How to plan content for one year

In the video linked above, I walk through how you can use a simple table in a google doc or word document to plan content for one year. This is a way to generate ideas and plan for content based on key milestones that influence your content throughout the year. This is the work that you would do BEFORE actually scheduling content or creating a very detailed timeline (if that is your thing.) 

Step One – How to set up table in google docs to plan content

• Set up table in google document
  • Open a google or word document
  • In the toolbar at the top, click the “insert” drop-down and choose “table”
  • Choose a two by two table (2 rows and 2 columns) and insert

• Merge the first row and type in the first month for which you would be planning content.
  • Example, January 2022 (See image below)

• In the 2nd row and 1st column, add the following categories
  • Planning:
    • Topics under this category are topics that will be in the planning phase during this month.
  • Launching:
    • Topics under this category are topics that will have content launching to platforms during this month. 
  • Circulating:
    • Topics under this category are topics that should have content circulating on your platforms during this month
  • Low Hanging Fruit (LHF) / Ongoing:
    • Topics under this category are topics that are not sensitive to time of year or milestones. These are topics that you likely create content for throughout the year. These are topics that you can fall back on if needed.
  • Platforms:
    • A place to list platforms that content is being targeted at for that month.

• In the 2nd row and 2nd column, add “Planning Notes”
  • This is a space to write your ideas and planning notes for content that is planned during that month.

• Use tabs or copy and paste the table to create a table for each of the 12 months.

Step Two – Map out key milestones for your business

• Once you have the tables set up for each month from now till the end of the year (or whatever time frame you are working in) – next you will add the major seasons, holidays or milestones.
  • Work from the last month (December) and map out or add all significant milestones that influence your content for each month in the 1st row

• Make sure to include any of the following (where applicable):
  • Holidays
  • Conferences or important meetings
  • Seasons – natural seasons but also “wedding season”, “camping season” etc.
  • Product or service launches
  • Cultural trends (e.g., January tends to see an increase of individuals interested in weight loss and fitness

Step Three – Work backward to plan out content ideas

• Once you have mapped out all of the significant events for the year by month, go to the end of the document and work backward from December to start plotting what content should be planned, launched or circulating each month.
  • For example, start by looking at what content should be circulating in December.
    • Let’s say that you want healthy diet or weight loss-related content circulating in December because you know that people are starting to think about how to be healthier starting in January. 
    • You would then write “healthy diet” under “circulating” in December. 
    • Then work backward from there. When does that “healthy diet” content need to be launched based on the platform you are using? Let’s say that content should be launching in mid-November – you would then write “healthy diet” under “launching” in November.
    • Next, to launch the content in November – when do you need to be planning and creating that content? Perhaps you need a month to do that so you would add “healthy diet” under “planning” for October.

• Repeat for each month
  • Look at each month, starting from the further month out in time, and work backward to figure out what content should be circulating, when it should be launched, and when it should be planned and created.

• Start planning out your content
  • Once you have a high-level view of the topics you will be targeting you can go back to the beginning of the document and start planning content.

Check out the Free Resource Library for planner-related printable PDF’s and digital products.