Should You Use the Asana Editorial Calendar?

Whether you are a blogger, publisher, or corporation, chances are that you use at least some form of an editorial calendar. However, many of the free options simply don’t have what’s needed.

This is when people normally start to look for a professional editorial calendar and stumble upon the Asana editorial calendar.

While it is quite a popular calendar tool, in this article we will look at the features lacking and if you should use it.

Should You Use the Asana Editorial Calendar?

How do you Manage an Editorial Calendar?

This partly depends on your organization. Each company has it’s own processes to publication, and so the forms of editorial calendars vary greatly.

We’ve seen everything used to track progress, from sticky notes and scraps of paper to spreadsheets and online calendars.

However, most of these aren’t really intended for this use and, in such, aren’t really up to the task of managing an editorial calendar successfully.

For example, let’s look at the process involved and the elements that need to be tracked for a digital marketing agency publishing content:

  • Brainstorm ideas
  • Assign tasks with deadlines
  • Write content
  • Review draft or edit
  • Approve/decline
  • Find matching images or photos
  • Submit content for upload
  • Publish or schedule the publication of content

The above steps will of course vary, but also clearly demonstrate the complexities of managing a full editorial calendar.

Especially so when you consider that there could be hundreds of this type of process, as well as press releases, page revamps social media content development and more. All of which need to be tracked and managed ongoing and often simultaneously.

Should You Use the Asana Editorial Calendar?

What Should be Included in an Editorial Calendar?

A good editorial calendar needs to be able to manage the following tasks:

  1. Provide a clear schedule of publications and due dates.
  2. Job roles clearly set regarding the entire process. This should include everything from managing an overall project to development and content creation.
  3. Effectiveness tracking should be a part of the process. Traffic, conversions and other goals need to be monitored and reviewed. Where necessary, the content may need to be changed or A/B testing performed.
  4. The calendar should be able to track multiple projects and multiple content channels.

Yes, some of this can be done with free tools. But, using free tools can often cost you more in time than using a reasonably priced professional editorial calendar.

So, let’s take a look at what Asana’s editorial calendar has to offer.

How do I Create an Editorial Calendar in Asana?

Asan has some nice features, including templates and easy to use drag and drop processes. Asana allows you to easily create a task via the following:

  • Set a task with a clear title
  • Assign to a person/team and set the due date
  • Add keywords, estimated hours, status, and approval stages
  • Set the goal of the task (instructions to the person performing the task)
  • Assign to a calendar (such as content)
  • Attach and related files

Staff can be notified of status changes for tasks, and feedback can be given within tasks. Tasks can be duplicated and projects setup as custom templates.

Projects also have a nice checklist layout, so that progress can be tracked.

However, each task is individual and can’t be linked to other tasks. This makes it difficult to automate processes within the Asana editorial calendar.

Should You Use the Asana Editorial Calendar?

How to Automate Your Editorial Calendar’s Workflows

Unlike Asana, the Gryffin editorial calendar can automate most of any digital marketing workflows. In fact, Gryffin is an entire cloud-based project management system.

Here is how Gryffin can help you to do more with your current team:

  1. Gryffin allows for triggers to automate workflows. This means that a project creation (from a template) could trigger the first task to be created, sending out instructions via email and assigning the task. As each task is completed, the next step is assigned to the next person in the workflow. The dashboard combined with automatically sent emails make sure a task is never missed.
  2. Inbox integration allows for the easy tracking of various campaigns, as well as messaging from within the app.
  3. Editorial calendars allow for the effortless conceptualization of campaigns.
  4. Data-driven campaigns lead to more conversions and happier clients. Gryffin integrates with Google Search Console, SEMrush, and Google Analytics to provide information about any content published.
  5. An integrated SEO extension provides keyword tracking and easy “SEO” task assignments, such as including specific keywords in articles.
  6. Advanced user role permissions allow for efficient staff management and also effective onboarding of clients. Clients can have their own ‘automated’ onboarding workflows, as well as controlled access to tasks and content. This provides efficiency and transparency.
  7. Time tracking provides accurate billing and efficient management opportunities. You can easily see the time spent on tasks, projects, and client issues.
  8. Simplify processes with seamless integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, Stripe,  Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Slack, and others.
  9. Track all costs and incomes via expenses and invoice management
  10. Generate reports about projects, users, tasks and other metrics. Easily impress clients and use the data to optimize your processes.

So, why go for just an editorial calendar, when you can have an all-inclusive business management system that helps you to automate a ton of repetitive tasks.

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