Quarterly Content Plan Template

A quarterly content plan is where your annual strategy gets translated into actual work. It's the 90-day execution blueprint: what you'll create, why, in what order, and how you'll know if it's working.

Most content teams do one of two things: plan too loosely (a vague to-do list that gets abandoned by week six) or too rigidly (a spreadsheet so detailed that a single missed deadline causes cascading chaos). This template gives you the structure to be specific without being brittle.

Why 90 Days Is the Right Planning Horizon

Content takes time to produce and time to perform. A 30-day window is too short — SEO content needs months to rank, and you can't detect meaningful trends in a month. A 6-month plan is too long — you'll be planning content in month 5 based on assumptions you made in month 1, and those assumptions will be wrong.

90 days is long enough to see real results from your top-of-funnel SEO work and short enough to stay responsive to what you're learning.

Part 1: Quarter Review (Complete Before Planning)

Don't build next quarter's plan until you've honestly assessed last quarter's performance.

Last Quarter Scorecard

Goal	Target	Actual	% of Target	Grade
Total organic sessions
Content-driven MQLs
Pieces published
Email subscribers added
Top keyword rankings gained

Top Performers (Last Quarter)

Title	Traffic	Conversions	Why It Worked

What Didn't Work

Be honest here. What content flopped? What distribution channels underperformed? What took longer than expected?

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Lessons Applied to This Quarter

Translate each failure into a forward-looking adjustment:

Last Quarter Problem	This Quarter Adjustment

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Part 2: Quarter Goals and Themes

Quarterly Objectives

Business context: What's happening in the business this quarter that content should support? (Product launches, funding announcement, new market entry, sales push, etc.)

Primary content goal for the quarter: (Choose one that aligns with the business priority)

• Grow organic traffic by ___% (current: ___ sessions/month → target: ___)
• Generate ___ MQLs from content
• Grow email list by ___ subscribers
• Build out [Pillar Name] with ___ new pieces to establish authority
• Launch new content format (podcast / video series / research report) — ___
• Support [Product Launch] with ___ pieces of supporting content

Supporting goals (2-3 max):

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Quarter Theme

A quarterly theme gives your content a narrative thread — it makes your editorial calendar feel like a cohesive program rather than a random collection of blog posts.

Quarter Theme: ___

Examples:

• "Q1 Theme: Startup Content at Scale — everything we publish this quarter ties back to how early-stage teams can do more with less"
• "Q2 Theme: Content ROI — proving that content investment pays off, connecting content to pipeline at every piece"
• "Q3 Theme: AI in Marketing — riding a timely trend while establishing our point of view"

Theme Headline: A single sentence that captures the quarter's narrative for your team.

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Part 3: Pillar Focus Allocation

For most content teams, it's better to go deep in one or two pillars per quarter than to spread evenly across all pillars. Decide your allocation now:

Pillar	Q[N] Focus	Pieces Planned	Reasoning
Pillar 1:	Primary	___
Pillar 2:	Secondary	___
Pillar 3:	Maintenance	___
Pillar 4:	Pause	0

Pillar gap analysis: For your primary pillar this quarter, what are the 5 most important missing pieces?

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Part 4: Keyword and Topic Prioritization

Keyword Batch for the Quarter

Use this process to identify and prioritize your quarter's keywords:

1. Pull a keyword list from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console
2. Filter by relevance — remove anything that doesn't map to your ICP or pillars
3. Score each keyword using the Priority Score formula below
4. Select top 20-30 keywords to build content around

Priority Score Formula: (Search Volume × Business Relevance) ÷ Keyword Difficulty

Where:

• Search Volume: Monthly searches (from keyword tool)
• Business Relevance: 1-3 (3 = very relevant to your ICP, 1 = tangentially relevant)
• Keyword Difficulty: KD score from your keyword tool (higher = harder)

Quarter Keyword List:

Keyword	Monthly Volume	KD	Business Relevance (1-3)	Priority Score	Assigned Month

Content-Keyword Mapping

Topic Title	Target Keyword	Pillar	Funnel Stage	Word Count	Priority
			TOFU/MOFU/BOFU		H/M/L

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Part 5: Monthly Breakdown

Break the quarter into three monthly plans. Plan Month 1 in detail. Plan Months 2-3 at the topic level.

Month 1: [Month Name] — Detailed Plan

Monthly Focus: ___ Production Target: ___ pieces Featured Content This Month: ___ (the anchor piece that everything else supports)

Month 1 Content Calendar:

Week	Title	Keyword	Type	Author	Brief Due	Draft Due	Publish
Week 1
Week 1
Week 2
Week 2
Week 3
Week 3
Week 4
Week 4

Month 1 Distribution Plan:

Channel	Frequency	Format	Notes
LinkedIn	3x/week	Text post + carousel
Email	1x/week	Newsletter
Twitter/X	Daily	Thread on pub days
Community	2x/month	Reddit + Slack

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Month 2: [Month Name] — Outline

Monthly Focus: ___ Production Target: ___ pieces

#	Title (Working)	Keyword	Priority
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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Month 3: [Month Name] — Outline

Monthly Focus: ___ Production Target: ___ pieces

#	Title (Working)	Keyword	Priority
1
2
3

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Part 6: Content Mix Planning

Quarter Content Mix

Use this table to ensure your quarterly plan has the right balance across formats and funnel stages.

Format	Planned Count	% of Total
Blog posts (1,000-2,000 words)
Long-form guides (2,000+ words)
Case studies
Research / data reports
Video content
Landing pages
Other:

Funnel Stage	Planned Count	% of Total
TOFU (awareness)
MOFU (consideration)
BOFU (decision)

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Part 7: Resources and Capacity Planning

Before committing to a publishing volume, sanity-check against actual capacity.

Team Capacity:

Team Member / Resource	Hours/Week Available for Content	Pieces/Month Capacity	Role

Total Production Capacity: ___ pieces/month

Planned Production: ___ pieces/month

Buffer: ___ pieces/month

Rule of thumb: Plan to 80% of maximum capacity. The remaining 20% is for quality improvements, reactive content, and unexpected work.

Content Investment:

Cost Item	Monthly Budget	Quarterly Total
Freelance writers	$	$
Design	$	$
Video production	$	$
Tools (SEO, CMS, etc.)	$	$
Paid amplification	$	$
Total	$	$

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Part 8: Quarter Success Metrics and Check-Ins

Quarterly Targets

Metric	Q Start Baseline	Q End Target
Organic sessions (monthly)
Content MQLs (monthly)
Email subscribers
Domain Rating / Authority
Pieces published
Keywords in top 10

Mid-Quarter Check-In (At 45 Days)

Schedule a mid-quarter review on: ___

Review questions:

• Are we on pace to hit the quarter's goals?
• What content is performing better or worse than expected?
• Do we need to adjust priorities for Month 3?
• Are there any new opportunities (keyword spikes, competitor gaps, timely topics)?

End-of-Quarter Review

Schedule: ___

Review output:

• Final scorecard vs. targets
• Top 5 pieces of the quarter
• Key lessons for Q[N+1]
• Updated quarterly plan for Q[N+1]

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How Averi Powers Quarterly Content Planning

Averi turns quarterly planning from a spreadsheet exercise into an active workflow. After setting your goals and themes, the platform suggests topic clusters, prioritizes keywords based on your strategy, and generates a content calendar you can execute immediately. As the quarter progresses, performance data flows back into your plan so you're always making decisions based on what's actually working.

Plan your next quarter in Averi →

Further Reading

• a 90-day marketing sprint execution plan
• how to create a 30-day AI-powered content calendar
• the B2B SaaS content marketing playbook for 2026
• Averi's Strategy Map to build and execute your quarterly content plan

Frequently Asked Questions

How many pieces of content should we plan per quarter?

This depends entirely on your team's capacity. A solo content marketer can realistically produce 8-16 high-quality pieces per quarter. A team of 2-3 might produce 20-30. The bigger risk is overplanning — committing to 40 pieces when you can genuinely execute 20 at quality. Quality always beats volume.

Should we change our quarterly theme if performance is off?

The theme is a narrative frame, not a commitment. Themes can shift if the market shifts. What shouldn't change mid-quarter are your goals and publishing commitments — those deserve a full quarter of execution before you draw conclusions about what's working.

How do I handle breaking news or unexpected content opportunities in a quarterly plan?

Keep 10-15% of your monthly capacity flexible (the "flex" slots mentioned in the editorial calendar template). Pre-planned content fills 85-90% of your calendar; reactive or opportunistic content fills the rest. If a major opportunity requires more than your flex slots, consciously decide what planned content to deprioritize.

When should I finalize Month 2 and Month 3 topics?

Finalize Month 2 topics and briefs during the last week of Month 1. Finalize Month 3 topics during the last week of Month 2. This rolling planning approach means you're always looking ahead without locking in content you'll regret.

What if we don't hit our quarterly goals?

First, understand why — was the goal unrealistic, was production behind, or was distribution lacking? Then adjust next quarter's targets based on your new understanding of what's achievable. A miss is only a problem if you don't learn from it.