The Best Way To Manage A Project From Start To Finish

In This Lesson

• Step 1: Add Projects To Your Calendar
• Step 2: Add A To-Do List To Your Project
• Step 3: Create A New Google Doc Attachment
• Step 4: Add A Social Media Campaign Attachment
• Step 5: Schedule Your Project & Let Your Calendar Do The Rest
• Bonus: Core Concept: Stay Flexible When Projects Change

Core Concept: Use Your Calendar To Plan A Project From Start To Finish

Now that you’ve learned all the parts of CoSchedule Calendar, it’s time to tie it all together. This chapter focuses on how to manage a marketing project from start to finish using your CoSchedule Calendar. You’ll take the elements you learned in each of the previous lessons to create a streamlined marketing process where things finally run smoothly.

Step 1: Add Projects To Your Marketing Calendar

As we learned in Chapter 1, you can your CoSchedule Calendar for every project you are working on. Here are some common recurring marketing projects that you may want to add to your calendar if applicable.

• Weekly or monthly newsletters
• Upcoming events
• Blog post topics you want to write about
• Product landing page
• Conference slide deck

Once a project is on your calendar, it isn’t set in stone. You can easily move projects that are on hold over to your Idea Bin. Here’s how:

1. Click the Ideas Button.
2. Drag and drop the project over to the Ideas area to keep it on your radar, but off your calendar.

You can also use Idea Bin to store project ideas you aren’t ready to schedule yet.

Step 2: Add A To-Do List To Your Project

After you add a project to your calendar, the next thing you’ll need to do is apply a task checklist to make sure everything gets done on time.

Manually Add Tasks

Within a project, you can add individual tasks and deadlines. Add all the tasks needed to complete the project. ​​

Step 3: Create A New Google Doc Attachment

Next, you’ll attach a new Google Doc to your project. This allows you to write your content and collaborate all from one place. Once you’ve added the new Google Doc attachment, click the “Edit Inline” option to start writing your blog post directly in your Calendar.

Step 4: Add A Social Media Campaign Attachment

Now you can add a social media campaign to your project. This allows you to write, collaborate, and promote your content related to the marketing project (i.e. blog post, podcast, press release, or event) Using the exact social message cadence we discussed in chapter 3, add your social messages one by one to create a social media campaign. In case you don’t remember the social campaign recommendation, here’s a graphic to help.  

Step 5: Schedule Your Project & Let CoSchedule Calendar Do The Rest

Once you’ve completed all the previous steps in this lesson, it’s time to schedule your project. This will not only schedule a piece of content to publish, but it will also put in motion the social media campaign you scheduled. You’ll find the project status in the top right corner of your project. When you’re ready to schedule your project:

1. Click the Status
2. Choose Scheduled

This lets you schedule your projects so CoSchedule Calendar can push everything live when it’s time.

Bonus: Core Concept: Stay Flexible When Projects Change

Use the Drag and Drop feature on your calendar to easily move around projects, tasks, and social messages when plans change. If a project’s due date changes, simply drag and drop the project to a new date on the calendar. All the connected tasks and social messages will automatically reschedule along with it.