Editorial Calendar

What an editorial calendar includes

• The topic, working title and target keyword of each piece
• The format: blog post, guide, video, newsletter or social media post
• The writer, the editor and the deadlines for drafts and review
• The publishing date and the channels used to promote it
• The status of each piece: idea, in progress, in review or published

Why create an editorial calendar?

A calendar keeps publishing regular and on time, shows gaps in the topics you cover and stops two people from writing the same article. It also lets you plan around seasons, launches and events, and makes it easy to schedule updates to older pages that are losing traffic.

A shared spreadsheet is enough to start. Larger teams often use project tools such as Trello, Asana or Notion, or the calendar built into their CMS.

Editorial calendar example

How to create an editorial calendar

1. List topics from keyword research, customer questions and your products.
2. Group them by theme and priority.
3. Pick a pace you can sustain and fill in publishing dates.
4. Assign an owner and a draft date for each piece.
5. Add seasonal dates and launches.
6. Review monthly, drop what no longer fits and add new ideas.

Editorial calendar mistakes

• Planning more content than the team can produce.
• Choosing topics from guesswork instead of data.
• Forgetting updates to old content, which should be in the calendar too.
• Not including promotion in the plan.

Editorial calendar FAQs

What tools can I use?

A shared spreadsheet is enough to start. See our guide to knowledge management tools for team workspaces.

How is it related to content marketing?

It is the schedule behind your content marketing. See editorial charters.