Managing content material at scale is a problem — staying organized, deciding what to publish, assigning writers and editors, and monitoring outcomes requires numerous transferring components. The extra folks concerned, the extra complicated 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 12 months.

Prime editorial calendar templates in contrast

After almost a decade of managing excessive quantity content material groups, these are my favourite no price editorial calendar templates for varied 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 group collaboration options and job administration capabilities from among the best mission administration options available on the market.

It’s nice for prime stage technique, work administration, and centralized content material operations out of the field.

Extra on monday.com: monday.com evaluate | Asana vs monday.com | monday.com vs Jira.

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 assist your entire publishing exercise.

You’ll be able to arrange a color-coded system to prioritize your most necessary content material and use customized tags to filter all the pieces in a approach that’s simple to grasp. Regardless of how stacked your publishing schedule turns into, you’ll all the time know what’s forward.

For those who’re a solo consumer, it’s doubtless overkill until you customise it. Nonetheless, it’s excellent in case you’re working with not less than a number of different folks or a full content material group.

You should use this template, together with 200 others, without charge with monday.com’s free plan.

ClickUp: A beginner-friendly editorial calendar template

Much like monday.com, ClickUp is an entire mission administration answer. The 2 platforms are almost an identical by way of options and capabilities, so selecting one over the opposite principally comes down to private desire and value.

That mentioned, ClickUp’s editorial calendar template is a bit simpler to make use of out of the gate, particularly for inexperienced persons.

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Apart from the normal calendar, ClickUp provides you 5 extra views, together with a listing view, content material request view, useful resource view, and key phrases view. Thanks to those additional views, retaining monitor of deadlines and managing each side of your manufacturing move is a breeze.

You too can 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 may monitor the efficiency of granular particulars for all of the content material you publish. Including customized attributes takes a number of clicks and you may add as many as you want.

As a result of ClickUp is a mission administration software, you’re additionally getting all the necessities for group collaboration, assigning duties, and setting due dates.

General, this template is nice whether or not you’re planning years upfront 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 inexpensive 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 the perfect concepts into your manufacturing workflow.

It really works effectively for any sort of content material from movies and pictures to weblog posts, podcasts, and visitor posts. It additionally provides you all the pieces you must see your schedule by month or 12 months at a look.

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You should use this template with Smartsheet, however the software itself doesn’t have a free plan. For those who don’t need to pay, you may obtain the template and use it with Excel or Google Sheets as an alternative.

Both approach, you’ll be capable to assign duties, set publishing dates, take notes, depart feedback, and keep on high of missed deadlines.

That mentioned, it doesn’t historically appear to be a calendar until you utilize it with Smartsheet. As a substitute, you’ll see a desk with your entire scheduled content material for every month.

For those who’re a fan of lists and tables, it’s greater than sufficient.

Utilizing it with Smartsheet additionally provides you extra capabilities, together with a Gantt chart, automations, fundamental workload monitoring, attachment storage, and extra. Nonetheless, Smartsheet is on the costlier finish of mission administration and relational database options.

Airtable: A digital and print editorial calendar template

Airtable is a complicated relational database answer that offers you all the pieces you must construct a customized editorial calendar that matches your workflow. Consider it as a clean slate you may customise as a lot (or as little) as you’d like.

For those who deal with print media, the print editorial calendar template helps you to simply handle print and digital media in the identical place.

Extra on Airtable: Airtable evaluate | Airtable vs monday.com | Airtable vs Notion. 

Not like different templates up to now, this one helps you to set up content material by subject and print schedule, permitting you to satisfy tight deadlines and keep on high of publishing exercise.

You too can arrange totally different classes for every subject. For instance, you can have separate duties assigned to totally different folks with distinctive deadlines for information, way of life, and meals — all on 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 may deal with nearly any situation it’s possible you’ll end up in. You too can add extra fields and relationships, providing you with full management to make your system work such as you do.

I wouldn’t use this template in case you’re not working with a group or dealing with conventional media, but it surely’s excellent for large publishers and information websites.

Notion: A easy editorial calendar template for small groups and solo customers

Notion, like Airtable, presents relational databases. Nonetheless, Notion is less complicated to make use of, extra inexpensive, 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 too can 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 may simply see the pipeline for every phase of your viewers to make sure a balanced publishing schedule.

One in every of Notion’s built-in views is a calendar, so it’s simple to change between a regular record 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 group can view your entire content material in no matter approach works finest 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 awesome place to start out 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 mission administration answer in comparison with the opposite instruments we’ve talked about up to now. It’s less complicated and quite a bit 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 awesome choice 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 12 months upfront 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 number of.

You’ll be able to arrange a easy color-coded system on the calendar primarily based on content material sort or distribution channel, so you’ve gotten a birds-eye view of your whole schedule.

As a mission administration answer, Asana additionally makes it simple to set deadlines, monitor duties, and collaborate along with your group. You too can regulate due dates or re-assigning work primarily based on useful resource capability or precedence shifts in a number of clicks.

Asana presents a beneficiant free plan that’s greater than sufficient to get began.

HubSpot: A low-volume template for Excel and Google Sheets

For those who’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 number of items of content material every week or month, it’s greater than sufficient.

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You’ll be able to 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 choice to make use of it along with your Google Calendar in case you want that as an alternative.

There are three foremost sheets — one for your entire 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 manner, it’s also possible to plan a number of months forward.

The largest downside 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’ll be able to set this up if you recognize your approach round spreadsheets, however at that time you may as effectively use a distinct template.

General, it’s an awesome start line for low quantity publishing. Whereas the template itself is free, you’ll have to present an e-mail handle 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 12 months. It’s an effective 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 like an precise calendar — displaying days, weeks, and months over the course of a 12 months.

However most trendy editorial calendar templates embody different views like desk, Kanban, Gantt, and record.

I like to consider editorial calendars like a blueprint or roadmap. They’re designed to indicate the place you need 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 mission supervisor dealing with the schedule for dozens of channels.

Different examples embody:

• Web site house owners.
• Unbiased 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 principally utilized by managers and supervisors in knowledgeable setting.

Exterior of that, they’re a great match for anybody who desires a high down view, whether or not or not they’re assigning work to different folks or doing all the pieces 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 by way of your workflow. Editorial calendars are for big-picture planning and managing strategic targets.

That mentioned, many of the editorial calendars you’ll discover at this time (together with a number of on my record) embody 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 need to preserve monitor of.

For instance, you can have a high-level calendar in a single view for planning and technique with a separate Kanban board that organizes the identical data in a approach that’s extra helpful for writers and editors actively engaged on content material.

That’s why many of the templates you’ll discover are constructed utilizing mission administration software program.