by Lee Dussinger
A content calendar is crucial for any brand aiming for a strategic market presence. The best content calendar software not only organizes your publishing schedule but also addresses alignment challenges, boosts team productivity, and enhances content quality.
In 2024, the market is overflowing with options. To find the ideal calendar, you need to delve into the features and understand how the right software can enhance your specific needs.
In this blog, we’re highlighting Opal’s Content Calendar and the attributes that make it the top choice. Trusted by major brands like Target, Starbucks, and GM, our Content Calendar is designed to streamline your content management.
Explore the essential features of the best content calendar software and their impact…
What to Look for in a Content Calendar Platform
While most marketing Project Management tools include calendars, they lack the specialized features necessary for content creation, review, and display.The best content calendar platform enhances the content creation experience and helps teams deliver higher-quality work. Here are the 8 must-have features and why they matter:
1. Real Content
Your content calendar needs to support real content creation. This means having a space where content can be created and previewed as it will appear in its final form. For instance, the best content calendar platforms (like Opal) offer mockups that replicate the native platform’s appearance. Essentially, the best content calendar software doubles as a light content marketing platform.
Why It Matters: Integrated content previews provide a clear view of your communication strategy. Having content readily accessible ensures brand consistency and allows creators to manage all content across channels from a single platform.
2. Visual Layout
A visual layout is essential as your brand’s content volume grows. Opal’s Content Calendar displays all crucial details at a glance:
- Every piece of content
- Preview image
- Channels of publication
- Scheduling status
- Publication date and time
Why It Matters: A quick visual overview helps gauge brand presence and ensures consistent messaging. Seeing all details visually aligns with marketing’s inherently visual nature and prevents disjointed messaging.
3. Unlimited Storage Space
The best content calendar platforms offer unlimited storage for content and historical records. This capability allows your calendar to serve as both a current snapshot and a historical archive.
Why It Matters: Having a comprehensive content history supports strategy review and repetition of successful tactics. Opal users can revisit past campaigns and detailed content easily.
4. On-the-Fly Editing
Content marketing is dynamic, and plans often change. The best content calendar tools facilitate real-time adjustments. With Opal’s Content Calendar, you can quickly drag, drop, reschedule, and save content, making instant edits visible across the organization.
Why It Matters: Efficient editing keeps pace with rapid changes, allowing you to focus on strategic decisions rather than grappling with manual updates.
5. Flexible Views
While many users need weekly or daily views, the best content calendars offer various perspectives. Opal’s Content Calendar provides week, day, and month views, with powerful filtering options for channels, approval status, and more.
Why It Matters: Customizable views and filters enable better decision-making and faster content retrieval. Combining flexible views with unlimited storage makes Opal a perpetual source of truth.
6. Available Organization-Wide
The best content calendar software must be accessible across the organization. Opal provides unlimited View Only seats, ensuring that everyone in the organization can view the calendar and align with the brand’s messaging strategy.
Why It Matters: Broad access fosters alignment across teams, including marketing, sales, and customer support, by providing visibility into all messaging activities.
7. Connections to Project Management
Content calendars often represent the culmination of a multi-stage process. Therefore, integration with project management tools is vital. Opal’s calendar connects with our own PM toolProject Boards as well as other solutions like Workfront, Wrike, and Asana, ensuring automatic updates.
Why It Matters: Integration simplifies workflow management and maintains organizational alignment by updating the calendar with project status changes. Familiar tools also ease change management challenges.
8. Connections to Publishing
The best calendar must support direct publishing. Opal integrates with popular social media platforms like Sprout, Khoros, Sprinklr, and DashHudson, allowing simultaneous publication across channels.
Why It Matters: Automated publishing saves time and reduces errors compared to manual processes. Integration with preferred tools streamlines operations for large organizations.
How the Best Content Calendar Tools Drive More Impact
Basic calendars may suffice for low-intensity marketing, but the best tools offer numerous benefits:
- Visibility: Enables cross-team collaboration and provides insight into current and past content.
- A Unified Brand Voice: Ensures consistent messaging and alignment with brand guidelines.
- Efficiency: Automates workflows and reduces manual tasks, allowing more focus on impactful activities.
Social Media Calendar Use Case: Target
Target’s social media presence is vital to its brand, producing 300 pieces of content daily. By trusting the Opal social media calendar, Target centralizes this content, ensuring organization and unity.
Kelsey Dahlager, Senior Manager of Social Evolution at Target, emphasizes the importance of consistency: “Our Target guests don’t care which team produced the content — they just know one Target. Disjointed messages risk confusing our audience.”
Read the full story right here.
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