7 Tips for Organising a Content Calendar

A well-organised content calendar is the backbone of effective content marketing. It helps teams stay consistent, plan strategically and avoid last-minute chaos. Whether you’re managing a brand blog, social media account or a multi-channel campaign, these tips detailing how to organise a content calendar will help you to ensure your content venture runs as smoothly as possible.

1. Define clear content goals

Before filling in dates and deadlines, define what you want your content to achieve. Is your priority brand awareness, lead generation or community engagement? Clear goals will help you to shape the type of content you create and when it should go live. It can aid in scheduling evergreen content as well as timely content, balancing the two expertly to allow for variety and flexibility. 

2. Have the right tools at the ready

Content calendars can be as simple as a spreadsheet in an Excel document. It should include a number of different columns, rows and fields that are filled in on a regular basis to allow for consistent and easy tracking of content and its status as you go along. 

However, while you could use something simple, there are other tools you can use that are far more advanced, like Trello, Asana or Notion. Simply pick a tool that fits your role and that aligns with your workflow and run with it. 

Having the right tools on hand allows for collaboration, scheduling and tracking on an impressive level, making sure your content strategy runs like clockwork when you need it most. 

3. Break down content categories

Defining your content categories is part of creating and organising a great content calendar. You should break down content categories into content types, such as blogs, videos, podcasts, social media posts, newsletters, press releases and more. Colour coding is also useful, much like tagging and labelling. This makes it easier to see at a glance what’s planned and ensures you’re not leaning too far on one format or content type. 

4. Align key dates, milestones & events

Include important company milestones, seasonal events, industry conferences and relevant holidays, both national and international. Planning ahead makes for thought-provoking content that has clearly had a lot of time and effort put into its creation. You should mix these in with evergreen content, which is content that isn’t time-dependent and will be relevant for years to come. If you’re writing for a client, ask them what you would like to touch on with regards to company milestones, announcements, charity events and more. This is useful in terms of giving you some extra insight and inspiration. 

5. Set yourself realistic deadlines

Work backwards from the publish date to assign deadlines for drafting, editing, approvals and design. This prevents last-minute rushes and gives everyone enough time to contribute. Giving yourself realistic deadlines will help to relieve stress and take the pressure off. You will then see an improvement in your creativity and inspiration. Allow yourself enough time to do a good job. Rushing can result in mistakes or results that are poor quality. Preventing this by giving yourself realistic deadlines from the outset. 

6. Balance evergreen content with timely content

Mix evergreen pieces (content that stays relevant for the long term) with timely updates and trend-based posts. Evergreen content anchors your strategy, while timely posts keep your brand fresh and responsive. Just to summarise, and to be clear, we’ve defined evergreen nd timely content below, both of which need to be combined to ensure steady traffic and fresh engagement:

• Evergreen – keeps generating value for months and even years, often coming in the form of how-to guides, FAQs, tutorials and listicles
• Timely – boosts relevance and keeps your audience engaged in the present day, people will normally post trend commentary, launch seasonal campaigns and announce breaking news

7. Get the rest of the team involved

Encouraging team collaboration is a key factor when it comes to organising a content calendar. It shouldn’t just be a one-person job. You should bring in copywriters, website designers, marketers, SEO specialists, PPC professionals and more to make it well-rounded. You then need to start delegating and planning, and that includes popping the following on your to-do list:

• Assigning clear ownership for each task
• Holding short planning meetings to align priorities
• Allowing contributors to suggest ideas based on their expertise

When all of the above have been executed, and if everyone has visibility and transparency is offered from the outset, the calendar becomes a shared roadmap to success and not just a basic management tool.

Kumo delivers tailored digital marketing services to businesses across the UK. Based in the centre of Nottingham, our expert team offers SEO, PPC, content creation, web design and more. If you’re aiming to grow your business, get in touch with our friendly team – we’re here to help you succeed.