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YouTube can feel like a giant digital bazaar — there’s tons of cool stuff, but it’s easy to get lost and hard to get people’s attention.
Feeling stuck getting viewers? No need to shout for attention but to get organized and systematic about publishing with a YouTube content calendar.
A YouTube content calendar helps creators, marketers, and agencies stay on top of their (video) game by ensuring consistency, boosting audience engagement, and streamlining workflows. This means scheduling YouTube videos in advance is a piece of cake.
Imagine never scrambling for video ideas again. Sound good? Let’s explore the best practices and tools that can help you become a shining YouTube marketer.
A YouTube content calendar involves strategically planning and scheduling video releases. It’s a roadmap that outlines video ideas, themes, filming schedules, upload dates, and needed resources. Whether working solo or as part of a team, a content calendar helps creators maintain consistency, keep viewers engaged, and grow their YouTube channel. It also improves collaboration with colleagues and clients.
Instead of starting from scratch, you can use a YouTube content calendar template to streamline your video planning process.
A template means that someone has already done the legwork for you. It offers a pre-defined structure for organizing video ideas, filming schedules, and upload dates — so you can just start creating!
Youtube content calendar in Planable
I once tried selling hand-made earrings at a street fair. No plan. I put up my visually appealing stand and waited for people to show up in the scorching July heat.
The result? No sales, just sunburn.
Publishing videos on YouTube without a content strategy might not get you sunburnt, but it will get you frustrated and probably waste your time. So don’t just wing it. Follow the steps below to create a content calendar for a successful YouTube channel.
First things first: consider your goals and the kind of videos that will help you achieve them.
Are you aiming for daily vlogs or in-depth tutorials released weekly? Be realistic about how much time you can dedicate to creating content for YouTube.
If you want to focus and grow the channel quickly, aim to publish a few times a week. If you’re just adding YouTube as part of a marketing mix, analyze available resources and decide on the publishing frequency.
Also, what types of content are you planning to create? Here are a few options:
Choose and mix content types depending on your brand and audience.
Already getting overwhelmed at the thought of juggling everything? Try Planable’s Universal Content feature to streamline creation for all types of content. It also helps maintain style consistency. Whether educational, entertaining, or funny, your YouTube videos should have a unified voice to be recognizable.
Inspiration doesn’t always strike on command — or does it ever? It takes careful planning and hard work.
Brainstorm YouTube video ideas with your entire team and leverage tools to get fresh perspectives. Explore social media, industry news, and competitor channels to see what’s trending, what gets people to click play, and how you can contribute to ongoing conversations.
And get AI to help. ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools are great for getting the creative juices flowing when you’re feeling stuck or just need a brainstorming buddy. Better yet, use Planable’s AI to generate topics, write copy, or edit captions creatively. It’s part of the platform, so it seamlessly integrates with the content creation workflow.
Rewrite caption with AI function in Planable
Holidays, events, or industry-specific dates can spike engagement. By creating a YouTube content calendar, you can proactively align publishing with significant events. This way, you stay relevant and capture the attention of your audience at the right time.
Planable’s calendar makes it easy to organize videos in advance so you don’t miss important dates. It offers a clear view of what’s coming, helping you seize opportunities and keep your videos relevant and timely.
Content planning in Planable’s calendar view
It’s also a great visual tool for seeing the bigger picture and understanding how YouTube videos integrate with your overall publishing rhythm, including social media platforms, blogs, press releases, etc.
Teamwork makes the video work.
YouTube content creation is often a collaborative effort involving brainstorming ideas, writing scripts, video filming, editing, production, SEO optimization, publishing, community management, etc.
Yes, that’s a long to-do list, so make sure you’re equipped with the right tools to enable your team to collaborate, offer feedback, and approve work easily.
Youtube post with feedback in Planable
With Planable, you can give and receive feedback in real-time, manage versions, track changes, set up approval layers, and ensure a consistent publishing rhythm.
While you can certainly create a YouTube content calendar in a simple document or spreadsheet, dedicated tools have several advantages.
First, they offer intuitive visual interfaces to organize ideas, schedule videos, and adjust quickly. They also offer templates and automation features that make your life so much easier and help you work faster by eliminating redundancies and repetition.
Lastly, dedicated tools allow all interested stakeholders to access and collaborate on the content plan, improving communication, execution times, and transparency.
Let’s look at some of the best platforms out there that can help any content creator thrive.
Brands have complex content needs that you can efficiently organize only with a dedicated tool. Enter Planable, the ultimate content planning tool that is intuitive, versatile, and scalable. It meets diverse needs, from those of solo content creators to freelancers and agencies juggling multiple clients or in-house teams looking to streamline marketing efforts.
Planable helps you create a beautiful content calendar with upcoming YouTube videos, blogs, newsletters, social media posts, etc.
Color-coded labels for campaigns and post types in Planable
Not only that, but its Universal Content feature lets you brainstorm and collaborate on all types of content. Need to brainstorm ideas for new videos, get input on briefs, write scripts, or get sign-offs on content projects? Do it all in one place.
Full team collaboration in Planable upon a blog post
What’s more, Planable integrates with most social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter (X), and others, so you can easily create a content schedule and automate publishing.
Social media content scheduling in Planable
Key features
Drawback: Planable does not offer social monitoring or listening features yet.
Pricing: Planable has a free plan that includes 50 posts. Upgrade anytime for $11 per month/user and scale as your portfolio grows.
Hootsuite simplifies social media management for businesses and comes with various features that streamline publishing and optimization.
The platform allows content creators to schedule posts, listen to conversations, and track performance across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and YouTube, among others.
Key features
Drawback: While Hootsuite does offer direct scheduling of YouTube videos, some users complain that the feature has limitations and does not work seamlessly.
Pricing: After a free 30-day trial, the pricing starts at $99 per month/user and 10 social media accounts (when paid annually).
Monday.com is a cloud-based platform designed to help users manage complex projects. It helps teams organize workflows, collaborate on diverse tasks, and track progress. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and features like Kanban boards, timelines, and automation.
Key features
Drawback: While monday.com excels at project management, it lacks built-in features specifically designed for content strategy, creation, and planning.
Pricing: The pricing differs depending on the various modules available (Sales CRM, Work Management, or Dev). A free plan is available for up to two seats. The Basic plan starts at $8 per month/seat (billed annually) for a minimum of three seats.
Remember the bazaar I mentioned at the beginning of the article? A YouTube content calendar organizes chaos, makes your virtual booth shine, and strategically attracts the right audience to your videos.
The main benefits of using a YouTube content calendar include:
Plan video ideas around themes, ensuring your content aligns with your marketing goals and audience needs. This avoids a jumbled presentation and keeps your overall presence focused and memorable. For example, Planable’s Instagram grid view can be easily applied to YouTube planning for a visual preview that allows you to adjust and optimize.
Grid view in Planable
Schedule videos to strategically coincide with marketing campaigns or industry trends. This helps your content stand out amidst the “noise” and reach a wider audience.
Remove decision bottlenecks and get everyone working as a team to promote your great videos.
Creativity is important. But you also have to optimize your YouTube content calendar to maximize reach and engagement. Consider the following key elements:
Remember that the best content is the one that meets your audience’s needs consistently. Get inspiration from others and optimize your YouTube channel, but don’t stray from your brand’s goals, image, and voice.
By now, you should feel confident about standing out in a busy marketplace. With the step-by-step guide and tools highlighted above, you can create a structured YouTube content calendar to keep your channel organized, aligned with goals, and thriving.
Try Planable for free to streamline your workflow and leave room for creativity. It’s your one-stop shop for planning, scheduling, and collaborating on YouTube content and more.
Sabina is a freelance writer with 15+ years of experience in the MarCom industry. Her to-do list includes helping people write better and businesses sell more through content. She is the host of Zest, a podcast that brings writing within listeners’ reach.
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