An editorial calendar is a tool used by bloggers and marketing teams to track steps in the content process from ideation to publication. Most online marketers agree that an editorial calendar is a must for any organization that's serious about content marketing.

As the person responsible for content in my organization, my editorial calendar is the only tool that stresses me out when I don't look at it for more than a day, and the only tool that gives me that zen feeling about the content marketing pipeline for my company and our clients.

You can use a spreadsheet, Microsoft OneNote or Google Docs to manage our content process, but these options fall far short of what dedicated editorial calendar and project management tools offer. Speaking of tools, there are lots of dedicated tools out there for managing your content pipeline like CoSchedule, ContentDJ and DivvyHQ. You can also use standard project management software, like Asana, which is what we use since all of our other projects are managed through Asana.

We put together this infographic to show why you need an editorial calendar to execute content campaign. It’s part of our 9 Step Guide to Planning a Content Campaign . Along the way we'll show you the insights and capabilities that make it an indispensable tool for serious content marketers.

Need help planning out your content, let us do that for you. We'll create up to two buyer personas and a 12-month content plan.