To generate high-quality content consistently, you need a steady stream of content ideas, a solid workflow, and—most importantly—a well-crafted content plan. With a solid plan, you can stay organized, execute your content strategy successfully, and ensure you’re creating content that will actually connect with the right people and convert them into lifelong fans. If you’ve never created a plan before (or aren’t sure you’re doing it the right way), you’ve come to the right place. Here, we’ll walk you through the content plan process—and help you avoid common mistakes along the way. 

But first, let’s go back to basics. 

What Is a Content Plan?

In short, a content plan is a way to document the content marketing you want to create—and ensure everyone on your team stays on the same page. 

Why Do You Need a Content Plan?

Good content marketing is strategic and intentional. It also involves many moving parts, from copywriting to design. The better you can plan, the easier it is to… 

• Publish consistently. If you want to build your brand through content, you need to show up for your audience regularly. Publishing a steady stream of content is one of the most effective ways to do that. But if you don’t have a reliable content infrastructure (aka the knowledge and resources to create content), it is very difficult to produce and publish high-quality content consistently. A content plan helps keep everyone on the same page to ensure you hit your deadlines and publish the right thing at the right time. 
• Tell your brand’s best stories. We like to think of content marketing as a unique ecosystem, where every piece of content helps reinforce your brand story. If you’re making content piecemeal, or on the fly, it’s harder to control the quality and message that you’re sending. But with a solid content plan, you can ensure that you’re creating the right mix of content for your audience. 
• Maximize resources. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 54% of B2B marketers say a lack of resources is their biggest challenge. When you know what content you plan to create, you can identify and allocate resources more effectively. In fact, the more you plan, the more mileage you can get from your content. 

Note: What’s most important is actually documenting your plan. That can help you keep track of your content, spot additional content opportunities, and more.

How to Create a Content Plan

Creating a content plan is simple and straightforward (if you know what you’re doing). Follow these five steps to set yourself up for success.  

1) Complete your content strategy.

Successful content marketing doesn’t start with content—it starts with strategy. Before you make your content plan, you need to know what your goals are, who your audience is, how your content will support those goals, how you plan to measure success, etc. If you haven’t established this foundation, your content won’t be very effective. (In fact, you’re almost guaranteed to waste valuable time and resources for little reward.)

This is why it’s important to start with the basics. Use our content strategy guide and toolkit to ensure you have the information you need to build a content plan that is aligned to your goals.

2) Build your content pipeline.

Good content rarely happens when you’re scrambling to create something last minute. Thus, your content plan needs to account for any significant events or dates that you will create content for.

This may include all sorts of notable events, such as:

• Holidays
• Seasonal events (e.g., annual tradeshow)
• Company milestones
• Launches

To make sure these events are on your radar from the start, we suggest building a content pipeline, wherein you document important events for each quarter. (Download our free content pipeline template to do it.) Although you may not be focusing on those events yet, it’s important to have them in the pipeline so you can brainstorm and prepare far ahead of time. 

3) Decide on your cadence. 

How often do you plan to publish? What is a steady, reasonable cadence? This will rely on your team’s knowledge, skills, and ability to create various pieces of content. You may publish daily, weekly, or monthly—it all depends on your brand. What matters most is that you choose a reasonable cadence that you can realistically maintain.

Tip: If you don’t have the ability to create something in-house, outside support can help. See our tips to figure out if you should turn to a freelancer or a content agency.

4) Brainstorm ideas by month.

Every brand’s content needs will be different, but if you’re building your content operation from scratch, it helps to break content plans down by quarter (via your content pipeline), and then by month.

We find it especially helpful to choose a specific topic, set of keywords, or seasonal theme to brainstorm around each month.

Note:  While you can loosely plot these themes out, they shouldn’t be written in stone. Things can (and often do) change. If you’re brainstorming too far ahead, and something unexpected happens, it’ll throw your whole calendar off. Instead, plan 1-3 months at a time.

When it comes time to brainstorm specific content ideas, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Include stakeholders. Don’t leave anyone important out of these meetings. More minds make better ideas. Plus, you don’t want to go back to square one if a stakeholder doesn’t approve of the idea.
• Vet your ideas. Don’t go with your first ideas. Instead, use your marketing personas to vet and prioritize the ideas that will resonate with your audience most.
• Consider the platform. Where does your audience live online, and what type of content do they like to consume on these platforms? This may influence the types of ideas you brainstorm.

Once you have your list of ideas, think about what order you will want to publish them in. For example, if you’re just starting to publish content, you will want to publish your larger, more broad pieces first. 

5) Build out your editorial calendar. 

Now you can use our editorial calendar template to schedule your content. (You may also use a calendar tool like CoSchedule.)

This is where you get into the nitty-gritty content-planning details. Build and schedule a calendar that keeps everyone on track, including all the relevant details like topic, keyword, author, etc. Again, you want to schedule things out far enough in advance that no one is unprepared or blindsided by a deadline. However, this is marketing, and things change (hi, pandemic!). You may need to be flexible and move some content up, or push other content back. 

For more on this, find out how to build a proper editorial calendar.

6) Plan your distribution strategy.

No matter how good your content is, if people aren’t seeing it, it isn’t doing its job. Focus on channels that align best with your goals and have the highest potential reach. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, prioritize channels with high visibility, like social media. For lead generation, use channels like email or gated content on your website. This approach ensures you’re not spreading resources too thin.

• Identify where your audience spends time. That might be LinkedIn for B2B or Instagram for younger audiences.
• Tailor your content for each platform. Segmenting by platform lets you adapt your message and format—using visuals and shorter copy for social media or long-form articles for your blog—ensuring your content resonates effectively with different audience segments.
• Analyze your audience’s engagement patterns to determine optimal posting times. Many platforms have peak engagement times (e.g., LinkedIn during weekdays), which can vary based on industry and audience type. Planning distribution around these patterns will help you maximize visibility and engagement.

For more tips, see our guide to build a distribution strategy that gets the right eyes on your content. 

How to Make Your Content Plan Successful

As you begin to document your plan (and measure the results as you go), we have a few final tips to make sure your content-planning work pays off.

• Optimize your infrastructure. Follow our tips to master content creation and work smarter, not harder.
• Choose the right mix of content. Think of your content as nutrition—your audience needs a well-balanced meal to stay interested (and satisfied). Find out how to serve the right type of content that will keep people engaged.
• Repurpose content. Maximize your content by looking for ways to repurpose content For example, you might break an ebook into a blog post, social media snippets, data visualizations, or even a podcast episode. This strategy boosts your presence across channels without having to create entirely new content. (For more tips on doing this, find out how a divisible content strategy can help you work more effectively.
• Test and tweak. Good metrics are the key to content marketing success because they tell you whether or not your content actually works. Measure your efforts, and use the insights to improve your content going forward.
• Don’t be precious with your content. If it isn’t working and you’re supposed to create the same content next month, mix it up.

Of course, if you need a partner to guide your strategy and content, we’re always here. See our content strategy FAQ, or hit us up directly. We’d love to help you create a content plan that resonates with the people you’re trying to reach.