Four-week content plan template for a small business (spreadsheet)
A spreadsheet with a scored topic backlog, a four-week calendar and a results log, for a business that plans its own content without an agency.
This spreadsheet is for an owner or freelancer who makes their own content and has no agency behind them. It holds three working sheets: a backlog of topics scored by how often customers ask, how close the question is to a sale and how easy the piece is to make; a four-week calendar with one row per item; and a log of what each published item brought. Use it when you post whatever comes to mind and cannot say which pieces led to enquiries. The example rows show one topic turned into an article, two posts, an email and a short video.
What is inside
- How to use: nine short steps, the 1 to 5 scoring scale and a note on what the file does not do
- Topics: the customer's question, the source of the idea, the buying stage and three scores for each topic
- A Score column that counts closeness to a sale twice, and a Rank column where 1 is the topic to make first
- Calendar: four weeks, one row per item, with format, channel, main point, call to action, owner, status and link
- Fourteen example rows: two topics, each turned into an article, two posts, an email and a short video, plus four smaller items
- After publishing: views, clicks, replies and enquiries typed in by hand, plus a decision and a note for each item
- A total, an average and a count of the items that brought at least one enquiry
How to use it
- Download the file and open it in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice. Read the How to use sheet and go through the example rows once.
- On the Topics sheet, replace the examples with questions your customers have asked, one per row, and add the source of the idea and the stage.
- Score each topic three times, from 1 to 5. The sheet works out the score and the rank.
- On the Calendar sheet, spread the two best-ranked topics over four weeks: one bigger piece per topic, then posts, an email and a short video made from it.
- Every week, update the status of each row and paste the link once the item is published.
- A week after an item goes out, enter its numbers on the After publishing sheet, choose Repeat, Change or Drop and write one line about why.
- After week 4, rescore the topics with what you learned and fill in a new calendar.
How to fill the backlog from real customer questions
Start with what people have already asked you, not with a keyword tool. Go through your messages, emails, call notes, reviews and the questions you hear in person over the last three months. Copy each question the way the customer put it, even when it sounds clumsy: other people are likely to phrase it in a similar way and will recognise their own question in the headline.
When the questions run out, add three other sources and always mark them on the sheet. Later the results log lets you compare which source gave you the topics that were followed by enquiries.
- Search suggestions: type the start of a customer's question into a search engine and note what the autocomplete offers.
- Competitors: read the questions under their posts and in their reviews, and note what they answer badly or not at all.
- Own cases: a finished job with photos answers the question of what the result will look like for me.
- The stage tells you who the piece is for: Choose and Compare are read by people still deciding, Buy clears the last doubts before an order, Use serves people who are already customers.
| Score | Asked often | Close to a sale | Easy to make |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asked once | General interest, far from buying | Needs research, photos or outside help |
| 3 | Asked about once a month | The person is comparing options | Half a day and a few of your own photos |
| 5 | Asked almost every week | Asked right before ordering | You could make it today from what you already know |
How much to plan when you work alone
The example calendar holds fourteen items in four weeks. For one person who also runs the business, treat that as a ceiling. The pattern is one bigger piece every two weeks, and everything else comes out of it: the article gives you two posts, an email and a short video without new research.
If you have never kept a schedule, start with half of that: one article and three items made from it in the first two weeks. Then look at the After publishing sheet before you add more. A plan you finish teaches you more than a full one abandoned in week two.
The owner column matters even when you are the whole team. As soon as a friend films a video or a freelancer edits a text, a row without a name is a row nobody does.
What the plan does not do
A calendar organises the work; it does not improve it. If an article answers the question worse than what is already out there, publishing it on schedule changes nothing. Before a row moves to Ready, read its main point again: is this something a customer would thank you for?
The scores are your own estimates, not measurements, and the rank only puts your guesses in order. The numbers on the results sheet are small and typed by hand, so they point in a direction without proving it: one enquiry more or less can be chance. Use them to decide what to repeat and what to drop, and expect to be wrong now and then.
- It does not research keywords or search volume.
- It does not connect to analytics: you copy the numbers yourself.
- It does not tell you which channel suits your business: your own log shows that over time.
Questions
Can I use the file in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. The formulas use only SUM, AVERAGE, COUNTIF, ROUND, IFERROR and RANK, which exist in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice.
Why does closeness to a sale count twice?
Because a topic people ask about right before ordering is usually worth making before one that is only popular. It is a starting assumption, not a rule. If your aim this month is reach, change the formula in the Score column so that the first score counts twice instead.
How many topics should the backlog hold?
Ten to twenty scored topics are enough for a month. Four weeks use two topics in depth and three or four more as short items. The rest wait for the next month, and by then you will have rescored them.
What counts as an enquiry?
Any contact where a person asks for a price, a booking or an order and you can tie it to an item: they replied to the email, wrote under the post or told you where they saw you. Ask new customers how they found you and add one to the right row. You will miss some, and that is fine as long as you count the same way every month.