What Is a Content Calendar? (+ How to Create One)

A content calendar is a tool for planning and organizing the production, publication, and promotion of content. It outlines key details like the topic, deadlines, and assigned creators. Discover how to create a content calendar tailored to your brand’s unique needs.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a big-name brand, content marketing is essential to increase traffic and build authority in your space.

Creating valuable content on a predictable schedule, however, can make this challenging. This is where a content calendar comes into play.

The content team here at HawkSEM put our heads together to offer our top tips to create an organized calendar that helps you strategize, create, publish, and promote content — without letting deadlines (or opportunities) slip through the cracks.

A content calendar isn’t one size fits all. Yours can be as basic or in-depth as your needs, team, and bandwidth require. (Image via Unsplash)

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar outlines how and when content will be created, published, and promoted. It typically includes key details like the topic, content format, deadline, and assignee.

Content calendars can be created on a spreadsheet (like Excel or Google Sheets), content marketing applications (like HubSpot), or via project management software (like Monday.com).

Why do I need a content calendar?

Content calendars are important because they streamline workflows and maximize SEO and content marketing efforts.

“Whether it’s through a project platform or a spreadsheet, I find a content calendar to be a necessary part of a successful content marketing strategy,” says HawkSEM Senior Content Marketing Manager Caroline Cox.

“Not only does it keep content details organized and in one central place, but it also allows for transparency by being able to share the calendar with various team members.”

Here are some additional reasons to invest in a content calendar:

1. Strategy: Planning content months ahead allows marketers to think proactively and build content that aligns with the brand’s messaging, seasonality, or important events, and the audience’s needs.

2. Organization: With so many details, it’s easy to let deadlines slip by or forget to promote new pieces of content. A content calendar keeps information in order for easier accountability and stress-free workflows.

3. Consistency: Sporadic posting and inconsistent messaging are confusing for audiences and can damage your brand authority. A predictable publishing schedule builds trust (and promotes a less chaotic work environment).

4. Optimizations and analytics: As new content is published, older pieces accumulate valuable performance data. Revisiting these older pieces for optimizations and relevant updates can boost performance, and a calendar makes sure no pieces get stale.

Key elements of a content calendar

When it comes to your own company’s calendar, you can add as many details as you want.

A content calendar may include elements such as:

• Due date
• Publish date
• Topic
• Status
• Format (blog, video, infographic)
• Keywords
• URL
• Author
• Editor
• Target audience
• Meta description
• Related content links
• Promotional platforms
• Call to action (CTA)
• SEO goals
• Contributors (graphic designers or subject matter experts)

We use most of these elements for the HawkSEM content calendar. This way, we know what stage various pieces of content are in, which topics we’ve recently covered, what’s coming down the pike, and more.

Content calendar templates and tools

At HawkSEM, we use a combination of Google Sheets and Asana. But there are plenty of tools and templates you can use to create your first content calendar:

Google Sheets: Free and simple. Build a custom calendar from scratch to meet your unique needs or leverage a template.

Asana: This project management tool includes a calendar, timeline, and templates — where teams can also collaborate and communicate.

CoSchedule: Allows marketers to manage blogs, social posts, and campaigns all in one place.

Notion: Offers flexibility and multiple views (calendar, board, list), ideal for idea pipelines and collaboration.

How to create a content marketing calendar

Ready to create your own content calendar? Here’s how to get started:

1. Set goals for your content

Think big picture first: Do you want your content to bring in new leads? Earn authority in your space? Increase traffic? Rank on the search engine results page (SERP) for your top keywords?

Determine what types of content can help you achieve those objectives.

2. Audit your existing content

Identify what’s working and where gaps exist. High-performing pieces signal topics and formats that resonate with your audience. Keep those assets updated, plan new content around proven performers, and optimize older pieces to strengthen your content calendar.

3. Identify new topics

Use keyword research to uncover content opportunities. A content cluster strategy can help by mapping broad topic categories that matter most to your audience and breaking them into specific subtopics for individual pieces.

4. Choose your calendar tool

Pick a platform that fits your team’s workflow style. Some benefit from more robust project management tools that double as calendars and collaboration hubs, while others may prefer a simple spreadsheet or drag-and-drop calendar for more agile planning.

5. Outline your workflow

Will you plan content for the month ahead or the full quarter? Set clear timelines for each stage of the production and publication process if that helps — from draft deadlines to edit reviews to publish dates.

6. Consider seasonality and campaigns

Plan content publication around key events, important dates, holidays, and marketing campaigns. Balance new pieces with revamps of more evergreen content and different formats (like articles and case studies) when applicable.

7. Fill in content details

Include content information such as the topic, target keywords, formats, and deadlines for each upcoming content assignment.

8. Assign roles and responsibilities

Using your predetermined workflow schedule, assign tasks and deadlines to writers, editors, and any other content creators or contributors.

Best practices to manage your content calendar

Once you’ve established your editorial calendar, there are steps you can take to ensure your content creation process runs smoothly:

1. Be adaptable

At HawkSEM, the content we produce revolves around the digital marketing industry — which, as we all know, gets shaken up often.

Even with a monthly content plan, sudden updates or trends can require us to pivot to new topics and make last-minute adjustments.

“Try to find the balance between planning ahead, while also allowing room for pivoting,” says Cox.

“Whether a piece needs more edits or someone misses a deadline, you should be able to swap in another piece when needed, and not be in panic mode when content inevitably needs to be switched around.”

While content calendars help keep your team organized, flexibility is key to producing relevant and timely content.

2. Include buffer time for editing, design, and approvals

Even the most deadline-sensitive writers and editors face roadblocks along the way that delay submissions. Build in extra time so a late deadline doesn’t derail your entire content production or marketing strategy.

3. Use color coding

Content calendars can look overwhelming without color-coded labels to differentiate content types, campaigns, or stages of production. This visual organization makes it easier to see at a glance what’s planned, in progress, or ready to publish.

4. Communicate with team members

Team collaboration for content creation can get complicated. Keep your team updated on assignment statuses, new content ideas, and any concerns to prevent bottlenecks and ensure smooth collaboration.

5. Track content performance

Let your performance drive your ongoing content strategy and calendar. Prioritize topics, formats, and approaches that resonate with your audience, and tweak underperforming pieces for better results.

6. Regularly review and refresh your calendar

Keep your content calendar up to date by reviewing upcoming plans, deadlines, and priorities. Schedule regular check-ins with your content marketing team to brainstorm and plan for the coming weeks.

3 common content calendar mistakes to avoid

A content calendar is a living document that will go through periodic updates. To keep your calendar organized, avoid these common mistakes:

Overloading the calendar

An overly ambitious publishing schedule may set you up for failure. Instead, set a realistic cadence and scale accordingly.

Failing to keep things updated

“Don’t let the calendar fall by the wayside,” says Cox.

“Whether it’s setting a recurring reminder or a weekly meeting where you go over upcoming content with the team, make sure updating and revisiting the calendar are tasks that you prioritize and conduct regularly.”

Not tracking performance for ongoing optimizations

An effective content calendar should be informed by how your content performs. Regularly review metrics to identify what works, refine your strategy, and prioritize topics and formats that resonate with your audience.

Content calendar vs. social media content calendar

A content calendar can cover all types of content your brand produces, from blogs and emails to videos and podcasts — outlining when it will be created and published, along with other important details like the author and editor.

A social media content calendar is a specific type of content calendar, focused on the planning, scheduling, and publishing of content across social media platforms.

This typically includes details like captions, hashtags, visuals, and publish dates for each social media post.

How to use a content calendar for audits

Auditing your content is a manageable task when you have a thorough, updated content calendar.

To start, add a tab to your spreadsheet, then list all of your content URLs.

From there, dig into the data and see how many sessions and backlinks each page has from the last six months or so. This is also a great time to pinpoint any thin content or competing posts that could be combined.

After that, see which posts feature things like years or older statistics that have more updated numbers or facts you can swap in. Lastly, make sure to redirect any dead links that lead to 404 errors.

Pro tip: We recommend repeating this audit process regularly — such as twice a year — so you have a good feel for the status of your content library.

The takeaway

We’ve seen firsthand how fierce the competition is on the SERP these days. To create high-quality content that ranks, you’ve got to be strategic and thoughtful about what you’re publishing on your website.

The right content calendar acts as a roadmap to keep you on track, offer helpful visibility, and ensure that what you’re putting out there is relevant content that’ll help your target audience get answers to their questions — and find your company in the process.

This article has been updated and was originally published in November 2021.