Are you the kind of person who always has a million tabs open in your web browser?

You know, so many tabs that you can’t even read the text on them, or figure out which page has randomly started playing an obnoxiously loud advertisement?

I know the feeling.

You have schedule posts in about five social media profiles and create various types of content consistently. After a while, you’ll find that you have over 10 tabs and you’ve lost track of the tasks you need to accomplish.

I think you’ll agree with me when I say that content marketing is hard.

Implementing various content marketing strategies get you stuck with a limitless to-do list.

And then you’re constantly trying to multitask and accomplish tons of different things at once.

As a content marketer dealing with all of the above problems, I’ve found CoSchedule to be a lifesaver.

CoSchedule is an all-in-one platform for content marketers who need to stay productive and keep track of their tasks and their teams. Which pretty much sounds like every content marketer, doesn’t it?

It can save your life too!

In today’s post I’m going to share with you my impression of CoSchedule’s features and how you can use it for your content marketing needs.

The only catch it that it’s very calendar-oriented—if you’re hunting for a tool that’s more focused on workflows and SEO, CoSpot may be the better choice. Take it for a spin and tell us what you think!

CoSchedule Review: 8 Reasons This Marketing Calendar Tool Is Worth Paying For

1. It’s Free and Easy to Get Started

Creating a CoSchedule account is fast and easy. To set up your own profile, enter your contact information, business details and preferred password. You know, the usual, minimalist sign up process—no payment required, thank goodness. I love when I don’t need to think about whether or not I should give my credit card details to a company that I’m unfamiliar with.

CoSchedule is free for the first 14 days and you can cancel your trial anytime.

And overall, it’s all too easy to set up a profile and first calendar in CoSchedule. After setting up my profile, CoSchedule automatically asked me all the necessary details in their setup process. They guided me every step of the way, so I didn’t need to figure out anything on my own.

Once you’re actually working with the tool, it’s more of the same—plenty of guidance and intuitive features.

In the left panel, you’ll find that CoSchedule has three main functions. These are Calendar, ReQueue and Analytics. In this blog post, I’ll review these features and I’ll show you step-by-step instructions on how to use them, so that you feel ready to hit the ground running when you sign up for your free trial.

2. The Calendar Tool Stays In Sync with You

Since content marketing teams have long to-do lists for diverse types of content, it’s important to create timelines and track deadlines. This way, your team will be able to determine the tasks they should prioritize first and track their progress.

Creating a calendar is pretty easy with CoSchedule. You can customize your calendar by selecting the types of content you want to include.

In the image below, you’ll find that CoSchedule’s calendar is able to organize articles, blog posts, social media posts, email marketing letters, podcasts, videos, white papers and infographics—among many other types of content.

Then, you’ll be asked to set up your calendar based on the size of your team. For this example, I’ve chosen the “Solo, it’s just me” option. Afterward, CoSchedule asks you whether or not you use WordPress. If you click “yes,” then you can enter the URL of your blog. Once you’ve entered the URL, click “Find My Blog” and your site will be connected.

It’s nice to be synced up like this!

Now that you’ve set up your calendar, it’s time to schedule your tasks and content. For starters, pick a date and click the “+” icon.

Afterward, you’ll be redirected to a new page that lets you specify the details of a task. Similar to Asana and Trello, you can also add descriptions and tag team members. You can also edit the content type, add color labels, change the due date and indicate the owner of the blog post.

 

For this example, I’ve added a short description of the content. Instead of an article, I’ve changed the content type to a blog post and I’ve set the deadline to May 20 (instead of May 13). I’ve also indicated that I’m the owner of the task and I’ve changed the color label to violet.

Unlike most content marketing platforms, CoSchedule has a built-in text editor that allows you to write content within the tasks page. If you’re more comfortable with attaching a file or using Google Docs, the platform has the capabilities to perform these functions as well.

For this example, I’ve added a Google Doc for my blog post reviewing CoSchedule. As as a result, when I check the details for the task, I can easily see my Google Doc attachment.

3. You Can Create Social Media Posts Within the Program

In the social campaign section, I can indicate when I’ll publish the blog post.

Once you click the “+” button, you can specify the social media platform where you’ll publish it and get a preview of the post. In this example, I’ve created a Pinterest post (for the blog post!) and added the cover photo and the caption “CoSchedule: Is It Worth Paying For?” In the image below, you’ll see a preview of the Pinterest post.

4. It Keeps Track of Numerous Types of Tasks

In the right side of the calendar, you can create tasks, add discussions and assign tasks to members.

To add a task, type the name of the task in the “New Task” bar. For this example, I created the task “wrote minimalist blog post.” Above the tasks section, you’ll find a bar with the 0% icon. This section indicates the level of completion of the content based on how many items the assignee has checked on the task button.

Similar to Trello and Asana, you can also have conversations about the task in the comments section.

Lastly, you can also add contributors to the task.

Once you’re done adding the necessary details, just go back to the calendar and you’ll see the scheduled blog post and Pinterest post on the date of its deadline.

Similar to most content calendars, you can add labels, deadlines, tags and comments. However, what differentiates CoSchedule from its competition is that you can schedule and release posts on various social media accounts and web platforms.

In addition, while you can add attachments in most editorial platforms, CoSchedule lets you type the text in its Editor section. Now that’s pretty sweet.

In short, I find that CoSchedule is the all-in-one platform for my content marketing needs. With its features and functions, there’s no need for me to jump between various social media platforms and websites, and I can now keep my number of open tabs to a minimum.

5. ReQueue Keeps Your Social Media Fresh

Most marketers worry about the consistency of their social media posts. After all, one amazing post is never enough.

Followers expect new posts regularly or they’ll easily forget your business or move on. However, it’s hard to churn out new content consistently.

Informative 2,500-word blog posts take time.

Infographics take time.

Your content creators need time!

So, how do you keep followers entertained? The answer is to ReQueue your messages.

To give you and idea of what all this is about, ReQueued messages are reposts of your popular content. If you’ve published a blog post a year or two ago that still seems popular and relevant at present, you can repost it on your social media profiles. Not only will you be able to maintain the consistency of your social media schedules, but you’ll also increase the performance of past content.

Amazing, isn’t it?

In this section, we’ll discuss how you can ReQueue your social media posts. To begin, in the ReQueue panel, click “New Group.”

On the right side of the screen, you’ll find the group details. Here, you can add start dates, end dates and numbers of weekly messages. In the upper-right corner, you can also choose whether to activate the scheduled posts in the group or to pause it.

By clicking the “Add Message” button, you can schedule ReQueued posts on your social media accounts.

Scheduling ReQueued messages on social media is similar to scheduling messages on the calendar. In fact, when you click the “Add Message” button, you can get a preview of the appearance of the post. You can also add images, videos, text and links to the ReQueued post.

In the group, you’ll then find a list of ReQueued messages and the date that they’ll be added to your social media profiles.

To determine the date and time for your ReQueued messages, click “Go to my ReQueue settings.” You can set your ReQueue sending frequency by clicking on sections of the calendar that you’d like to add your ReQueued messages to.

Below the “Sending Frequency” section in ReQueue , you’ll find the “Social Profiles in ReQueue” section. Here, you can find the social media profiles that are connected to CoSchedule. CoSchedule will consider these scheduled messages in your calendar and fill in the gaps. For this example, I’ve linked my Pinterest and LinkedIn account to the platform. I have set the posting frequency of these messages by one message per day for LinkedIn and three messages per day on Pinterest.

ReQueued items automatically appear at the calendar. In the image below, you’ll find how CoSchedule fills in the gaps of your content calendar and how these items are organized together with other types of content.

Overall, I find that CoSchedule’s ReQueued function are necessary for every team who wants to create a consistent content marketing strategy. Not only will these posts keep your followers satisfied, but you can also maximize the use of previous content.

6. You’ll See Analytics Reports at a Glance

What if you could track the productivity of your team?

What if you could accurately determine which team members are falling behind and which members are getting ahead?

With CoSchedule’s team performance report, these “what ifs” are real-life possibilities. The team performance report at the analytics section, allows you to determine your team’s completion rate for their assigned tasks.

You can customize a date range on the platform easily determine your team’s overall completion rate.

You can also view the individual rates of your team members.

At the upper right hand side, you could indicate a project or campaign, then CoSchedule allows you to determine the completion rate for that specific project.

In the image below, you can see a search for the project “Learn How to Plan + Organize Your Marketing Strategy in Less Than 2 weeks [ Free Course]”

Here are the results:

7. Social Engagement Reports Are a Thing Too

In editorial platforms such as Trello and Asana, you have to integrate the platform with Google Analytics to get the necessary data, whereas CoSchedule has a built-in analytics tool.

To use the platform, just click the “Social Media Report” at the Analytics panel. In the images below, you’ll see the screenshots of the analytics data as they appear from the site.

Overall, I find that the analytics features of CoSchedule are impressive!

Unlike most editorial platforms, CoSchedule gives you the ability to track each member of your team and determine their completion rates. In addition, you can easily view social media results in just one platform!

8. The Price Is Right

The upgraded versions of CoSchedule are Solo Marketing ($30/month), Team Marketing ($60/month), Team Pro ($300/month) and Multi-calendar ($1,600/month).

These prices are for users who agree to pay annually, otherwise Solo Marketing ($39/month), Team Marketing ($79/month) and Team Pro ($359/month) have significantly higher prices.

Upgrading to Team Marketing gives you the ability to invite guest contributors and up to five users, while upgrading to Team Pro gives you the ability to invite up to 25 users, account management features, marketing campaign features and analytics features.

While CoSchedule is a bit pricier compared to applications such as Asana and Trello (both are priced $9.99/month/user), both of these platforms don’t have Analytics and ReQueue features. In addition, packages for team marketing (up to five people) and Team Pro (up to 25 people) take into account the whole team, whereas Trello and Asana are priced per user.

In short, there’s not much difference between CoSchedule and other editorial calendar platforms. However, CoSchedule has a lot more functionalities compared to its competition—so it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Conclusion

For content marketers frustrated with tons of tabs—or anyone who wants to stay productive and organized—CoSchedule is the easy solution.

The platform can create detailed calendars, schedule social media posts (in all social media platforms!), schedule ReQueued messages, generate social engagement reports and performance reports.

Seriously, what more do you need?

If you want to implement a consistent and effective content marketing strategy, be sure to upgrade!

 

 

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