Plan 2 Months of Content [Editorial Calendar Template]

3 minute read

Team Kapost

The editorial calendar is what keeps people on track, deadlines met, teams aware, and goals achieved.

But often, it’s hard know what to put in the calendar. That’s why we’ve made a lovely editorial calendar guide to help get you started.

(Note: When I used to be a content marketing consultant, I’d charge a few thousand dollars for this—so consider this your lucky day and share it with your other content-focused friends.)

First, look at your month(s).

Are there any important events, tradeshows, or product releases that should inform your content calendar?

Fill out important milestones so that you can develop marketing strategically and remember important things coming up.

Next, develop one hefty piece of content (we call that a content pillar) and identify its launch date.

For this example, we’ll say an eBook—the content pillar—launches on the last day of June. Give your marketing team ample time to develop quality content, and set the stage for promotions and the amplification of that piece.

Based on your launch date, fill the remainder of your calendar with on-going social amplification.

Develop derivative content assets like blog posts, articles, whitepapers, and social language that supports the promotion of the material. A good rule of thumb is promoting your content pillar with one blog post per week and 3-10 social posts per week.

Now that your deadlines are sketched out, what goes into the production?

Working backwards from the pillar launch, identify all the steps and people involved in the creation of the piece? Ask yourself:

  • Which influencers do I need to contact?
  • Is there original research involved?
  • How much design work do I need?
  • Which parts (and when) do the legal teams need to approve this content?
  • When will the editor get involved?
  • How many freelance contributors will you need? And when do they need to get involved?

Put all of that information into your calendar.

Notify all people involved.

Don’t forget to actually include all the people involved in the project in your editorial calendar. With Kapost, this notification is automatically triggered when they’re assigned a task, as well as when that deadline is approaching or passed. In this case, you’ll need to share your doc, or calendar, with all project collaborators.

And voila, your calendar is complete.

Good work. Now that you’ve planned your campaign, start executing!

See How a Well-Organized Calendar Fits into the Big Picture of a Content Marketing Strategy

Get more info on streamlining your workflow within your teams with our Simplified Guide to B2B Content Strategy.

Ready to streamline your content operation, and go from chaos to calm? Get this guide.

Reliable products. Real results.

Every day, thousands of companies rely on Upland to get their jobs done simply and effectively. See how brands are putting Upland to work.

View Success Stories