Starting a WordPress blog is not hard to do, but handling the content you want to post on your site can become overwhelming if you don’t have the appropriate WordPress editorial calendar plugins. After all, you need to find a competitive niche, come up with blog post ideas, craft killer headlines, draft your content and publish consistently, and drive traffic to your site, all while hoping that your content is good enough for site visitors to stick around and read.
Though many factors affect how successful your content marketing efforts will be, one of the most important ones is the scheduling of your site’s content.
Whether you plan to publish a new blog post once a day, once a week, or even once a month–consistency is key. But without a strategy for planning your content’s publishing schedule, staying consistent can be challenging.
That’s why we’re here to share with you some of the top WordPress editorial calendar plugins on the market today so you can start planning how often you’re going to post on your website and develop a long-term (and very consistent) schedule.
What is an Editorial Calendar?
When it comes to content marketing, an editorial calendar is a tool used to help you organize the content creation process from start to finish.
Though it can be looked at as simply a calendar for scheduling when your blog posts will go live, a good editorial calendar will have features designed to help you with:
- Coming up with blog post ideas
- Assigning tasks – such as topic creation, post drafting, imagery, and editing – to members of your team
- Accessing blog content for quick edits
- Scheduling which posts will go live on your site and when
- Posting your site’s content to other channels such as social media
As you can see, a solid editorial calendar solution will help streamline the content creation process and organize things so you always know the status of every blog post that will be published on your site.
So, now that you know the main goal of an editorial calendar, let’s see what solutions are available.
5 of the Best WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugins
1. Editorial Calendar
Editorial Calendar is a simple, aptly named WordPress editorial calendar plugin that is suitable for those that self-publish or have a small team of writers. See an overview of your blog, when each post is scheduled to go live, and even check out this cool demo to see if this is the right solution for you.
Enjoy features such as:
- Calendar view of all posts and their respective statuses in the WordPress dashboard
- Easy drag & drop functionality to rearrange posts
- Draft management with the new Drafts Drawer
- Quick edit of post titles, content, and times
- Management of posts belonging to different authors
PRICE: FREE
2. Edit Flow
Edit Flow is another great WordPress editorial calendar plugin that helps you collaborate with your team inside the WordPress dashboard. It is customizable so you can make changes to fit your needs and has everything you need to stay on track with your content marketing plan.
Additional features include:
- A month-by-month look at the content schedule
- Custom statuses to define your workflow’s stages
- Threaded editorial comments so your team can communicate
- Editorial metadata for tracking important details
- Automatic notifications when anything changes
- Upcoming content in traditional story view for easy printing
- User groups for managing team members and their roles
PRICE: FREE
3. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a premium WordPress editorial calendar plugin and solution that is full of helpful features for agencies, solopreneurs, small businesses, and in-house marketing teams. This all-in-one marketing calendar brings content creation and social media together into one useful platform so you can manage everything blog post related from one place.
Take advantage of features such as:
- A centralized marketing calendar for viewing the status of all content with drag & drop functionality
- Social media scheduling to automatically share content across multiple channels
- Marketing campaign creation for special occasions when your content schedule is going to vary
- Email marketing management with popular email service provider integrations
- Detailed analytics to monitor your content marketing strategy
PRICE: $20-$1200/month
4. Oasis Workflow
Oasis Workflow is a WordPress editorial calendar plugin that’s perfect for those who run blogs with multiple authors, website owners in industries such as healthcare, law, and education, and businesses where tracking every stage is mandatory and crucial to its success.
With this unique editorial calendar, you get:
- The ability to assign, review, and publish from one platform
- A Visual Workflow Designer with drag & drop functionality
- User role control for accountability
- Exclusive inbox and easy sign off when a task or project is complete
- Custom statuses to define each stage of the workflow
- Access to process history, complete with all comments
- Due date and email reminders to keep everyone on track
PRICE: FREE (pro version offers features such as multiple workflows, auto-submission, front-end shortcodes, starting at $79)
5. Nelio Content
Nelio Content is a robust WordPress editorial calendar plugin that helps you create, schedule, and promote your website’s content on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Other features include:
- Editorial calendar showing posts, social messages, and tasks in one place
- Creation of content, scheduling of posts and social media messages, and drag & drop functionality to make changes
- Automatic sharing on social media platforms of your choosing
- Analytics for determining your best content and promoting it
- Content Assistant to help with imagery, content tags, and internal and outbound linking to improve quality
PRICE: FREE (pro version comes with features like priority mail support, editorial tasks and comments, and social templates for $29/month)
Final Thoughts
And there you have it! The five best WordPress editorial calendar plugins to help you get your content marketing strategy on track so you can post to your blog on a consistent basis.
Managing your site’s content doesn’t have to be difficult, so long as you invest a little time into making a plan. This is especially true as your blog following or business continues to scale. The more you have to handle at once, the more crucial an editorial calendar becomes.
Take a look at each of the WordPress editorial calendar plugins mentioned above, weigh the features against your individual needs, and start planning right away. If you do, you’ll see a significant rise in traffic, subscribers, and even sales.
And to top it off, as you become more successful, and continue to ramp up your email marketing efforts, make sure to check out FeedOtter so you can automate RSS-based emails and create beautiful email newsletters with ease.
