Which of the following best describes the role of a content calendar?

The role of a content calendar is primarily to outline the content strategy and schedule. A content calendar serves as a detailed plan that organizes what content will be published, when it will be published, and on which platforms. This helps marketers ensure a consistent and well-thought-out approach to content creation and distribution.

By providing a visual representation of upcoming content topics, deadlines, and distribution channels, a content calendar assists in aligning the content efforts with overall marketing goals and audience needs. It helps teams to coordinate their activities, avoid duplication of efforts, and ensure that the content is relevant to the target audience at specific times, such as holidays, events, or product launches.

The other options, while they might relate to aspects of content marketing, do not capture the comprehensive and proactive nature of a content calendar in planning and scheduling content. Keeping track of social media followers is more about audience management, while collecting customer feedback is focused on engagement and improvement, and analyzing website traffic pertains to performance measurement rather than the planning phase of content marketing. Thus, outlining the content strategy and schedule succinctly encapsulates the purpose of a content calendar.