected so you can see all the content pieces associated with one campaign:

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Finally, viewing your content calendar in multiple ways is what makes this content calendar template flexible and adaptable to your team’s processes. You can view the content calendar

By stage⁠

By type⁠

By campaign⁠

, and see all

Live content⁠

(click each of these hyperlinks to go to that specific page).

5. Full content calendar view for 2021

Aside from the main table of all the content your team is working on, I think the main calendar view is the next most important way to visualize your content calendar.

2021 Calendars⁠

, you’ll see the traditional calendar layout as well as a kanban layout of your content by the “estimated publish month.” While it’s important to have an exact publish date for your content in 2021, I think visualizing your content calendar for all of 2021 helps you find gaps in your campaigns or

messaging cadence⁠

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6. Conclusion: manage content calendar and drafts in one place

While you can replicate many parts of this template in a Google Sheet or another tool, the main advantage this template offers is the ability to manage your content calendar and content drafts in one place. Along the left-hand side, you can create multiple nested pages of your campaigns, drafts, and other work needed to execute on your content strategy:

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I hope this content calendar template will set your team up for success in 2021 and beyond! 🚀

Get started with this template:

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⏩ Quick start

Copy this doc (Create a Coda account if you don’t have one.) 👉

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Start adding content ideas to the

Content Repository⁠

and fill out all the relevant columns and fields. Customize your broader marketing campaigns in

Your Campaigns⁠

View your table of content

By stage⁠

By type⁠

, and

By campaign⁠

Visualize your entire 2021 calendar in

2021 Calendars⁠

Create sub-pages in the

Drafts⁠

folder which will contain the actual draft for the content (include images, videos, etc.) You can hyperlink to any of these “draft” pages by hitting CMD+K (Mac) or CTRL+K (PC) in this template. The “Draft/Outline” column in the

Content Repository⁠

links to these drafts.

(Optional) Customize the dropdown menus that show up in your table of content in

Customize columns⁠

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👉 Start with:

Content Repository⁠

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1. How to use a content calendar

2. The “work” and calendar live in the same tool

3. Variety of content types

4. Setting up this content calendar template