what's inside the content plan
Four sheets in XLSX: cover plus three working tabs. Not "universal" content plan for beauty and B2B at the same time,” but tailored for adults channels on Telegram, VK and Zen with the goal of “bringing qualified leads and maintain a reputational background.”
- Cover. Authorship, date, license, instructions for filling.
- Categories 8 categories with percentages, formats, example of a topic, the purpose of each section (trust/reach/involvement/ sale). Sum of shares = 100%.
- Calendar. Monthly calendar by weeks and days. Channel, category, post topic, format, status (ready / draft / idea). Filled for 3 weeks as an example.
- Metrics. Subscribers, growth, ER, reach, clicks on /contact, leads from channel, CR click→lead. Monthly for Q1 and goal Q2.
why is it structured this way?
An uncategorized content plan is a “list of posts for the month,” not a plan. I’ve seen dozens of tables like this: “Monday - product post, Wednesday - case, Friday - something entertaining.” After a month the channel turns in a vinaigrette, readers don’t understand what it’s about and unsubscribe. Categories with shares fixes the proportion of formats and maintains the focus of the channel.
Default shares (cases 20%, useful 25%, opinion 15%, market figures 10%, behind the scenes 10%, announcements 10%, entertainment 5%, UGC 5%) - this is median across my 4 lead gen channels in B2B. If you have B2C, increase share of entertainment and UGC, reduce the share of opinions and numbers. The template is not prohibits changing weights, it shows the order.
Metrics on a separate sheet with goals for Q2 are for retrospective purposes. Everyone open a month and compare: ER grew or fell, subscriber growth speeded up or slowed down, the share of clicks on /contact relative to coverage has increased. This gives the answer "works or doesn't" rather than "much whether we publish."
how to use the content plan
- Step 1. Determine the purpose of the channel on the “Metrics” sheet. The main metric of success is one - leads, base growth, ER, citations. All the remaining metrics are secondary.
- Step 2. Rebuild the content category planner for yourself. Delete mine shares, put yours. The condition is the amount is 100%, no more than 8 rubrics. Each heading - with an example of a topic.
- Step 3. Fill out a 4-6 week calendar. Don't try immediately plan the quarter. Take the next 4 weeks and write it down topics. After 2 weeks you’ll sit down and add 4 more.
- Step 4. Keep statuses in real time. "Idea" → “draft” → “ready” → “published”. No statuses at a meeting with As a team, everyone is arguing about “what we have for Thursday” instead of discussing topics.
- Step 5. Monthly retrospective. 30 minutes once every month - open “Metrics”, add a fact, compare with the goal. If 2 months ER falls in a row - review the content category planner (most likely shares “useful” and “sales” are too high).
what is NOT in this template
- Content for stories and reels. Template about guard content. Stories live their lives with a different frequency and metrics.
- Preparation of post texts. This is a planning document, and not a post bank. Texts are written separately and saved in Notion/Doc.
- Site comparisons. The template doesn't answer the question "Telegram or VK." If the question is relevant, I have a separate article about Telegram vs VK.
- Budget for promotional posts and sponsored posts. This is the content plan not a promotion plan. The budget goes to media plan.
what content plans do I consider bad in RuNet?
- “Content plan for 30 days - post every day.” In B2B and mature B2C, daily posting kills reach algorithmically (the weight of each subsequent post is lower) and kills the editors with burnout. The norm is 3-4 posts per week with well-developed content.
- Content plans by “day of the week”. "Monday - motivation, Wednesday - product, Friday - life.” Sounds structured in fact you get an unrelated stream. A content category planner with shares is better than fixation by day.
- Content plans without metrics. “Published 28 posts in month” is not a result metric, it is an employment metric. Without ER, coverage and leads, it is not clear whether the channel is working.
- Content plans from “120 topics for posts.” Templates with a huge bank of topics is an illusion, not a plan. Real posts are written for a real audience, the theme bank is suitable as a starting point at most idea.
A content plan is not “more posts.” These are the “correct proportions of formats to the purpose of the channel." Better than 12 targeted posts per month with a content category planner than 30 random “because I have to publish.”
related materials
Frequently asked questions
- What is a content category planner in content terms?
- List of regular sections with the share of each in the total volume of publications and a fixed format. It is needed so as not to come up with a topic from scratch every time: the rubric sets a frame within which it remains to select a specific news item. Without a rubric, the content plan falls apart in the second or third week.
- How many posts per month should I put in my content plan?
- As much as the team can withstand for three months in a row, and not as much as you want in the first week. A smooth schedule of eight publications per month works better than twenty in the first month and three in the second: the Telegram and VK algorithms respond to regularity, not to a surge.
- How to maintain a content plan in Excel?
- Three sheets: content category planner with shares and formats, monthly calendar with date, category, topic and status, channel metrics - reach, ER, transitions, leads. The status in the calendar is more important than the topic: it shows where the text is already ready, and where there are a day left before publication and nothing has been written.
- How does a content plan differ from a media plan?
- Content plan about organic publications in your own channels: what comes out and when. Media plan about paid placement: how much money goes to which channel and what result is expected. They are connected, but live separately - the form of the media plan is located at /templates/marketing-plan.