What's your strategy for keeping a content calendar on track?

1 Set realistic deadlines

One of the most common reasons why content calendars go off track is that the deadlines are too ambitious or unrealistic. If you try to cram too much content into a short time frame, you risk compromising the quality, relevance, or accuracy of your content, or missing the deadlines altogether. To avoid this, set realistic deadlines based on your available resources, your content strategy, and your audience's needs. Use tools like Trello, Asana, or Google Calendar to keep track of your deadlines and assign tasks to your team members.

2 Prioritize your content

Another way to keep your content calendar on track is to prioritize your content based on its impact, urgency, and alignment with your goals. Not all content is created equal, and some content may be more important or timely than others. For example, you may want to prioritize content that addresses a current trend, a customer pain point, or a business opportunity, over content that is more evergreen or generic. To prioritize your content, use a matrix or a scoring system that ranks your content ideas based on criteria like relevance, value, difficulty, and demand.

5 Be flexible and adaptable

Finally, keeping your content calendar on track doesn't mean that you have to stick to it rigidly and ignore any opportunities or challenges that may arise along the way. Sometimes, you may need to be flexible and adaptable to respond to changing customer needs, market trends, or business goals. For example, you may need to create or modify your content to address a crisis, a new product launch, or a competitor's move. To be flexible and adaptable, leave some room in your content calendar for unexpected or urgent content, and be ready to pivot or adjust your content strategy if needed.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?