I’ve been in content material advertising and marketing since early 2015. With virtually a decade of expertise, I’ve examined dozens of content material planning software program, spreadsheets, and calendars through the years.
Collaborations with main firms like HubSpot, Cognism, Userpilot, and small startups gave me the possibility to work with tons of workflows and options. Some have been love at first click on, and a few have been meh.
This text is a rundown of my six favourite content material planning instruments on the market, complemented with insights from different content material consultants.
Desk of Contents
What’s content material planning software program?
Content material planning software program is a instrument that helps you arrange, schedule, observe progress and post-dues, and handle your content material creation course of with teammates in a single place.
It retains your concepts, deadlines, briefs, publishing, and content material distribution duties on observe, whether or not you’re working solo or as a part of a workforce.
A content material advertising and marketing supervisor simply spots gaps in content material planning one month’s time forward and will get their workforce to handle the problems collaboratively.
4 Advantages of Utilizing Content material Planning Software program
Content material planning software program is so versatile that its advantages turn into a protracted checklist. But I’d group them collectively into 4 classes:
1. Retains every thing organized and saves time.
Keep in mind the times when your content material concepts have been scattered throughout random docs and notes? OK, I’m nonetheless responsible of it. However now I transfer every thing written to software program and set deadlines, add attachments, draft the idea right into a activity’s description, and so forth.
Plus, it turned a precedence for our workforce’s weekly planning conferences — each thought goes to a backlog the place a supervisor or accountable individual picks duties to work on a given week.
At HubSpot, we additionally use Asana to arrange content material advertising and marketing, media, and web optimization, work with contractors and freelancers to maintain them on observe, and govern the entire technique of content material creation.
2. Helps observe progress.
There’s nothing extra satisfying than seeing duties transfer from “in progress” to “performed.” I like the visible progress bars and calendars — they maintain me motivated and present me precisely the place issues stand.
Talking of that, Scan2CAD demonstrated how Trello streamlined its workflows.
With over 90,000 prospects and fewer than 25 staff, they wanted a easy strategy to observe progress. Earlier than Trello, juggling a number of programs made monitoring a headache for the complete time.
Now, Trello takes care of every thing and offers a transparent view of the place every activity stands — from content material creation to gross sales to improvement.
Its simple setup made it simple to handle workflows and hit deadlines. As CEO Luke Kennedy, says, “We’ve saved hours of time and ache, plus some huge cash.”
3. Encourages collaboration.
As an alternative of limitless e mail threads, everybody within the workforce updates the identical instrument. Feedback, modifications, and approvals occur multi functional place, saving us tons of back-and-forth.
Mangopay’s expertise with Notion is an ideal instance of this. They streamlined their knowledge-sharing by changing a number of instruments with a single workspace. This added to collaboration and engagement — 64% of their 500 staff contribute as editors and 91% are energetic month-to-month.
By tearing down silos, Mangopay noticed spectacular outcomes — like eliminating an HR Slack channel as a result of solutions have been all in Wikis.
4. Improves effectivity.
Having a transparent plan means fewer last-minute scrambles, which results in higher concepts and execution. I can now schedule brainstorming periods and nonetheless have time to refine every thing earlier than it goes reside.
An ideal instance of that is ON24 and their expertise with CoSchedule. Earlier than they began utilizing it, their advertising and marketing workforce struggled with organizing their social media and weblog content material.
Deadlines have been missed, and alternatives to develop their on-line presence have been usually ignored. However as soon as they centralized their content material planning, they quadrupled their weblog output from 24 to 112 blogs a yr
. This enhance in content material manufacturing drove a 98% enhance in weblog site visitors and an enormous 1,412% development in natural site visitors.
A content material planning instrument is a should. However how ought to you choose which one to make use of from so many choices?
What to Search for in Content material Planning Software program
Once I was in search of an ideal content material planning instrument, right here’s what I targeted on:
- Ease of use. I wished one thing easy. No sophisticated dashboards and a elaborate design to waste time determining find out how to use it.
- Collaboration. Since I work with a workforce, it wanted to have real-time collaboration options. Activity assignments, feedback, attachments, postponed duties, notifications, recurring duties, a number of assignees, subtasks, and straightforward file sharing have been a should.
- Content material calendar. I wanted a stable content material calendar to maintain every thing organized and on schedule. I wished to see all my posts and deadlines in a single spot.
- Customization. I wanted to regulate the instrument to suit my course of. I didn’t need to change how I labored simply to make the instrument match.
- Integrations. It needed to sync with different instruments I already use — social media managers, analytics, you title it.
- Analytics. I wished to trace how my content material was doing with out pulling information from a bunch of locations.
- Templates. Templates for blogs, social posts, and newsletters helped me save time. No want to begin from scratch each time.
- Cell entry. I wanted a instrument I may entry on the go. Cloud-based or mobile-friendly was one other should.
- Storage. I wished to retailer every thing in a single place — drafts, photos, remaining items — so I don’t must dig by means of emails or folders.
Alright, let’s now see which instruments cowl all (or at the very least most) of those 9 factors talked about. Each has its strengths, and in the long run, I’ll go away the ultimate choice as much as you.
The 6 Finest Content material Planning Software program
1. Asana
My first time utilizing Asana wasn’t precisely an important expertise — however I didn’t actually give it a good shot. Plus, to be sincere, it wasn’t as superior again then as it’s now.
Now, 90% of my previous and present shoppers use Asana for all their content material administration. From the very first stage of ideation to the ultimate publishing, we deal with every thing by means of Asana’s boards — and I completely love this instrument.
It’s a whole system for organizing your content material calendar, streamlining workflows, and preserving every thing centralized — whether or not we have to schedule a weblog submit or map out a marketing campaign timeline.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Content material calendar: See all content material in a single interactive calendar, together with launch dates and channels.
- Automation: Robotically assign duties, set customized guidelines, and use templates for a quicker workflow.
- Integrations: Sync with instruments like Google Workspace, SharePoint, and Dropbox to centralize content material evaluations and storage.
- Customized dashboards: Observe items by channel, viewers, or standing.
- Actual-time suggestions: Share suggestions instantly inside calendar duties and ship notifications to your workforce.
- Versatile deadlines: Rapidly alter due dates and deadlines to accommodate altering priorities.
- Attachment integration: Connect related recordsdata on to duties, preserving all of your content material property simply accessible in a single place.
What I like: Asana has an important editorial calendar template, and I additionally like the flexibility to assign subtasks for every stage of content material creation.
For instance, below one weblog submit activity, I can create subtasks for writing, enhancing, designing visuals, and scheduling. Everybody is aware of their position, and the work stays linked to the large image.
Pricing
- Private (Free): Nice for people; contains fundamental venture views (checklist, board, calendar), integrations, and reporting.
- Starter (€13.49/consumer/month): Provides timeline and Gantt views, automations, and dashboards — preferrred for rising groups.
- Superior (€30.49/consumer/month billed yearly): Contains portfolio administration, superior reporting, and useful resource administration for bigger firms.
Finest for: Groups seeking to automate and streamline their content material workflows with a extremely visible, centralized planning instrument.
What do consultants say about Asana?
Most consultants I’ve spoken with agree that considered one of Asana’s greatest options is unquestionably its automation and tremendous intuitive dashboard.
“The way in which I exploit the dashboard is fairly simple. I create a venture for every marketing campaign, and inside that, duties for content material creation, approvals, and publishing. Each activity has a due date, assigned workforce member, and clear directions, which retains every thing organized… My workforce didn’t want a lot coaching to get began; the structure is intuitive sufficient that we simply dove in and figured it out as we went,” shares Brenda Beltran, web optimization content material supervisor at Holafly.
With regards to the downsides, Beltran identified that it doesn’t at all times combine easily with each platform they use, like particular analytics instruments. To work round this, they depend on Zapier to attach Asana with Google Sheets, creating customized reviews to trace marketing campaign efficiency.
2. Content material Advertising Planning Templates by HubSpot
The actual ache isn’t the writing and creating itself — however every thing else that goes into ensuring content material flows easily. That’s why I like HubSpot’s content material advertising and marketing planning templates. They’re implausible for anybody on the earth of brainstorming, scheduling, and optimizing weblog posts.
A set of free templates makes content material planning so pleasurable, whether or not you are utilizing Excel, Google Sheets, or Google Calendar.
Arrange and prioritize content material by breaking it down into key parts like matter, objective, content material kind, goal persona, and accountable particular person. Every thought is scored primarily based on its profit and price, serving to groups deal with high-impact methods.
You too can observe the standing of every thought, making certain alignment with enterprise targets and environment friendly use of assets.
You’ll additionally love HubSpot editorial templates when you want one thing easy and cost-effective on your weblog administration. They make knowledge aggregation and group less complicated, and so they’re simple to customise. The educational curve is fast, and so they combine effectively with calendar apps and content material administration instruments.
Nonetheless, they’re not preferrred if it’s essential to observe a number of channels, and collaboration choices are fairly restricted.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Content material calendar: Plan publishing schedules to make sure content material is revealed on time.
- Matter brainstorming: Jot down concepts and align them with the target market’s wants.
- Key phrase optimization: Hyperlink key phrases to particular content material items to maintain web optimization a high precedence.
- Simple customization: Tailor your calendar to suit your workforce’s distinctive workflow and wishes.
- Integrations: Sync together with your current instruments like Google Calendar or CMS for higher coordination.
- Monitoring progress: Observe the standing of content material from thought to remaining submit so no piece is ignored.
What I like: The content material calendar is my favourite template trigger it’s easy and to the purpose. Tremendous clear, with no pointless muddle, making it very easy to seek out what I want.
Pricing
- HubSpot affords free editorial, weblog, and social media calendar templates.
Finest for: Content material entrepreneurs in search of an organized, easy, and free strategy to plan and schedule weblog posts and social media content material.
Professional tip: Check out HubSpot Content material Hub — a collection of instruments with content material planning templates, AI-powered content material technology, lead seize instruments, a scalable CMS, video and podcast internet hosting, A/B testing, web optimization suggestions, and superior analytics.
Use it as a standalone instrument or combine it with a venture administration instrument like we do with Asana to facilitate content material manufacturing throughout completely different groups.
3. Notion
Notion’s versatility shines by means of with its content material calendar templates made by completely different creators (each free and paid), which allow you to plan, observe, and handle content material seamlessly.
However when you want to begin from scratch as a substitute of utilizing pre-made templates, you may completely accomplish that.
Personally, I exploit Notion for a barely completely different objective than Asana. I don’t use it as a calendar or schedule however primarily for planning and progress monitoring.
Right here’s how.
I’ve arrange just a few key paperwork the place I add duties and observe the complete course of. As an illustration, I’ve a “Content material Technique” part the place I map out detailed methods for every consumer/web site.
I additionally created a “Content material Backlog” to maintain observe of all subjects we have lined so I can see the place each stands — whether or not it’s a dash candidate, has been revealed, remains to be in progress, or is within the distribution/promotion part.
I put all my subjects into one Notion sheet and observe their standing utilizing colourful tags that assist me clearly see what’s occurring with every content material piece at any given second.
After all, Notion additionally allows you to use a Kanban board when you want a calendar-like view of duties.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Content material calendar: Arrange your complete content material technique in a single place with customizable views for each kind of content material.
- Template selection: Many free and paid content material calendar templates, together with weblog editorial, social media, and YouTube planners.
- Notion AI Integration: AI-powered options assist generate concepts and solutions primarily based in your targets.
- Database flexibility: Create customized databases for various kinds of content material and hyperlink them to maintain every thing linked.
- Customizable workflows: Use tags, checklists, and activity assignments to design workflows that swimsuit any venture, making certain readability and accountability.
- Progress monitoring: Observe the standing of your duties and content material items utilizing visible progress bars and kanban-style boards.
What I like: The power to interrupt down every bit of content material and clearly observe which stage of the funnel it’s in. I can go away notes inside the doc to notice the assets I used, the questions I requested consultants, how my entire course of went, after I plan to publish, and extra. It’s all organized in a clear, structured manner for every matter, so every thing’s tremendous simple to observe.
Pricing
- Free: Nice for private use and smaller groups with fundamental content material administration wants.
- Plus (€11.50/seat/month): Excellent for small groups, providing limitless blocks, file uploads, and integrations with third-party apps like Slack and GitHub.
- Enterprise (€17/seat/month): Designed for rising companies, with superior analytics, database automations, and extra.
- Enterprise: Contact gross sales for large-scale groups needing superior safety, customized integrations, and intensive management options.
Finest for: Groups that need a extremely customizable content material administration instrument with a collaborative workspace and deep integration with different apps (Mailchimp, Asana, Calendly, and so forth.)
Professional tip: Notion is used as a instrument to doc content material advertising and marketing processes and share throughout groups, stakeholders, and distant staff or freelancers. Userpilot and Lemlist use Notion to put in writing and retailer customary working procedures (SOPs).
What do consultants say about Notion?
I had an opportunity to speak to Jake Ward, the founding father of Kleo, a browser extension that helps you uncover and create content material on LinkedIn.
Once I requested him concerning the instruments he’s used for content material planning, he stated he’d tried so much through the years — Asana, Trello, Monday.com — however Notion was the one which caught.
Not like different instruments that lock individuals into inflexible templates, Notion lets him arrange customized databases, see a calendar view, and observe progress precisely how he wants, Ward stated.
“My dashboard in Notion has three most important components: Marketing campaign Calendar, Content material Hub, and Analytics. It’s color-coded, which helps me navigate quicker. It’s simple to make use of, too — any new workforce member can choose it up with out a lot hassle,” Ward provides. “The workflows are customizable, so I could make templates that match precisely how I wish to work. Each stage of content material, from planning to evaluation, has its area.”
Ward additionally shared that Notion doesn’t have the identical built-in automation options as Trello or Monday.com, so he makes use of Zapier to get the job performed. It’s an additional step, however it works.
“Paired with Kleo, it helps me create and develop my viewers with out spending hours managing stuff that doesn’t matter. It’s a easy setup, however it’s efficient, and it’s helped me construct an viewers of over 150,000 followers in two years,” Ward says.
4. Trello
I used Trello for 8 months inside my consumer’s workspace, and I loved its simplicity. The Kanban view of the Content material Calendar had the workforce keep on observe and assign further duties like studying a memo, a brand new guideline, and so forth.
Trello makes use of boards, lists, and playing cards to interrupt down duties and observe progress. Affords you a function to label your duties with precedence, matter, and so forth. Core options come freed from cost, making Trello a place to begin for running a blog. For those who’re in search of one thing tremendous intuitive and very simple to make use of, you’ll positively prefer it.
For grown-up groups, IMO, the instrument is just too easy.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Boards & lists: Visualize your workflow with customizable boards and lists and observe content material manufacturing levels or marketing campaign progress.
- Playing cards: Each activity has its personal card, with particulars like descriptions, attachments, due dates, and checklists.
- Butler automation: Set automated guidelines for nearly every thing (e.g., due dates, activity assignments) so your workforce doesn’t waste time on repetitive work.
- Integrations: Join apps you already use, like Slack or Google Drive, to streamline your processes. A whole lot of power-ups add further performance to swimsuit any venture want.
- Progress views: Change between Calendar, Timeline, and Board views to remain on high of your deadlines. Every provides you a special perspective in your content material calendar and activity administration.
What I like: Drag-and-drop function. You’ll be able to transfer issues round within the playing cards in seconds, which is a lifesaver whenever you’re juggling a ton of media stuff directly.
Pricing overview:
- Free: For people or small groups. Limitless playing cards, Energy-Ups, and boards (as much as 10 per Workspace), plus 250 Workspace command runs per thirty days.
- Normal ($5/consumer/month): Limitless boards, superior checklists, and 1,000 command runs per thirty days.
- Premium (contact for pricing): Contains superior options like a timeline view, further automation choices, and precedence help for rising groups.
Finest for: Groups that want a easy however efficient instrument for managing content material workflows and tasks, with versatile views and loads of integrations.
What do consultants say about Trello?
I caught up with Tiago Pita, model and ecommerce director at Complete Meals Earth, to ask extra about his content material workflow. His Trello has three most important boards: Concepts, In Progress, and Revealed. Plus, there’s a separate board for seasonal campaigns with particular deadlines and subtasks.
“It takes about quarter-hour to get a brand new workforce member up to the mark. Its simplicity permits us to onboard shortly, which is nice for a fast-paced atmosphere like ours. Our on-time publishing price improved by 30% after implementing Trello. It has helped us preserve a constant content material cadence, which has positively impacted our engagement charges throughout platforms,” says Pita.
Once I requested if he’d tried the rest, he stated they’d used Asana earlier than, however it felt too feature-heavy for his or her wants on the time. Trello’s simplicity received out.
Alternatively, Trello lacks superior analytics. To work round this, Pita’s workforce paired Trello with Google Sheets for metrics monitoring. It’s not preferrred, however it bridges the hole successfully.
5. CoSchedule
The instrument is known for its social media and content material planning options with UNICEF, Yamaha, and P&G amongst their prospects. That made me examine the instrument’s overviews and schedule a demo with their gross sales workforce to get an inside look.
From every thing I’ve researched, CoShedule lives as much as the hype.
What stood out to me is the way it simplifies managing a number of tasks or campaigns with colour coding, labels, complicated cross-team workflows, subtasks, integrations, APIs, and so forth.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Unified advertising and marketing calendar: Centralize your advertising and marketing technique with a single calendar the place you may arrange tasks, schedule posts, and visualize deadlines.
- Marketing campaign administration: Mix duties into campaigns, supplying you with a holistic view of timelines and deliverables.
- AI-powered assistant: Save time with instruments to draft content material, generate concepts, and even create photos with minimal effort.
- Social media administration: Plan, publish, and observe posts throughout platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, all from one dashboard.
- Integrations: Join with apps like HubSpot, Slack, and Google Analytics to streamline workflows and consolidate reporting.
- ReQueue function: It mechanically reshares your best-performing social media messages, saving time and driving extra site visitors to your high content material with minimal effort.
What I like: You’ll be able to add stakeholders as visitor contributors to assign duties, tag them in discussions, and allow them to evaluation work. The read-only calendar hyperlinks are a bonus, preserving shoppers up to date on venture progress in actual time with out letting them modify something.
Pricing
- Free: Finest for people managing fundamental social publishing. Contains 2 social profiles, 15 scheduled posts, and fundamental help.
- Social Calendar ($19/consumer/month): For small groups targeted on social media methods. Affords limitless posts, 5 social profiles, and superior analytics.
- Company Calendar ($49/consumer/month): Tailor-made for companies managing a number of shoppers. Contains consumer model profiles, white-label reviews, and extra.
- Content material Calendar (customized pricing): Combines all content material and social plans. Ideally suited for mid-sized groups needing sturdy instruments like Kanban views and superior reporting.
- Advertising Suite (customized pricing): For big-scale groups dealing with complicated campaigns, with options like asset administration and enhanced permissions.
Finest for: Groups that want an all-in-one content material administration resolution with campaign-level group and collaborative options.
What do consultants say about CoSchedule?
I obtained some nice insights about CoSchedule from Aaron Whittaker, vice chairman of demand technology and advertising and marketing at Thrive Web Advertising Company.
His workforce turned to CoSchedule’s Advertising Suite after evaluating a number of instruments, together with Monday.com, which lacked the specialised content material advertising and marketing capabilities they wanted. (I attempted working in Monday, too, and it’s a nightmare with lacking options for content material collaboration.)
The standout CoSchedule’s options for him have been Content material Organizer, ReQueue + an built-in AI assistant that predicts content material efficiency primarily based on historic knowledge.
“We are able to now visualize how a single matter branches into a number of content material codecs throughout completely different channels, with every bit mechanically inheriting related marketing campaign tags and deadlines,” Whittaker says. “The ReQueue function alone saved us round 10 hours weekly on social media scheduling.”
Furthermore, customizable workflows and content material pillars helped them handle complicated approval processes, though Whittaker famous limitations within the variety of customized statuses allowed.
6. Basecamp
My first run-in with Basecamp? Not nice.
The consumer who gave me entry mainly simply threw me into the deep finish, and I needed to determine it out myself. I wasn’t too impressed, and plenty of it was actually complicated. Again then, the unique model of Basecamp was extra sophisticated, and a substantial amount of entrepreneurs would agree.
However after they up to date to the most recent model, Basecamp went actually on fireplace.
Basecamp pulls every thing into one easy dashboard: you’ve obtained to-do lists, shared calendars, and file storage to trace each a part of the content material course of. Uncommon for content material planning software program and takes time to get used to however efficient for small content material groups to maintain all content material docs in a single place.
Plus, workforce members can remark proper on duties or recordsdata, and there’s additionally a Campfire chat, so communication stays tight and arranged.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Messages below the playing cards: A centralized area to debate particular subjects, changing limitless venture emails.
- To-dos: Observe work, deadlines, tasks, and venture particulars multi functional place.
- File storage and sharing: Arrange and share recordsdata, docs, and pictures together with your workforce, preserving every thing in a single accessible spot.
- Chat across the Campfire: Basecamp’s group chat function allows you to ask fast questions and get solutions in actual time.
- Schedule: Visualize your venture deadlines, milestones, and occasions on a single timeline to maintain every thing on observe.
- Timesheet add-on: Observe your time instantly in Basecamp — no spreadsheets vital.
What I like: The Mission Management function, the place the needle strikes relying on the progress of a activity. It’s a cool strategy to visually observe how issues are going.
Pricing
- Basecamp ($15/consumer/month): Ideally suited for freelancers, startups, and small groups. Contains 500GB of file storage, and also you solely pay for workers, with company being free.
- Basecamp Professional Limitless ($299/month, billed yearly): For rising groups or bigger organizations. Contains every thing in Basecamp, plus 10x the file storage (5TB), 1:1 onboarding, precedence help, and superior admin options.
Finest For: Groups in search of an all-in-one, user-friendly instrument that simplifies communication, activity monitoring, and scheduling in a single platform.
What do consultants say about Basecamp?
“Every content material supervisor accountable for a selected nation’s content material must be stored up-to-date, and everybody must work collectively on issues like planning weblog subjects, localizing content material, and dealing with distribution,” says Mia Jozipović, content material supervisor at Siterice.hr (a part of the FamilyCare Group).
“Basecamp helps us keep extra linked — not simply between content material managers, but in addition with social media managers and the remainder of the workforce. We are able to see one another’s duties, but when we want a clearer view, we will filter to simply our personal,” Jozipović says, “And when we have to share one thing, we’ve got a separate Campfire chat for that.”
As a small draw back, Jozipović talked about that Basecamp could be a bit extra sophisticated to get the hold of in comparison with instruments like Trello, which is extraordinarily intuitive.
From Scattered to Sorted Below One Roof
Much less stress, fewer worries, and eventually, no extra waking up in a panic about what I must deal with as we speak. That is what life appears like after including content material planning instruments and editorial templates to my routine.
My remaining recommendation for the instruments:
- Small groups: Basecamp, Trello + free content material planning templates by HubSpot
- Mid-sized and enormous groups: Asana or CoSchedule — for content material planning, Notion — for SOPs in content material advertising and marketing + HubSpot’s editorial templates.
