Is your business having trouble coming up with video ideas and maintaining a consistent upload schedule for your YouTube channel? You need a YouTube video content calendar.
Having a content calendar is one of the best ways to improve your efficiency with the video creation process. It helps you stay organized and on track — both key ingredients that allow you to grow your channel and expand your audience reach.
In this post we’ll explain more about how to best setup and use your YouTube video content calendar. Plus, we’ve got a free resource for you to check out. Let’s jump into it!
Need support creating a YouTube video content calendar? We can help! Learn more.
Jump to a section
What is a YouTube video content calendar?
Simply put, a video content calendar is a schedule that clearly outlines the topics and types of videos you will create, and when you plan on publishing them.
This calendar must be updated consistently, and it requires your input. Maintaining high-quality video uploads is challenging, which is why you should give yourself time to plan and develop a productive system that works for your business.
On your YouTube content calendar, you can outline things like: video ideas, creation timelines, publishing dates, copy, creative assets, and even plan out the links and tags you should include.
When you organize the details of future video content, you can visualize everything you need to do, and plan how to get it done. This makes the video creation process easier from the granular to the long term. Think of it like creating a funnel that helps you prioritize and itemize everything you should focus on for your YouTube strategy.
Benefits of creating a YouTube video content calendar
Setting up a content calendar will take a bit of time and effort. However, once you have it in place, it can save you a lot of time and money.
Here are some of the biggest benefits that come with setting up a YouTube video content calendar:
- A go-to place to store all your video ideas as they come up. Never forget a great idea again!
- Optimized workflow to improve efficiency and productivity.
- Stakeholders are kept up to date of where things are at, and what lies ahead.
- If you work with a team, a detailed calendar will help everyone maintain focus and keep priorities clear.
- Maintain a record of all content so you can later analyze what has worked for your channel and what hasn't.
- Increased efficiency frees you up to consider other ideas and new projects.
Platforms to make a YouTube video content calendar
There are many different platforms your business can use to make a video content calendar. We’ll cover a few options below, but first we’ll tell you about our very own YouTube video content calendar we created for businesses just like yours!
You can download our battled-tested Vireo Video content calendar here.
This free template will allow you to plan each step of your video content creation, from the brainstorming process to the specifics of filming, publishing, and distributing each of your videos.
It is an excellent tool that leverages the power of Trello, where you can collaborate as a team and work on your strategy together. Detailed instructions on how to use this content calendar are included on the download page.
Other platforms to consider:
If you’re looking for something a bit more customizable and robust, these are some of the top project management tools worth checking out. Each of these has the functionalities and features that will support the creation of a great video content calendar.
Whichever platform you end up choosing, just make sure to actually use it. This process is not automated. It requires your input, planning and creativity to make this tool work for you.
Setting up your YouTube video content calendar
Creating a content calendar from scratch can be a lot of work upfront. However, once you establish a system for adding ideas and organizing the details, you can begin to maximize your productivity.
With any content calendar, you will want to start by writing down your video ideas into the appropriate “ideas” bucket. Note it all. Do this so you don’t forget any, but also because it’ll get you excited about all the awesome videos you can create for your business.
Once the ideas are out of your head and noted down, the goal is to move these topics from the “planning” stage into the scripting, production and editing stages… sort of like a funnel that flows from start to finish.
Next, you’ll want to determine what video topics you’ll start with, then move those videos forward into the next appropriate phase. This is where you begin prioritizing what videos are most important to start with.
Now you’re ready to dive into planning and creating the first videos in your new system. Go ahead and assign team members, checklists, due dates, style guides and whatever else you think you might need for each specific video idea.
Finally, collaborate with your team to execute on these brilliant ideas and keep moving the video content forward until they end up in the completed section. Then repeat. Sound simple? Well, in theory it is. But once you get started you’ll see where the challenges lie and then you can start to think of how to optimize even further.
Questions to ask as you get setup:
- How often do you post?
- How often do you film content (by batches or single videos)?
- What are your content pillars?
- How long does it take you to edit your videos?
- Who optimizes and uploads your content?
- Do you outsource scriptwriting, closed captioning, or any other task your video will need?
- Do you need to publish the content on another platform?
- Could you make shorter versions of the content for other social media platforms?
- How can you use a content calendar to streamline the content creation process?
Conclusion
Using a YouTube video content calendar will help your business level up it’s content creation game. It will lead you to be more consistent and strategic with your approach, which in-turn will lead you to better and better results over time.
We’ll cap it there, but if you have any remaining questions on how to make a tool like this work for your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re here to help, and want to see your business succeed on YouTube. Until next time, happy organizing!
