Content calendar template
A content calendar lists everything you plan to publish (articles, social posts, newsletters, videos) with the date, channel, owner and progress of each piece. This free Excel template has drop-down lists for channel, format and status, colours each row by progress, sets a draft deadline a week before publication and flags anything that has passed its date without going out.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
It's for whoever keeps a company's marketing output moving, often alongside another job. The download has a blank calendar for 100 pieces and an example sheet with six weeks of content for a fictional coffee roaster.
What's in the template
The workbook has a read-me, the blank calendar and the example. Channel, format and status are drop-downs, and two columns are calculated: Draft due (seven days before the publish date, so drafts fall due on the same weekday) and Overdue? (anything past its publish date that isn't published or dropped). The example rows, leaving out the campaign, link and notes columns:
| Publish date | Channel | Topic or title | Format | Owner | Draft due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | Blog | How to dial in a new espresso blend | Article | Priya | 29 Sep | Published |
| 8 Oct | Dialling in espresso in 60 seconds | Short video | Megan | 1 Oct | Published | |
| 13 Oct | Case study: a three-site café group moves to our house espresso | Case study | Dan | 6 Oct | Published | |
| 15 Oct | Email newsletter | October newsletter: autumn espresso and the dial-in guide | Megan | 8 Oct | Scheduled | |
| 22 Oct | YouTube | Grinder settings for filter coffee, explained | Video | Priya | 15 Oct | In review |
| 29 Oct | Wholesale prices for 2027: what's changing and why | Short post | Dan | 22 Oct | Drafting | |
| 5 Nov | Blog | Gift guide: coffee subscriptions and brewing kit | Article | Megan | 29 Oct | Idea |
| 12 Nov | Christmas blend reveal | Image | Megan | 5 Nov | On hold |
Status colours: amber while a piece is drafting or in review, green once it's scheduled or published, and red when it's on hold. The Overdue? column uses today's date, so it's worked out when you open the file.
How to set up a content calendar
- Start from the marketing plan, not a blank grid. Enter next quarter's campaigns, launches and events from your marketing plan first; everything else fits around them.
- Cut the channel list to the ones you'll keep up, and set a rhythm for each, for example one article a fortnight and two LinkedIn posts a week.
- Check the rhythm against the hours available. If a video takes a day to make and its owner has half a day a week for content, the calendar can't hold a video every week.
- Give every row a working title someone else could draft from: "Grinder settings for filter coffee", not "coffee tips".
- Name one owner per row, and agree who approves what. Your brand guidelines settle most arguments about wording and images.
- Move the status on as the work moves, and paste the live link once a piece is published, so the calendar becomes a record of what actually went out.
- Look at the next fortnight every week and the whole quarter every month, moving or dropping pieces rather than letting them pile up as overdue.
Example: a fictional coffee roaster
The Example sheet belongs to a fictional 38-person roaster that sells to cafés and to home brewers online. Its autumn has three threads: a new espresso range for both audiences, brewing guides for home customers, and a 2027 wholesale price change aimed at café owners.
- One piece of research, several outputs. The espresso article on 6 October feeds a short video two days later and the October newsletter.
- Channels chosen by audience. The café case study and the price change go to LinkedIn, which the roaster's café customers follow; brewing guides go to the blog, YouTube and Instagram.
- Sensitive pieces carry a note. The price post can't be approved until finance has checked every figure, so its owner starts it well before the draft deadline.
- A blocked piece shows red. The Christmas blend reveal is on hold until the label artwork arrives, and the note says why, which saves a chasing email.
How far ahead to plan
Plan in three layers. Fix campaigns, launches, trade events and seasonal dates a quarter ahead, because they need artwork, budget and other people's time. Fill in the individual pieces about a month ahead. Lock the next two weeks, so the people writing aren't working to a moving target.
Leave a few gaps each month for things you can't predict: news in your industry, a customer success worth sharing, or a question several customers ask in the same week. A calendar packed to the last day has nowhere to put them.
Common mistakes
- Planning more than the team can make. A calendar that's always behind stops being opened.
- Vague titles such as "blog post" or "something for Instagram", which leave the hardest part, deciding what to say, until the deadline.
- A team as the owner. Each row needs one person's name.
- The same post pasted everywhere, ignoring who reads each channel and what they expect there.
- Statuses that never change, so the sheet shows plans rather than what happened. The publish link is the proof something went out.
- Only one person can edit it. Keep it somewhere shared so owners update their own rows.
Frequently asked questions
What should a content calendar include?
At least the publish date, channel, topic, format, owner and status of each piece. This template adds the campaign each piece supports, a draft deadline, an overdue flag, the live link and notes.
What's the difference between a content calendar and an editorial calendar?
The terms are often used for the same thing. Where people do draw a line, an editorial calendar covers planned articles and their themes, while a content calendar covers everything published across all channels, including social posts and emails.
How do I make a content calendar in Excel?
Use one row per piece and one column per detail, with drop-down lists for channel, format and status so entries stay consistent, and conditional formatting to colour the status. This template is already set up that way; rename the drop-down choices to suit your channels.