Whether you’re a solopreneur or the manager of a top marketing agency, you know just how valuable content scheduling is. Even if you’re only handling one client, there’s just so much to keep track of between blog posts, social media, collaboration, and everything else that comes with content marketing.
As you start to grow and take on more clients and opportunities, things inevitably will fall through the cracks. That’s where CoSchedule comes in. While you may have other tools like Buffer or Grum to manage and schedule posts or Google Calendar to balance your schedule, CoSchedule puts everything in one convenient place.
CoSchedule offers both independent and team plan options at different price points creating a one-stop-shop for all kinds of digital marketers, bloggers, aspiring influences, and more.
In this review, we’ll explore everything you need to know about CoSchedule. You’ll learn about its main features, how to get started with it, as well as the pros and cons of the app. By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll be able to make the call if CoSchedule is right for you.
Do note that CoSchedule does offer a free trial. So, you don’t have to take our word for it. Check it out for yourself right now!
What Is CoSchedule?
CoSchedule is a scheduling app that puts your blog content and social media under one dashboard. It’s compatible with popular CMS like WordPress, Evernote, and Google Analytics, while also integrating with the biggest social platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, and Pinterest.
CoSchedule focuses on simplifying your life. Rather than having to log in and out accounts, email teammates, and track progress on posts in separate channels, you can do everything from within the app.
The WordPress Plug-in is especially helpful because you can automatically integrate content into your work-flow, saving time in the marketing campaign process.
Overall, it’s very useful, has plenty of excellent of features, and is moderately affordable.
How Do You Get Started With CoSchedule?
One of the best things about CoSchedule is that you can get up and running in no time. The app is super intuitive, especially if you already have experience within the WordPress ecosystem.
At the same time, it’s simple enough to use for even the newest members of the digital marketing community.
To get started, you create a free account which will give you access to all CoSchedule features for 14 days. Next, download and install the WordPress plug-in (if you have a WP site).
Next, you can view the CoSchedule dashboard under the “Calendar” tab in the menu panel. When you click on it, CoSchedule will give you a brief tutorial—don’t skip it! Spending a few minutes here will save you so much time later.
The entire interface is similar to a real-life calendar. You choose the dates when you want to add new content to your blog or social accounts. This will automatically create a draft for you in WordPress as well.
After this, click on the “Add Message Button,” and you’ll be able to prep the post for sharing on social. It’s that easy. After posts have gone live, you’ll be able to check back and see analytics for how well they performed as well as make edits.
CoSchedule also includes collaboration, and other features will dive into a little later.
Main CoSchedule Features:
- Connect social media accounts
- Customizable social media sharing schedule
- Calendar Management
- Sync with WordPress and Google calendar
- WordPress plug-in
- Google Analytics link
- Analytics to track post performances
- Promotion of every new blog post
- Visually preview social media messages before sending
- Coordinate with guest contributors
CoSchedule Pricing
CoSchedule has two main plans targeted for solopreneurs and small businesses.
Blog Calendar | Marketing Calendar |
Real-time blog & social calendar | All Blog Calendar features plus: |
See all of your blog posts and social media in a single calendar. | See all of your marketing projects in a single calendar. Projects include email marketing, website content, events, and many more. |
Automate your social schedule | Full social media management |
Integrate with WordPress | Save custom views of your calendar |
Bulk schedule your posts | Share read-only calendars |
Grow your audience | Easily reschedule projects |
From $19 per user/month | From $39 per user/month |
CoSchedule also has a plan for marketing agencies and larger companies. It includes all the Marketing Calendar features plus:
- Manage marketing requests
- Automate team work-flows
- Sort your calendar by team
- Store assets and files
- Track team progress
If you’re interested in this plan, contact CoSchedule for a customized quote and demo.
Is CoSchedule Worth It?
Let’s be clear. If you have limited social media or blog management needs, as in you only look after one site, then you likely don’t need CoSchedule. There are plenty of other free or lower-priced organization tools like Trello and Asana that you can use instead.
But if you’re an agency or freelancer content manager, then CoSchedule is definitely something you’ll want in your arsenal. It’s not only a great way to keep yourself on track but keep entire teams headed in the right direction.
The Key Features Of CoSchedule
Once you dig into CoSchedule, you’ll find it’s much more robust than initially meets the eye. That’s the whole point. CoSchedule wants to make the everyday things you need to do to schedule your content a breeze. But it’s also got plenty just beneath the surface to help you create, manage, and edit blog and social media posts much more effectively.
Here are some of the main features of CoSchedule:
1. Schedule Blog Post And Social Media Campaign
This is the core CoSchedule function. Even now, with all the other great things CoSchedule can do, scheduling is the reason you’ll pay to use the app. CoSchedule uses permalink software that allows you to write a blog or social media post, schedule it for whenever, then create the social campaign all in one place.
Once the post is live, your campaign will run automatically without you having to do anything else. If you’re managing multiple social accounts, this tool alone makes CoSchedule worth it.
2. Upload Directly From Google Docs, Evernote And Other Apps
Everybody uses Google docs for their blog posts. Now only it is free, but it’s packed with tons of great features. The one major flaw, however, is downloading images directly from documents. You have to download images to your computer or take screenshots, which takes way too much time!
You upload articles from both Evernote and Google Docs directly to CoSchedule with all the images right where they should be. This can save you hours of copying/pasting and reformatting.
3. Better Social Media Scheduling
Every business has different social media needs. Some can do well with just Instagram, others need LinkedIn, and others might need everything.
With CoSchedule, you can create a social schedule right into your dashboard while keeping all your content in one location. This means no lost time jumping between apps and possibly losing great content in the process.
4. Template And Campaign Tools
From the CoSchedule dashboard, you can chart a successful campaign from start to finish. Beginning with the social templates, you can find the right base to add your original content to create the perfect launchpad.
Best of all, everything is saved there, right in front of you. Once you’re ready to launch, open up the saved template, hit apply, and it’s can go live! No other tool makes content management so easy.
5. Post Directly To Instagram
If you use other social media management tools, you’ve likely noticed that none of them can post directly onto Instagram. Instead, you’ll get a push reminder, and then you have to copy/paste your content.
CoSchedule is one of the only apps that can automatically publish to Instagram. You never again have to worry about where you’re going to be during your peak posting times because CoSchedule can take care of that for you!
6. Collaboration
You can connect your entire team on CoSchedule, creating work-flows, deadlines, and in-app chat to greatly enhance productivity. Along the way, you can track progress, make adjustments in real-time, and do everything you need to manage even far-flung remote teams.
CoSchedule also includes weekly and monthly reports of your team performance to help you better identify opportunities for growth.
7. Reports And Analytics
You can track the success of your campaigns directly within CoSchedule. It includes a wide variety of analytics tools, including side-by-side comparison, the performance by platform, as well as other insights like the best time to post and more.
Everything is easy to understand, so you can make the tweaks needed to improve your social media strategy.
Who Should Use CoSchedule?
Managing just one content marketing campaign can be a full-time job. You have to juggle social posts, blogs, videos, draw engagement, and convert them.
To do this successfully and efficiently, you need tools like CoSchedule. Co-Schedule helps you not only create but manage not just one campaign but work on several—easily and at the same time.
Agencies and especially solopreneurs juggling multiple clients are who CoSchedule is made for. Likewise, medium to large companies with the biggest marketing resources can also benefit immensely from CoSchedule’s enterprise solutions.
Who Are CoSchedule’s Competitors?
CoSchedule was one of the original social media scheduling apps when it launched in 2013. Now, there are several other options you can choose from.
Two names you often hear about when looking at alternatives to CoSchedule are Buffer and Hootsuite.
What Is Buffer?
Buffer is a social media solution to more efficiently share content throughout your social content. It’s easy to use, affordable and makes it easier to increase engagement for your target audience.
Buffer does have some scheduling tools, but it’s not quite as robust as CoSchedule, just as CoSchedule isn’t quite as good as Buffer at managing content. But, CoSchedule actually has Buffer integration so you can have the best of both worlds if you want!
What Is Hootsuite?
Hootsuite is a powerful social media management tool that includes scheduling and content management features. It not only connects to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter but other sites like Foursquare and Vimeo.
Hootsuite has many great features, but it’s not as affordable as Buffer and CoSchedule, making it less viable for companies with smaller budgets.
CoSchedule | Buffer | Hootsuite |
Schedule blog and social posts with ease | Share content across10 Social Profiles | Free Plan |
Customizable social media sharing schedule | Team Members | Pricing |
Calendar Management | Detailed Analytics | Social Media Platforms |
Sync with WordPress and Google calendar | Up to 100 posts and tweets | Analytics |
WordPress Plugin | Twitter-focused | Collaboration Tools |
Email marketing | Easy to use | Publishing |
Mobile app | Some Scheduling | Scheduling |
Templates | Track engagement | |
From $19/month per user | From $15/month | From $29/month per user but $129 for main features |
CoSchedule Pros & Cons
Every app has its pros and cons.
Let’s take a look at what CoSchedule’s pros and cons are:
Pros
- Great scheduling tools
- Templates
- Collaboration
- Work-flow
- Track team performance and ROI
- Engagement features
- Automation tools
- Easy to use
- Direct Instagram posting
- Recycle successful campaigns
- WordPress and other integrations
- Analytics
Cons
- Pricing is a little high
- Limited mobile app functionality
- Reports could be more detailed
CoSchedule: The Bottom Line
Content marketing is equal parts art, science, and luck. Even if you’re a pro, getting excellent content posted at the right time can be a serious challenge. While CoSchedule can’t do everything for you, it will make your life much easier.
From more efficient content development, collaboration, posting, and more, it’s the perfect assistant you need to launch the best campaigns you possibly can.
Give their free trial a shot not to see how well CoSchedule can work for you!
CoSchedule Review
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Summary
Do you blog? Are you in the social media marketing space? Do you like to stay organized? If you said yes to any of those questions, you may be considering using CoSchedule. CoSchedule is a scheduling app that claims to simply everything from blog content to social media under one dashboard. Do they live up to the claims? Read our review of CoSchedule now and learn more.