Content material plan templates make it attainable to trace content material concepts from brainstorming and creation to design, publishing, and packaging. Utilizing a template (or full on system) makes it attainable to align these low-level plans with overarching enterprise objectives.
Nevertheless, “content material plan” is a reasonably broad class and means various things to totally different folks. For some, this implies a easy editorial calendar.
For others, it’s a full-scale undertaking administration and content material operations system.
I’ve used dozens of various instruments, configurations, and templates to handle content material over time. Listed below are my favourite templates that span the spectrum from easy to superior.
monday.com: Plan full tasks and content material work in a single place
monday.com is an all-in-one undertaking administration resolution constructed on relational databases that make it extremely customizable and versatile if you wish to put within the work to customise it.
It’s free to enroll in case you have one or two folks however you’re restricted to a few tasks. That’s greater than sufficient to strive the template out, nevertheless it gained’t get you so far as different free plans on the market.
Extra monday.com protection: monday.com evaluate | Notion vs monday.com | Asana vs monday.com.
Template options:
- 30+ column varieties.
- Drag-and-drop editor to customise your board.
- Add information and fix hyperlinks to particular duties.
- Integrates with Slack, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and extra.
- Capability to plan content material months upfront.
- Superior collaboration capabilities.
- Automated notifications.
monday.com’s content material planning template comes with every little thing that you must brainstorm, handle, evaluate, and schedule your entire content material. Whether or not you’re working a weblog, making ready movies on YouTube, creating social posts, or a mixture of all these, you’ll get all the weather you want.
Whereas it does require extra customization than others, it offers you full management to make the template work the way you do.
You may simply change between board, desk, Gantt, and calendar view (relying in your plan) to see the proper degree of element for what you’re doing.
Wish to perceive total timelines at a look? Gantt chart or calendar view will work properly. Have to see what duties are assigned to you and after they’re due? You may arrange a filtered view that exhibits your entire work throughout all the board in a single place.
With a full suite of automations on greater tiers, you’ll be capable of arrange absolutely automated workflows that replace statuses, assign the proper folks, alter due dates, and extra.
One of many extra distinctive features of this template is the power to add and arrange information.
Content material plan templates for ClickUp
ClickUp, like monday.com, is a undertaking administration and activity administration software program with a complete free plan you need to use to get began. It has lots of of free templates you can begin with and you’ll customise nearly every little thing to match your wants.
You need to use it to collaborate together with your workforce and handle every stage of the content material planning and manufacturing course of — from brainstorming and assigning to creation and publishing.
Extra ClickUp protection: ClickUp evaluate | ClickUp vs Notion | Smartsheet vs ClickUp.
A template for tying content material and subtasks to high-level objectives
If you happen to’re something like me, you favor every little thing from aims and objectives to content material and subtasks to be related. That’s precisely what this ClickUp template helps with.
It permits you to begin with broad content material objectives and different big-picture aims. You may lay out every little thing you need your content material to perform and all the time have that shut by in case you or anybody your workforce forgets.
Template options:
- 9 customized fields.
- Constructed-in time monitoring.
- Dependency warnings.
- Capability to create subcategories for extra group.
- Colour-coded tagging for enhanced visualization.
After excessive degree planning, you’ll be able to add content material concepts and subtasks for every one. This allows you to get extremely granular whereas preserving every little thing tied collectively.
There are a number of views, together with calendar, Kanban, checklist, grid, extra. Everybody from managers and editors to writers and uploaders can view their work in no matter approach works finest for them.
You’ll additionally be capable of arrange content material pillars and observe progress for every one.
A beginner-friendly social media content material planning template
Want a easy option to preserve observe of social media content material? ClickUp’s free social media template is nice for people or companies that need assistance managing social content material at excessive volumes throughout a number of channels.
This template makes it straightforward to plan from the highest down. After the preliminary arrange, you’ll know what to publish, which channel it’s occurring, and when to push it reside.
Template options:
- Straightforward content material prioritization.
- Set due dates and assignees.
- Customized statuses.
- Gantt chart and calendar views.
- Nested subtasks.
Inside each bit of content material, you’ll be able to assign subtasks to totally different workforce members as wanted. Say you want a copywriter to place collectively just a few traces for a LinkedIn submit however you additionally want a designer to create customized photographs.
With this template, you are able to do each and observe progress for all the piece at a better degree.
It additionally features a built-in prioritization discipline and the power to reschedule content material or shuffle priorities at a second’s discover.
Notion content material planning templates
I consider Notion as a clean slate that may be changed into absolutely anything so long as you’re keen to place within the time. It doesn’t come preconfigured for undertaking administration like ClickUp and it’s extra customizable than monday.com.
For some, that’s thrilling. For others, it’s debilitating. If you happen to’re the previous, you’ll love with the ability to tweak each setting and format your system to match your preferences.
Just like the others, it has a free plan you need to use to strive it out. If you happen to’re a person, this may doubtless be greater than sufficient for fairly a while. For groups, the free plan is extra of a free trial to see if it’ll work for your corporation.
Extra Notion protection: Notion evaluate | Coda vs Notion | Notion vs OneNote.
A bare-bones content material plan template with Kanban and calendar views
If you happen to’re at present utilizing handwritten notes or a clean Phrase doc to prepare your content material concepts, this content material planner template is the improve you’re searching for.
Regardless of Notion’s flexibility, it retains every little thing easy and is made for absolute learners.
Template options:
- Constructed-in search to rapidly discover what you want.
- “Facet peak” to see an expanded view with out switching screens.
- Pre-built customized channel tags.
- Add captions and hashtags to content material playing cards.
- Retailer a backlog of latest content material concepts.
- Extremely customizable and expandable.
The content material inbox is an effective way to maintain observe of latest content material concepts whereas Kanban view makes it straightforward to maneuver concepts by means of your publishing course of, all the way in which from ideation and the primary draft to publishing.
It additionally has a calendar view with week and month-to-month choices to simply see what’s forward for every channel.
These two views plus a regular checklist view are highly effective sufficient for people and small groups who publish throughout just a few totally different platforms.
Any greater than that and also you’ll wish to use the following template as a substitute.
A extra superior content material template for every little thing from objectives to to-do lists
This template has quite a few options, together with detailed views of various platforms, standalone to-do lists, content material objectives, notes, audiences, and a content material calendar.
There’s additionally an space to dump new content material concepts and a number of other views to see content material by month, week, or platform. It could possibly really feel overwhelming at first look, however take into account that you’ll be able to customise it to match your wants.
Template options:
- To-do lists for easy duties that don’t require full undertaking monitoring.
- 6 content material calendar views.
- Capability to add information and fix hyperlinks.
- Visible publishing schedule.
It has a number of components you’d in any other case should create from scratch. You may reorganize every little thing and lay it out another way in case you favor.
You too can change the colours in case you’re not a fan of pink.
I additionally like this template as a result of it’s set as much as work for a number of channels straight away and it permits you to create separate to-do lists, which don’t essentially should be about content material.
This straightforward addition might be nice in case you’re an entrepreneur with different issues occurring.
Content material plan templates for Google Sheets and Excel
If you happen to favor the familiarity of spreadsheets, you are able to do some fairly highly effective issues with out having to make use of undertaking administration software program.
These templates are significantly helpful for solo customers, small groups, and low quantity manufacturing environments as they don’t embody as many activity administration, workforce collaboration, or automation capabilities.
Though these templates have been created by Smartsheet, neither really works throughout the software program so you need to use each totally free.
Extra spreadsheet protection: Excel alternate options | Be taught Microsoft Excel | Use Bard with Google Sheets.
Plan and handle video manufacturing in Excel
All the templates up to now are geared in the direction of blended media content material planning and manufacturing. This one is particularly for managing video in numerous codecs.
From how-to tutorials, buyer success tales, and product demos to explainers and YouTube shorts, it permits you to observe manufacturing at each stage. And since these phases are totally different from weblog posts and normal social media content material, this one requires much less customization because it’s constructed for movies out of the field.
Template options:
- Begin utilizing it straight away.
- Columns to handle and assign work.
- Rows for every stage of video manufacturing.
- Easy and streamlined one-page planner.
- Straightforward to choose up for anybody conversant in spreadsheets.
- Extra board views out there if used inside Smartsheet.
You’ll even be capable of tie movies to totally different purchaser personas all through the buying journey to make sure you’re creating sufficient of the proper kinds of movies.
The true great thing about doing so is with the ability to zoom out and see knowledge for every section. You’ll should arrange your personal calculations and knowledge visualizations, however the underlying knowledge is all there so that you can use nevertheless you’d like.
Annual content material planning in Google Sheets
Managing extra than simply movies? This straightforward content material plan template for Google Sheets is the higher selection if you wish to follow a fundamental spreadsheet.
It permits you to plan content material month by month for a whole 12 months.
Template options:
- No further software program required.
- Main holidays are already included.
- Separate sheets for all 12 months.
- A spot to checklist your most necessary dates at a look.
- Plan forward for subsequent month’s deadlines with out switching tabs.
It even comes preloaded with main holidays so that you don’t have to regulate your publishing schedule when these dates pop up unexpectedly.
For each bit of content material, you’ll be able to set a date, related occasion, title, standing, description, and proprietor, letting you keep on prime of important particulars with out being slowed down with too many irrelevant fields.
There’s a primary sheet that exhibits your entire content material, together with titles and customized statuses. It’s an amazing place to brainstorm concepts and add these subjects to your calendar whenever you’re prepared.
Every month has a separate sheet which makes it straightforward to dig deeper into the weeds as wanted.
Easy methods to create your personal content material plan
Content material plans are available all flavors. Beginning with a template may also help steer you in the proper course, however you’ll be able to all the time customise them or create your personal.
I’m a giant fan of customizing templates because it makes them hyper-relevant to your scenario. It additionally forces you to consider your processes and the way they might work in an ideal world. Don’t be afraid to mess around, strive new issues, and tweak every little thing over time.
If you happen to’re extra considering creating your personal, it is best to take into consideration:
- Your content material or enterprise objectives and aims.
- The kinds of content material you wish to create (blogs, social posts, movies, and so on.).
- The place you’re planning to distribute your content material.
- Your content material advertising technique.
- Publishing frequency throughout totally different platforms.
- Completely different segments of your viewers.
- Your content material creation course of.
- The information and stats that you must make choices.
All of those components work collectively to create an efficient content material plan. I strongly recommend pondering by means of all of this stuff even in case you resolve to begin with a template as a substitute.
This may be sure that you don’t miss something.
How to decide on a content material plan template
No two content material plan templates are the identical. As a result of the time period is so broad, it may imply something from a easy checklist of content material concepts to a full fledged undertaking administration system that covers content material creation and different advertising actions.
Right here are some things to remember when deciding which one (and which platform) to make use of.
Solo content material planning vs. workforce collaboration
If you happen to’re planning content material by yourself, go along with no matter feels good. Check out just a few totally different platforms and templates to see what works finest with the way you suppose.
For groups, try to be extra considerate in your resolution. You may nonetheless check out totally different choices, however attempt to keep away from bringing workforce mates right into a system in case you’re not going to proceed utilizing it. This could really feel a bit like whiplash.
I recommend actually pondering by means of what you need the method to appear like, how workforce members will notify one another, the place information will reside, and who will do what.
It’s additionally necessary to think about the tech savviness of your workforce. Some folks might just like the infinite potentialities with Notion, others may fit higher with one thing acquainted, like a spreadsheet.
Degree of customization
This part is extra about selecting a platform that lets you do every little thing you wish to. If you wish to make a number of customizations, a spreadsheet in all probability gained’t do. In order for you one thing that’s inconceivable to interrupt, one thing like Notion isn’t a good suggestion.
By way of customizability, Notion has essentially the most flexibility, adopted by monday.com, then ClickUp, then spreadsheets.
The additional down that checklist you go, the much less you’ll be capable of tweak.
There’s nothing improper with both course, simply take into account that sure platforms are higher for sure preferences.