The 6 best contents planning software – experts explain their top election

I’ve been in content marketing since the beginning of 2015. I tested with almost a decade of experience Dozens of contents planning software, spreadsheet and calendars over the years.

Cooperation with leading companies such as HubSpot, Cognism, Userpilot and Small Startups gave me the opportunity to work with tons of workflows and functions. Some were on the first click love and others were several.

This article is an overview of my six preferred content planning tools, which are supplemented with knowledge of other content experts.

Table of contents

What is content planning software?

Content planning software is a tool with which you can organize, plan, follow and manage your content -making process with teammates in one place.

It keeps your ideas, deadlines, letters, publications and content distribution on the right track, regardless of whether you work alone or as part of a team.

A content marketing manager easily captures gaps in content planning in one month before the coming time and makes his team tackle the problems together.

4 advantages of using content planning software

Content planning software is so versatile that your advantages become a long list. Nevertheless, I would group them in four categories:

1. Holds everything organized and saves time.

Do you remember the days when your content ideas were scattered about random documents and notes? Ok, I’m still guilty. But now I move everything into software and find deadlines, add attachments, draw the concept in the description of a task, etc.

In addition, it was a priority for the weekly planning meetings of our team – every idea goes to a deficit in which a manager or a responsible person selects tasks to work on a certain week.

At HubSpot we also use Asana to organize content marketing, media and SEO, work with contractors and freelancers in order to keep them up to date and to regulate the entire process of creating content.

2. Helps to pursue progress.

There is nothing more satisfactory than to see the tasks of “continuously” done. I love the visual progress bars and calendars – they keep me motivated and show me exactly where things are.

Speaking of, Scan2cad demonstrated How Trello optimized his workflows.

With over 90,000 customers and less than 25 employees, they needed an easy way to pursue progress. Before Trello, juggling several systems made the persecution of headaches for the whole time.

Now Trello takes care of everything and gives a clear overview of where every task is – from the creation of content to sale to development.

His uncomplicated setup made it easy to manage workflows and tit dates. Like CEO Luke Kennedy, says “We saved hours and pain and a lot of money.”

3 .. promotes cooperation.

Instead of endless E -Mail -Threads, everyone in the team updates the same tool. Comments, changes and permits occur in one place and save us tons of back and forth.

Mangopay’s experience with concept is a perfect example of this. They optimized their exchange of knowledge by replacing several tools with a single work area. This added to cooperation and commitment – 64% of their 500 employees contribute as editors and 91% are active every month.

By tearing up silos, Mangopay saw impressive results -like the removal of an HR -LACK channel, since the answers were all in wikis.

source

4. Improves efficiency.

Having a clear plan means less load-minute stirring, which leads to better ideas and execution. I can now plan brainstorming meetings and still have time to refine everything before it lives.

A perfect example of this is On24 and their experience with Coschedule. Before they started, their marketing team had to fight for their social media and blog content.

Deadlines were missed and the possibilities of expanding their online presence were often overlooked. But as soon as you centralized your content planning, quadruple your blog edition From 24 to 112 blogs a year. This increase in content production led to an increase in blog traffic by 98% and massive growth of organic traffic by 1,412%.

source

A content planning tool is a must. But how should you choose which of so many options should be used?

What you should look for in the content planning software

When I was looking for a perfect content planning tool, I focused on it:

• User -friendliness. I wanted something simple. No complicated dashboards and an unusual design to waste time to find out how to use it.
• Cooperation. Since I work with a team, it had to have real -time collaboration functions. Task assignments, comments, attachments, postponed tasks, notifications, recurring tasks, several representatives, subtouits and simple file approval were a must.
• Content calendar. I needed a solid content calendar to organize everything and organize on schedule. I wanted to see all of my contributions and deadlines in one place.
• Adjustment. I had to adjust the tool to my process. I didn’t want to change how I worked just fits the tool.
• Integrations. It had to synchronize with other tools that I have already used -social media manager, analytics, they call it.
• analysis. I wanted to track how my content gave up without pulling information from some places.
• Templates. Templates for blogs, social contributions and newsletter helped me to save time. You don’t have to start all over time.
• Mobile access. I needed a tool that I could access on the go. Cloud-based or mobile-friendly was another must.
• storage. I wanted to save everything in one place -designs, pictures, final pieces -so I don’t have to dig through e -mails or folders.

Okay, now we see which tools all (or at least most) cover these nine points. Everyone has their strengths and in the end I will leave the final decision to you.

The 6 best content planning software

1.Asana

Use my first time Asana Wasn’t exactly a great experience -but I didn’t really make it fair. To be honest, it wasn’t as great as now.

Now 90% of my former and current customers use Asana for their entire content management. From the very first phase of ideas to the final publishing house, we take care of Asanas boards – and I love this tool absolutely.

It is a complete system for organizing your content calendar, the tightening of workflows and keeping the central – regardless of whether we have to plan a blog post or map a campaign time bar.

Top functions for content planning

1. Content calendar: See all content in an interactive calendar, including the start data and channels.
2. automation: Automatically assign tasks, set custom rules and use templates for a faster workflow.
3. Integrations: Synchronize with tools such as Google Workspace, SharePoint and Dropbox to centralize content reviews and memory.
4. Custom dashboards: Follow pieces to channel, audience or status.
5. Real-time feedback: Share feedback directly into calendar tasks and send notifications to your team.
6. Flexible deadlines: Adjust the due dates and periods quickly to take up changing priorities.
7. Appendix integration: Add relevant files directly to tasks and simply keep all of your content accessible in one place.

What I like: Asana has a great one Editorial calendar templateAnd I also like the ability to assign subtots for every phase of content.

For example, I can create underpasses for writing, editing, designing, designing visuals and planning under a blog post. Everyone knows their role and the work remains connected to the overall picture.

source

Pricing

• Personal (Free): great for individuals; Contains basic project views (list, board, calendar), integrations and reporting.
• starter (€ 13.49/user/month): adds Timeline and Gantt views, automation and dashboards – ideal for growing teams.
• Progressive (Annually € 30.49/user/month): includes portfolio management, advanced reporting and resource management for larger companies.

Best for: Teams who want to automate and optimize their content workflows with a highly visual, centralized planning tool.

What do experts say about Asana?

Most experts I have spoken to agree that one of the best functions of Asana is definitely automation and the superintuitive dashboard.

“The way I use the dashboard is pretty simple. I create a project for every campaign and within these tasks to create content, permits and publications. Each task has a due date, a assigned team member and clear instructions that organize everything. My team didn’t need a lot of training to get started. The layout is intuitive enough that we just arrived and it was when we went ” Brenda Beltran, SEO Content Manager Holafly.

When it comes to the disadvantages, Beltran pointed out that it is not always smoothly integrated into any platform that you use, such as: B. specific analysis tools. To avoid this, rely on Zapier to connect Asana to Google Sheets and create custom reports to pursue the campaign performance.

2. Content marketing planning templates from Drift Kings Media

The real pain is not writing and creating itself – but everything else that means that the content flows smoothly. That’s why I love Drift Kings Media -Content -Marketing planning templates. They are fantastic for everyone in the world of brainstorming, planning and optimizing blog posts.

A number of free templates make the planning of content so pleasant, regardless of whether they use Excel, Google Sheets or Google Calender.

Organize and prioritize content by dividing it into key elements such as the topic, goal, type of content, target personality and responsible individual. Each idea is assessed on the basis of its advantage and costs and helps the teams to focus on strategies with high impact.

You can also follow the status of any idea and ensure the orientation towards business goals and the efficient use of resources.

source

You will also love Drift Kings Media editorial templates if you need something simple and inexpensive for your blog management. They make the data aggregation and the organization easier and they are simply adapted. The learning curve is quick and integrated well into calendar apps and content management tools.

source

However, they are not ideal if you have to follow several channels and the collaboration options are very limited.

Top functions for content planning

• Content calendar: Plan publication plans to ensure that content will be published in good time.
• Brainstorming topic: Write down ideas and align them with the needs of the target audience.
• Keyword optimization: Link keywords with certain pieces of contents to keep the SEO top priority.
• Simple adjustment: So put your calendar on the unique workflow and the needs of your team.
• Integrations: Synchronize with your existing tools such as Google Calendar or CMS to get better coordination.
• Tracking progress: Follow the status of the content from the idea to the final contribution so that no piece is overlooked.

What I like: The content of the content is my favorite template because it is simple and in a nutshell. Super clear, without unnecessary disorder, which makes it really easy to find what I need.

source

Pricing

• Drift Kings Media offers free templates for the editorial, blog and social media calendar.

Best for: Content marketers are looking for an organized, simple and free way to plan and plan blog posts and social media content.

Pro tip: Test Drift Kings Media Content Hub -Een suite of tools with content planning templates, AI-driven content generation, lead capture tools, scalable CMS, video and podcast hosting, A/B tests, SEO recommendations and extended analyzes.

Use it as an independent tool or integrate it into a project management tool as we do with Asana to facilitate content production in various teams.

3. Term

The versatility of the term appears with its content calendar templates, which were created by various creators (both free of charge and paid), with which they can plan, pursue and manage content seamlessly.

However, if you prefer to start from the front instead of using pre -made templates, you can do this completely.

source

Personally, I use it for a slightly different purpose than Asana. I do not use it as a calendar or schedule, but mainly for planning and tracking.

As well as.

I have set up a few important documents in which I add tasks and pursue the entire process. For example, I have a section “Content Strategy” in which I can map detailed strategies for every customer/website.

I also created a “content orders” to pursue all the topics we have dealt with so that I can see where everyone is -whether it is a sprint candidate, is still in the works or is still in the works or is in the distribution/promotion phase.

I put all of my topics in an introduction sheet and pursue your status with colorful tags that help me to see clearly what happens to every piece of contents at a certain point in time.

Of course, you can also use a Kanban board if you need a calendar-like view of the tasks.

source

Top functions for content planning

• Content calendar: Organize your entire content strategy in one place with customizable views for any kind of content.
• Variety of templates: Many free and paid content calendar templates, including blog editorial, social media and YouTube planners.
• Term Ai integration: AI-operated functions help to generate ideas and suggestions based on their goals.
• Database flexibility: Create custom databases for different types of content and link them to keep everything in contact.
• Adaptable workflows: Use tags, checklists and task assignments to design workflows that are suitable for each project to ensure clarity and accountability.
• Progress: Follow the status of your tasks and contents with visual progress bars and boards in the Kanban style.

What I like: The possibility of breaking up every content and clearly pursuing what level of the funnel is. I can leave notes in the document to leave the resources I have used, the questions that I asked from experts, how my entire process went when I want to publish and much more. Everything is organized in a clean, structured way for every topic, so that everything is super easy to follow.

Pricing

• Free: Ideal for personal use and smaller teams with basic requirements of content management.
• Plus (€ 11.50/seat/month): Perfect for small teams that offer unlimited blocks, file uploads and integrations with apps from third-party providers such as Slack and Github.
• Business (17 €/seat/month): Developed for growing companies with advanced analyzes, automatic database and much more.
• Pursue: Contact the sale for large -scale teams who need advanced security, custom integrations and extensive control functions.

Best for: Teams who want to have a highly customizable content management tool with a collaborative work area and deep integration into other apps (Mailchimp, Asana, Calendar, etc.)

Pro tip: The term is used as a tool to document content marketing processes and to share in teams, stakeholders and remote employees or freelancers. User pilot and lemlist use the term for writing and saving Standard operating process (Seps).

What do experts say about the term?

I had the chance I could speak to Jake Ward, The founder of Cleo, A browser extension with which you can discover and create content on LinkedIn.

When I asked him about the tools he used to plan content, he said that he had tried a lot over the years – Asana, Trello, Montag.com – but the idea was the one who was.

In contrast to other tools that locked up people in rigid templates, he can set up custom databases, see a calendar view and follow the progress exactly as it needs, said Ward.

“My dashboard contains three main parts: campaign calendar, content hub and analytics. It is color -coded, which helps me navigate faster. It is also easy to use – every new team member can record it without any major problems, ”added Ward. “The workflows are customizable so that I can create templates that fit exactly as I like to work. Every phase of content from planning to check has its space. “

Ward also announced that the term does not contain the same integrated automation functions as trello or Monday.com. Therefore, he uses Zapier to do the task. It is an additional step, but it works.

“Combined with Kleo, it helps me to create and expand my audience without spending hours with managing things that don’t matter. It’s a simple setup, but it is effective and it helped me to build an audience of over 150,000 followers in two years, ”says Ward.

4. Trello

I used Trello 8 months within my customer’s work area, and I enjoyed his simplicity. In the Kanban view of the content calendar, the team remained on the right track and added additional tasks such as reading a memo, a new guideline, etc.

Trello uses boards, lists and cards to break up tasks and pursue progress. Offers you a function to mark your tasks with priority, topic, etc. The core functions are free of charge and make Trello a starting point for blogging. If you are looking for something super intuitive and extremely easy to use, you will definitely like it.

The tool is too easy for adult teams IMO.

source

Top functions for content planning

• Boards & Lists: Visualize your workflow with customizable boards and lists and pursue the production phases of content or campaign progress.
• Cards: Each task has its own card with details such as descriptions, attachments, due dates and checklists.
• Butler automation: Set automated rules for almost everything (e.g. due dates, task tasks) so that your team does not waste time for repeating work.
• Integrations: Connect apps that you already use, such as Slack or Google Drive, to optimize your processes. Hundreds of power-ups add additional functions to meet every project requirement.
• Views of progress: Switch between calendar, timeline and board views to see your deadlines. Each gives you a different perspective on your content calendar and your task management.

What I like: Drag-and-drop function. You can move things in the cards in seconds, which is a lifesaver if you juggle a lot of media at the same time.

Price overview:

• Free: For individuals or small teams. Unlimited maps, power-ups and boards (up to 10 per work area) and 250 work area order runs per month.
• Standard ($ 5/user/month): Unlimited boards, advanced checklists and 1,000 command runs per month.
• Premium (contact for pricing): Contains extended functions such as a contemporary view, additional automation options and priority support for growing teams.

Best for: Teams that need a simple but effective tool for the management of workflows and projects in content with flexible views and many integrations.

What do experts say about Trello?

I got caught Tiago Pita, Brand and E -Commerce director Full food earth, To ask more about his content workflow. His trello has three main boards: Ideas, in work ,, And Published. There is also a separate board for seasonal campaigns with specific deadlines and undergrowths.

“It takes about 15 minutes to get a new team member up to date. Its simplicity enables us to go on board quickly, which is excellent for a fast -moving environment like ours. Our punctual publication rate improved by 30%after the implementation of Trello. It helped us to maintain a consistent content frequency that has a positive impact on our commitment rates on platforms, ”says Pita.

When I asked if he tried something else, he said they used Asana before, but it felt too FQUY for her needs at that time. Fluly simplicity won.

On the other hand, Trello lacks advanced analyzes. To avoid this, the Pita Trello team combined with Google Sheets for the tracking of metrics. It is not ideal, but it bridges the gap effectively.

5. Coschedule

The tool is famous for its social media and content planning functions with Unicef, Yamaha and P&G among their customers. This had me study the overviews of the tool and plan a demo with their sales team to get an inside look.

From everything I have researched, Coshedule lives the hype.

source

What adds to me for me is how it has simplified the management of several projects or campaigns with color coding, labels, complex cross-team workflows, subcontracts, integrations, APIs, etc.

Top functions for content planning

• Uniform marketing calendar: Centralizing your marketing strategy with a single calendar in which you can organize projects, plan contributions and visualize appointments.
• Campaign management: Combine tasks to campaigns and give you a holistic overview of schedules and results.
• AI assistant operated: Save time with tools to design content, generate ideas or even create pictures with minimal effort.
• Social media management: Plan, publish and follow contributions via platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Tiktok, all of a dashboard.
• Integrations: Connect with apps such as Drift Kings Media, Slack and Google Analytics to optimize workflows and consolidate the reporting.
• Requue function: It automatically formulates your best social media messages, saves time and promotes more data traffic with minimal efforts.

What I like: You can add stakeholders as a guest actor to assign tasks, to mark them in discussions and to check them through work. The reading calendar links are a bonus, which means that customers stay up to date in real time without being able to change something.

source

Pricing

• Free: Best for individuals who manage the basic social publishing. Contains 2 social profiles, 15 planned contributions and basic support.
• Social calendar ($ 19/user/month): For small teams that focus on social media strategies. Offers unlimited contributions, five social profiles and advanced analyzes.
• Agency calendar ($ 49/user/month): Tailor -made for agencies that manage several customers. Includes customer brand profiles, white label reports and more.
• Content calendar (custom pricing): Combines all content and social plans. Ideal for medium-sized teams that require robust tools such as Kanban views and advanced reporting.
• Marketing Suite (custom pricing): For large -scale teams that process complex campaigns with functions such as asset management and extended permissions.

Best for: Teams that need an all-in-one-content management solution with organization at campaign level and collaborative functions.

What do experts say about Coschedule?

I got some great insights into Coschedule from Aaron Whittaker, Vice President of Demand Generation and Marketing Thrive Internet Marketing Agency.

After the evaluation of several tools, his team turned to the marketing suite of Coschedule, including Monday.com, to which the specialized content marketing functions were missing that they needed. (I also tried on Monday and it is a nightmare with a lack of functions for working in the content.)

The outstanding features of Cospledule for him were content organizers, Requue + an integrated AI assistant who predicts the content of content based on historical data.

“We can now visualize how a single topic rejects in several content formats via different channels, whereby each piece automatically inherits relevant campaign tags and periods,” says Whittaker. “The request function alone saved us about 10 hours a week on social media planning.”

In addition, customizable workflows and content pillars helped you to manage complex approval processes, although Whittaker found restrictions on the number of permissible custom status.

6. BaseCamp

My first run-in with base camp? Not great.

The customer who gave me access basically threw me to the deep end, and I had to find out myself. I wasn’t too impressed and a lot was honestly confusing. At that time, the original version of the base camp was more complicated and much marketer would agree.

But when they were updated to the latest version, BaseCamp literally caught fire.

Basecamp draws everything into a simple dashboard: you have tasks, shared calendars and file memory to track every part of the content process. Unusual for the content planning software and takes time to get used to it, but effectively for small contents teams to keep all content documents in one place.

In addition, team members can comment directly on tasks or files, and there is also a campfire chat, so that communication remains tight and organized.

Top functions for content planning

• News under the cards: A central space to discuss certain topics and replace endless project -E emails.
• Tasks: Following works, deadlines, responsibilities and project details in one place.
• File memory and approval: Organize and share files, documents and pictures with your team and keep everything in an accessible place.
• Chat on the campfire: With the group chat function from BaseCamp you can ask quick questions and get answers in real time.
• Schedule: Visualize your project periods, milestones and events in a single timeline to keep everything up to date.
• Timsheet add-on: Follow your time directly in the base camp – no spreadsheet required.

What I like: The Mission Control feature, in which the needle moves depending on the progress of a task. It is a cool way to visually pursue how things are going.

Pricing

• Basicamp ($ 15/user/month): Ideal for freelancers, startups and small teams. Contains 500 GB file memory and you only pay for employees, whereby the guests are free of charge.
• BaseCamp Pro Unlimited ($ 299/month, invoiced annually): For growing teams or larger organizations. Contains everything in BaseCamp, plus 10x the file memory (5 TB), 1: 1 onboarding, priority support and advanced admin functions.

Best for: Teams that are looking for an all-in-one-user-friendly tool, simplifies communication, tasks and planning in a single platform.

What do experts say about BaseCamp?

“Every content manager who is responsible for the content of a specific country must be up to date, and everyone has to work together to plan blog issues, to locate content and to edit the distribution” Mia jozipović, Content Manager at Sitrice.hr (Part of the Family group).

“BaseCamp helps us to stay better -not only between content managers, but also with social media managers and the rest of the team. We can see the tasks of the other, but if we need a clearer view, we can only filter our own filters, ”says Jizipović,“ and if we have to share something, we have a separate campfire chat for it. “

As a small disadvantage, Jizipović mentioned that BaseCamp can be a little more complicated to maintain the tendrils of tools like Trello, which is extremely intuitive.

Sorted from scattered under one roof

Less stress, less worried and finally no longer wake up in a panic of what I have to do today. This is how life feels after I have added to my routine content planning tools and editorial templates.

My last advice for the tools:

1. Small teams: BaseCamp, Trello + free content planning templates from HubSpot
2. Medium -sized and large teams: Asana or Coschedule – for content planning, the term – for SIPS in content marketing + hubspot -editorial templates.