How to Plan a Content Calendar That Actually Gets Done

A practical system to plan, prioritize and ship content consistently — includes a simple template and SOPs for a two-person team.

6 min readContent Marketing

How to Plan a Content Calendar That Actually Gets Done

Inconsistency kills momentum. A content calendar that's too complex won't be used; too simple and it won't scale. This guide gives a practical 90-day system with ownership, cadence, and a lightweight SOP to ship reliably.

The three pillars

  • Strategy: pillar topics and KPIs.
  • Cadence: realistic publishing frequency for your team.
  • Ownership: who writes, edits, publishes and promotes.

90-day plan (practical)

  1. Week 0: pick 3 pillar topics and brainstorm 6-9 cluster ideas.
  2. Weeks 1-4: write and publish 1 pillar + 1 cluster.
  3. Weeks 5-12: publish 1-2 clusters per pillar and promote each piece on your chosen channels.

Prioritization matrix

Rank ideas by impact vs effort. Ship low-effort/high-impact items first and schedule one high-effort pillar per quarter.

Roles & SOP (two-person team)

  • Writer: drafts using a brief and template.
  • Editor/Publisher: edits, formats, adds CTAs, publishes and schedules promotion.

SOP essentials

  1. Use a one-page brief with goal, target keyword, audience, and CTA.
  2. Writer produces draft in agreed doc template (H1, H2s, TOC, CTAs).
  3. Editor checks SEO basics (title, meta, schema), accessibility and images.
  4. Publisher schedules post and promotion (social + newsletter).

Quick hacks to ship faster

  • Batch tasks: research one day, write two articles another day.
  • Repurpose: turn a pillar into multiple short posts and a checklist.
  • Use templates for briefs, intros, CTAs and meta descriptions.

Adopt the simplest calendar that covers strategy, cadence and ownership. Start small, measure outcomes, then scale the process that actually works for your team.

Want this adapted into a downloadable checklist?