--- name: content-calendar description: "Plan and manage content calendars across all channels including blog, social media, email, video, and events. Use when creating editorial calendars, scheduling multi-channel content, planning content themes, managing content approvals, or tracking content performance. Triggers on phrases like 'content calendar', 'editorial calendar', 'content scheduling', 'publishing schedule', 'content pipeline', 'multi-channel planning', 'content themes', 'approval workflow', 'content mix', 'posting schedule'." --- # Content Calendar & Editorial Planning Plan, schedule, and manage content across all channels with a unified editorial calendar that aligns content themes, publication schedules, approval workflows, and performance tracking. ## Workflow ### Phase 1: Content Strategy Alignment 1. **Define content pillars** aligned with business objectives: - Brand awareness (educational, thought leadership, industry insights) - Lead generation (gated assets, webinars, demos, case studies) - Nurturing (email sequences, blog series, comparison content) - Retention (customer stories, product updates, best practices) - Advocacy (user-generated content, reviews, community highlights) 2. **Establish content mix targets**: - 40% educational/value-first content - 25% product/solution content - 20% social proof and customer stories - 10% promotional and direct offers - 5% brand/culture content 3. **Set editorial guidelines**: - Brand voice and tone matrix (professional, conversational, authoritative, witty) - Content standards: minimum word counts, SEO requirements, image standards - Compliance and legal review triggers (financial claims, regulatory topics) - Competitive messaging guardrails ### Phase 2: Calendar Creation & Planning 1. **Monthly content planning cycle**: - Review previous month performance (top content, gaps, opportunities) - Align with marketing campaigns, product launches, events, holidays - Brainstorm and pitch content ideas across pillars - Assign ownership and deadlines - Populate editorial calendar with drafts 2. **Multi-channel scheduling**: - Map each piece of content to target channels - Optimize posting times per channel (LinkedIn: Tue-Thu 8-10 AM, Twitter: 9-11 AM, Instagram: 11 AM-1 PM) - Schedule content repurposing (blog → social posts → email → infographic) - Ensure balanced daily content mix across channels 3. **Capacity and resource planning**: - Track content creator workload (writers, designers, video producers) - Identify bottlenecks and redistribute - Plan for peak periods (product launches, industry events) - Maintain content buffer (2 weeks of pre-created content) ### Phase 3: Production, Approval & Publishing 1. **Production workflow**: - Brief creation: outline, keywords, target audience, CTA - First draft → internal review → revisions → final draft - Design/visual asset creation - SEO optimization and metadata - Accessibility check (alt text, readability, WCAG compliance) 2. **Approval workflow**: - Standard content: content manager approval - Product claims: product marketing review - Regulatory topics: legal compliance review - Executive-facing: VP/CMO sign-off - Approval tracking with SLAs (48h standard, 24h urgent) 3. **Publishing & distribution**: - Scheduled publishing per channel - Cross-channel amplification (social shares, email promotion, paid boost) - Real-time monitoring post-publish (engagement, errors, feedback) - Performance tracking and reporting ## Templates ### Monthly Content Calendar ``` EDITORIAL CALENDAR — February 2025 =================================== Theme: "Data-Driven Decision Making" | Campaign: Q1 Lead Gen Push WEEK 1 (Feb 3-7): Foundation & Education ┌──────────┬─────────────────────┬────────────┬──────────┬─────────────┬──────────┐ │ Date │ Content Piece │ Channel │ Owner │ Status │ Approval │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤ │ Feb 3 │ Blog: "State of │ Blog, │ Sarah │ Draft │ Content │ │ │ Data Analytics 2025"│ LinkedIn │ │ │ mgr │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤ │ Feb 4 │ Infographic: Top 10 │ LinkedIn, │ Design │ Assigned │ N/A │ │ │ Data Trends │ Instagram │ Team │ │ │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤ │ Feb 5 │ Email: Blog promo + │ Email │ Marketing│ Scheduled │ CMO │ │ │ gated ebook offer │ nurture │ ops │ │ │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤ │ Feb 6 │ Twitter thread: │ Twitter │ Sarah │ Planned │ N/A │ │ │ Key insights from │ │ │ │ │ │ │ blog post │ │ │ │ │ ├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤ │ Feb 7 │ Customer quote │ LinkedIn │ Social │ Planned │ N/A │ │ │ highlight card │ │ media │ │ │ └──────────┴─────────────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┴──────────┘ WEEK 2 (Feb 10-14): Product & Solution ┌──────────┬─────────────────────┬────────────┬──────────┼─────────────┬──────────┐ │ Feb 10 │ Case study: Acme │ Blog, │ PM │ Interview │ Legal │ │ │ Corp ROI story │ email │ marketing│ scheduled │ review │ │ Feb 11 │ Video: Product demo │ YouTube, │ Video │ Script │ Product │ │ │ — new dashboard │ LinkedIn │ team │ draft │ review │ │ Feb 12 │ Comparison guide: │ Blog, SEO │ Sarah │ Assigned │ Content │ │ │ Us vs. Competitor X │ │ │ │ mgr │ │ Feb 13 │ Webinar announcement│ Email, │ Marketing│ Planned │ N/A │ │ │ │ social │ ops │ │ │ │ Feb 14 │ Webinar: "Advanced │ Live │ PM │ Registered │ N/A │ │ │ Analytics Workshop" │ webinar │ marketing│ (234 reg.) │ │ └──────────┴─────────────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┴──────────┘ [Weeks 3-4 follow same structure] CONTENT MIX TRACKING: Educational: 42% [████████████████████████░░░░░░] Target: 40% ✓ Product/Solution: 28% [█████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░] Target: 25% ✓ Social Proof: 18% [██████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] Target: 20% ⚠ Promotional: 8% [███████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] Target: 10% ⚠ Brand/Culture: 4% [███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] Target: 5% ⚠ STATUS LEGEND: Planned → Assigned → Draft → Review → Approved → Scheduled → Published → Performed ``` ### Content Brief Template ``` CONTENT BRIEF ============== Content ID: [CNT-2025-042] Created: [Date] | Due: [Date] | Priority: [High/Medium/Low] CONTENT DETAILS: Title: [Working title] Type: [Blog post / Video / Infographic / Email / Social post / Webinar / Case study] Primary channel: [Blog / LinkedIn / Email / YouTube / Twitter] Repurposing plan: [List secondary channels and formats] AUDIENCE: Target persona: [Marketing Director / Data Analyst / CTO] Buyer journey stage: [Awareness / Consideration / Decision] Key pain points: [List 2-3 specific pain points to address] Content goal: [Educate / Generate leads / Nurture / Convert / Retain] KEY MESSAGES: 1. [Primary message] 2. [Supporting point] 3. [Supporting point] CTA: [Download ebook / Book demo / Read more / Subscribe] SEO REQUIREMENTS: Primary keyword: [keyword] (search volume: X, difficulty: Y) Secondary keywords: [keyword 2, keyword 3, keyword 4] Target word count: [800-1200 / 1500-2000] Internal links: [Link to 3-5 relevant existing pages] Meta title: [Draft] | Meta description: [Draft] APPROVAL ROUTING: Content manager: [Name] → Due: [Date] Product marketing: [Name] (if product claims) → Due: [Date] Legal: [Name] (if regulatory) → Due: [Date] Final approval: [CMO/VP] → Due: [Date] COMPETITIVE CONTEXT: Competitor angles to avoid: [List] Differentiation to emphasize: [List] Proof points to include: [Data, stats, customer quotes] ``` ## Integration Points - **Calendar tools**: Asana, Monday.com, Notion, Airtable, Trello - **CMS**: WordPress, HubSpot CMS, Contentful, Sanity - **Social scheduling**: Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Later - **Email platforms**: HubSpot, Mailchimp, Marketo, Braze - **Analytics**: Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs, BuzzSumo - **Design tools**: Canva, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite - **Video platforms**: YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia - **Collaboration**: Google Workspace, Slack, Teams ## Edge Cases | Scenario | Handling | |----------|----------| | Emergency breaking news / trending topic | Bypass normal workflow; fast-track approval (2h SLA); publish within 4 hours | | Content underperforms after publishing | Analyze within 48h; A/B test headline/creative; repurpose for different channel | | Approval bottleneck (approver unavailable) | Pre-approve standard content; designate backup approver; auto-escalate after 48h | | Content creates unintended controversy | Pause distribution; legal review; public response if needed; post-mortem | | Overlapping campaigns compete for attention | Content conflict resolution matrix; prioritize by revenue impact; stagger publishing | | Creator capacity exceeds demand | Build content library buffer; experiment with new formats; document best practices | | Content performance data incomplete | Use proxy metrics; set up proper tracking; retroactively tag historical content | | Seasonal content forgotten | Annual content audit in Q4; seasonal content checklist; auto-reminders | ## Output ### Content Calendar Performance Dashboard ``` CONTENT PERFORMANCE — Monthly Summary ====================================== Period: January 2025 | Total Pieces Published: 47 CONTENT OUTPUT BY CHANNEL: Blog posts: 12 [25.5%] ███████████████ Social posts: 18 [38.3%] █████████████████████████ Email campaigns: 6 [12.8%] ███████ Videos: 4 [ 8.5%] ████ Webinars/events: 2 [ 4.3%] ██ Infographics: 3 [ 6.4%] ███ Case studies: 1 [ 2.1%] █ ──────────────────────────────────── Total: 47 pieces CONTENT MIX ACTUAL vs. TARGET: Educational: 42% vs 40% target ✓ Product/Solution: 28% vs 25% target ✓ Social Proof: 18% vs 20% target ⚠ (under) Promotional: 8% vs 10% target ⚠ (under) Brand/Culture: 4% vs 5% target ⚠ (under) TOP PERFORMING CONTENT: 1. Blog: "State of Analytics 2025" — 12,847 views, 892 leads (conversion: 6.9%) 2. Video: Product Demo — 8,234 views, 412 demo requests (conversion: 5.0%) 3. Case Study: Acme Corp — 5,621 views, 389 leads (conversion: 6.9%) 4. LinkedIn post: Key insights thread — 3,201 engagements, 892 profile visits 5. Email: Gated ebook — 24.3% open rate, 8.7% CTR CHANNEL PERFORMANCE: Blog: Avg views 4,847 | Avg leads per post: 156 | Best day: Wednesday LinkedIn: Avg engagement: 2.1% | Best time: Tue 9:00 AM Email: Avg open rate: 22.1% | Avg CTR: 4.3% | Best send: Tuesday 10 AM Twitter: Avg engagement: 1.4% | Best time: 11:00 AM CALENDAR HEALTH: On-time publishing: 89.4% (42/47 pieces) | 5 delayed | 0 missed Approval SLA met: 91.5% (avg 1.8 days, target: 2 days) Content buffer: 14 days (target: 14 days) ✓ Creator workload: Balanced (avg 3.2 pieces/week per creator) NEXT MONTH PLANNING: February calendar: 78% populated | Theme: "Data-Driven Decision Making" Resource availability: All clear for product launch week (Feb 17-21) Risk: Legal review capacity tight for Feb 10 case study → flagged for backup approver ```