I’ve been in content material advertising and marketing since early 2015. With nearly 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 prospect 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 software 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 crew.
A content material advertising and marketing supervisor simply spots gaps in content material planning one month’s time forward and will get their crew 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 out to be a protracted checklist. But I’d group them collectively into 4 classes:
1. Retains every little thing organized and saves time.
Bear 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 little thing written to software program and set deadlines, add attachments, draft the idea right into a process’s description, and many others.
Plus, it grew to become a precedence for our crew’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 strategy of content material creation.
2. Helps observe progress.
There’s nothing extra satisfying than seeing duties transfer from “in progress” to “carried out.” I really 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 workers, they wanted a easy solution to observe progress. Earlier than Trello, juggling a number of programs made monitoring a headache for your complete time.
Now, Trello takes care of every little thing and provides a transparent view of the place every process stands — from content material creation to gross sales to growth.
Its easy 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 infinite e-mail threads, everybody within the crew updates the identical software. Feedback, modifications, and approvals occur multi function 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 workers contribute as editors and 91% are lively 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 classes and nonetheless have time to refine every little 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 crew 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 12 months🔥. This enhance in content material manufacturing drove a 98% improve in weblog visitors and an enormous 1,412% development in natural visitors.
A content material planning software 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
After I was in search of an ideal content material planning software, right here’s what I centered on:
- Ease of use. I needed one thing easy. No difficult dashboards and a elaborate design to waste time determining the right way to use it.
- Collaboration. Since I work with a crew, it wanted to have real-time collaboration options. Job assignments, feedback, attachments, postponed duties, notifications, recurring duties, a number of assignees, subtasks, and simple file sharing have been a should.
- Content material calendar. I wanted a stable content material calendar to maintain every little thing organized and on schedule. I needed to see all my posts and deadlines in a single spot.
- Customization. I wanted to regulate the software to suit my course of. I didn’t need to change how I labored simply to make the software match.
- Integrations. It needed to sync with different instruments I already use — social media managers, analytics, you title it.
- Analytics. I needed 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.
- Cellular entry. I wanted a software I might entry on the go. Cloud-based or mobile-friendly was one other should.
- Storage. I needed to retailer every little thing in a single place — drafts, pictures, ultimate items — so I don’t must dig by way of emails or folders.
Alright, let’s now see which instruments cowl all (or no less than most) of those 9 factors talked about. Every one 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 excellent 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 little thing by way of Asana’s boards — and I completely love this software.
It’s a whole system for organizing your content material calendar, streamlining workflows, and conserving every little thing centralized — whether or not we have to schedule a weblog put up 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: Mechanically assign duties, set customized guidelines, and use templates for a sooner workflow.
- Integrations: Sync with instruments like Google Workspace, SharePoint, and Dropbox to centralize content material critiques and storage.
- Customized dashboards: Monitor items by channel, viewers, or standing.
- Actual-time suggestions: Share suggestions instantly inside calendar duties and ship notifications to your crew.
- Versatile deadlines: Shortly modify due dates and deadlines to accommodate altering priorities.
- Attachment integration: Connect related recordsdata on to duties, conserving all of your content material belongings simply accessible in a single place.
What I like: Asana has an excellent editorial calendar template, and I additionally like the power to assign subtasks for every stage of content material creation.
For instance, underneath one weblog put up process, I can create subtasks for writing, modifying, designing visuals, and scheduling. Everybody is aware of their function, and the work stays linked to the large image.
Pricing
- Private (Free): Nice for people; consists of primary venture views (checklist, board, calendar), integrations, and reporting.
- Starter (€13.49/person/month): Provides timeline and Gantt views, automations, and dashboards — ultimate for rising groups.
- Superior (€30.49/person/month billed yearly): Consists of 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 software.
What do consultants say about Asana?
Most consultants I’ve spoken with agree that one among Asana’s finest options is unquestionably its automation and tremendous intuitive dashboard.
“The best way I take advantage of the dashboard is fairly easy. I create a venture for every marketing campaign, and inside that, duties for content material creation, approvals, and publishing. Each process has a due date, assigned crew member, and clear directions, which retains every little thing organized… My crew didn’t want a lot coaching to get began; the format 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.
In terms of 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 and marketing Planning Templates by HubSpot
The true ache isn’t the writing and creating itself — however every little thing else that goes into ensuring content material flows easily. That’s why I really like HubSpot’s content material advertising and marketing planning templates. They’re unbelievable for anybody on the planet of brainstorming, scheduling, and optimizing weblog posts.
A set of free templates makes content material planning so fulfilling, whether or not you are utilizing Excel, Google Sheets, or Google Calendar.
Arrange and prioritize content material by breaking it down into key components like matter, objective, content material kind, goal persona, and accountable particular person. Every thought is scored based mostly on its profit and value, serving to groups deal with high-impact methods.
You can even observe the standing of every thought, guaranteeing alignment with enterprise objectives and environment friendly use of assets.
You’ll additionally love HubSpot editorial templates for those who want one thing easy and cost-effective on your weblog administration. They make information aggregation and group less complicated, they usually’re simple to customise. The educational curve is fast, they usually combine properly with calendar apps and content material administration instruments.
Nevertheless, they’re not ultimate if it’s good 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 printed on time.
- Subject 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 crew’s distinctive workflow and desires.
- Integrations: Sync together with your present instruments like Google Calendar or CMS for higher coordination.
- Monitoring progress: Monitor the standing of content material from thought to ultimate put up 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 search 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 solution to plan and schedule weblog posts and social media content material.
Professional tip: Take a look at out HubSpot Content material Hub — a set 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 software or combine it with a venture administration software like we do with Asana to facilitate content material manufacturing throughout completely different groups.
3. Notion
Notion’s versatility shines by way 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 for those who desire to begin from scratch as an alternative of utilizing pre-made templates, you’ll be able to completely achieve this.
Personally, I take advantage of Notion for a barely completely different goal 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 a number of key paperwork the place I add duties and observe your complete course of. As an example, 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 coated so I can see the place every one stands — whether or not it’s a dash candidate, has been printed, 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 taking place with every content material piece at any given second.
After all, Notion additionally permits you to use a Kanban board for those who want a calendar-like view of duties.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Content material calendar: Arrange your total 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 based mostly in your objectives.
- Database flexibility: Create customized databases for various kinds of content material and hyperlink them to maintain every little thing linked.
- Customizable workflows: Use tags, checklists, and process assignments to design workflows that swimsuit any venture, guaranteeing readability and accountability.
- Progress monitoring: Monitor the standing of your duties and content material items utilizing visible progress bars and kanban-style boards.
What I like: The flexibility 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, once I plan to publish, and extra. It’s all organized in a clear, structured approach for every matter, so every little thing’s tremendous simple to comply with.
Pricing
- Free: Nice for private use and smaller groups with primary content material administration wants.
- Plus (€11.50/seat/month): Good 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 software with a collaborative workspace and deep integration with different apps (Mailchimp, Asana, Calendly, and many others.)
Professional tip: Notion is used as a software to doc content material advertising and marketing processes and share throughout groups, stakeholders, and distant workers 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.
After I requested him concerning the instruments he’s used for content material planning, he mentioned he’d tried so much through the years — Asana, Trello, Monday.com — however Notion was the one which caught.
In contrast to 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 mentioned.
“My dashboard in Notion has three important elements: Marketing campaign Calendar, Content material Hub, and Analytics. It’s color-coded, which helps me navigate sooner. It’s simple to make use of, too — any new crew member can decide it up with out a lot bother,” 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 assessment, 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 carried out. It’s an additional step, nevertheless 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, nevertheless 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 crew keep on observe and assign further duties like studying a memo, a brand new guideline, and many others.
Trello makes use of boards, lists, and playing cards to interrupt down duties and observe progress. Gives you a function to label your duties with precedence, matter, and many others. Core options come freed from cost, making Trello a place to begin for running a blog. Should you’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 software 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 phases or marketing campaign progress.
- Playing cards: Each process has its personal card, with particulars like descriptions, attachments, due dates, and checklists.
- Butler automation: Set automated guidelines for nearly every little thing (e.g., due dates, process assignments) so your crew doesn’t waste time on repetitive work.
- Integrations: Join apps you already use, like Slack or Google Drive, to streamline your processes. A whole bunch of power-ups add further performance to swimsuit any venture want.
- Progress views: Swap between Calendar, Timeline, and Board views to remain on high of your deadlines. Every provides you a distinct perspective in your content material calendar and process administration.
What I like: Drag-and-drop function. You may transfer issues round within the playing cards in seconds, which is a lifesaver whenever you’re juggling a ton of media stuff without delay.
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.
- Commonplace ($5/person/month): Limitless boards, superior checklists, and 1,000 command runs per thirty days.
- Premium (contact for pricing): Consists of superior options like a timeline view, further automation choices, and precedence assist for rising groups.
Finest for: Groups that want a easy however efficient software 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 Entire Meals Earth, to ask extra about his content material workflow. His Trello has three important boards: Concepts, In Progress, and Printed. Plus, there’s a separate board for seasonal campaigns with particular deadlines and subtasks.
“It takes about quarter-hour to get a brand new crew member in control. Its simplicity permits us to onboard shortly, which is nice for a fast-paced setting like ours. Our on-time publishing price improved by 30% after implementing Trello. It has helped us keep a constant content material cadence, which has positively impacted our engagement charges throughout platforms,” says Pita.
After I requested if he’d tried the rest, he mentioned they’d used Asana earlier than, nevertheless it felt too feature-heavy for his or her wants on the time. Trello’s simplicity gained out.
Then again, Trello lacks superior analytics. To work round this, Pita’s crew paired Trello with Google Sheets for metrics monitoring. It’s not ultimate, nevertheless it bridges the hole successfully.
5. CoSchedule
The software is legendary for its social media and content material planning options with UNICEF, Yamaha, and P&G amongst their prospects. That made me examine the software’s overviews and schedule a demo with their gross sales crew to get an inside look.
From every little 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 shade coding, labels, advanced cross-team workflows, subtasks, integrations, APIs, and many others.
Prime Options for Content material Planning
- Unified advertising and marketing calendar: Centralize your advertising and marketing technique with a single calendar the place you’ll be able to 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 pictures 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 routinely reshares your best-performing social media messages, saving time and driving extra visitors to your high content material with minimal effort.
What I like: You may add stakeholders as visitor contributors to assign duties, tag them in discussions, and allow them to assessment work. The read-only calendar hyperlinks are a bonus, conserving shoppers up to date on venture progress in actual time with out letting them modify something.
Pricing
- Free: Finest for people managing primary social publishing. Consists of 2 social profiles, 15 scheduled posts, and primary assist.
- Social Calendar ($19/person/month): For small groups centered on social media methods. Gives limitless posts, 5 social profiles, and superior analytics.
- Company Calendar ($49/person/month): Tailor-made for companies managing a number of shoppers. Consists of consumer model profiles, white-label reviews, and extra.
- Content material Calendar (customized pricing): Combines all content material and social plans. Supreme for mid-sized groups needing sturdy instruments like Kanban views and superior reporting.
- Advertising and marketing Suite (customized pricing): For giant-scale groups dealing with advanced campaigns, with options like asset administration and enhanced permissions.
Finest for: Groups that want an all-in-one content material administration answer with campaign-level group and collaborative options.
What do consultants say about CoSchedule?
I received some nice insights about CoSchedule from Aaron Whittaker, vp of demand technology and advertising and marketing at Thrive Web Advertising and marketing Company.
His crew turned to CoSchedule’s Advertising and marketing 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 based mostly on historic information.
“We will now visualize how a single matter branches into a number of content material codecs throughout completely different channels, with each bit routinely 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 advanced 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 principally simply threw me into the deep finish, and I needed to determine it out myself. I wasn’t too impressed, and lots of it was truthfully complicated. Again then, the unique model of Basecamp was extra difficult, and quite a lot of entrepreneurs would agree.
However after they up to date to the most recent model, Basecamp went actually on fireplace.
Basecamp pulls every little thing into one easy dashboard: you’ve received 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, crew 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 underneath the playing cards: A centralized area to debate particular subjects, changing infinite venture emails.
- To-dos: Monitor work, deadlines, duties, and venture particulars multi function place.
- File storage and sharing: Arrange and share recordsdata, docs, and pictures together with your crew, conserving every little thing in a single accessible spot.
- Chat across the Campfire: Basecamp’s group chat function permits 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 little thing on observe.
- Timesheet add-on: Monitor your time instantly in Basecamp — no spreadsheets obligatory.
What I like: The Mission Management function, the place the needle strikes relying on the progress of a process. It’s a cool solution to visually observe how issues are going.
Pricing
- Basecamp ($15/person/month): Supreme for freelancers, startups, and small groups. Consists of 500GB of file storage, and also you solely pay for workers, with friends being free.
- Basecamp Professional Limitless ($299/month, billed yearly): For rising groups or bigger organizations. Consists of every little thing in Basecamp, plus 10x the file storage (5TB), 1:1 onboarding, precedence assist, and superior admin options.
Finest For: Groups in search of an all-in-one, user-friendly software that simplifies communication, process monitoring, and scheduling in a single platform.
What do consultants say about Basecamp?
“Every content material supervisor in control of a particular 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 additionally with social media managers and the remainder of the crew. We will see one another’s duties, but when we’d like a clearer view, we are able to filter to only 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 difficult to get the grasp of in comparison with instruments like Trello, which is extraordinarily intuitive.
From Scattered to Sorted Underneath 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 seems like after including content material planning instruments and editorial templates to my routine.
My ultimate 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.
