It's ten in the morning and nothing has been posted for a week. Someone at the company opens Instagram and asks what to post today, and the answer ends up being an old offer or a stock image with "Good morning". This happens at many companies without a content team, and two hours at the end of each month are enough to fix it, content team or not.
What is a content calendar and why do you need one?
A content calendar is a schedule of what you'll post each day next month, on which platform, and who prepares it. It lets you make the decisions once, in a calm session, instead of every day under pressure. You can also see the whole month at a glance, so you notice if you're only talking about offers or have forgotten an entire service.
How do you choose content pillars for your business?
Content pillars are the recurring topics your posts revolve around, and four or five are enough. Pick them from your customers' questions and from what you want people to know about you. An example for a home maintenance company:
- Tips customers can use themselves, such as cleaning an AC filter.
- Real jobs: before and after, with a short description of what was done.
- Answers to questions you get on WhatsApp.
- The team and how you work, to build trust.
- Offers and services, at a lower share than the rest.
If most of your posts are offers, followers treat your account like a billboard and stop looking. Useful content keeps them coming back, so they see the offer when you post it.
How often should you post each week?
Post as often as you can keep up month after month. Three posts a week, every week, does more than one busy week followed by silence. Start small and add more once preparing posts has become a habit.
| Day | Pillar | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Tip | Short video or carousel |
| Tuesday | Real job | Before and after photos |
| Thursday | Customer question | Text post or answer video |
| Every two weeks | Offer or service | Clear design with how to order |
Which dates should you add to the calendar in Jordan and Saudi Arabia?
Add the occasions before filling the other days, because they need early preparation. Ramadan and the two Eids, the start of the school year, Saudi National Day on September 23, Founding Day on February 22, and Jordan's Independence Day on May 25. Ramadan and Eid move earlier in the Gregorian calendar every year, so check their dates whenever you plan a month.
Don't post for every occasion just to have something up. If you have nothing to say that connects to your work, a short greeting is better than an expensive design that has nothing to do with you.
How do you plan a month in one session?
Set aside two hours in the last week of each month and go through these steps in order:
- Review last monthWhich posts brought messages or visits?
- Add occasions and offersFixed dates first
- Spread the pillarsAcross your posting days each week
- Write the headlinesEach post's idea in one line
- Assign the tasksWho shoots, who writes, who designs, and the deadline
A simple spreadsheet with columns for date, platform, pillar, idea and status is enough. Once the posts are ready, schedule them in advance. Meta Business Suite lets you schedule Facebook and Instagram posts, so posting doesn't stop when the team gets busy.
Where does content come from if you don't have a content team?
From the daily work itself. Ask the team to photograph every project before and after handover on their phones and save the photos in one shared folder organized by month. Collect the questions you get on WhatsApp and by phone in a file, since each one is a ready post idea.
Then set aside half a day a month to shoot and write everything in one go. Preparing two weeks or a month of posts in one session is much easier than preparing a post every day, and the quality is higher because you're working with focus. If you need designs, fixed templates in your brand colors keep the account consistent and save design time.
How do you know which content works?
Look at what people do after seeing a post more than at the number of likes: saves, shares, messages and link clicks. A tip post might get few likes and many saves, which tells you people plan to come back to it. Bring what you learn into next month's session and give more room to the pillar that brings messages. If a pillar stays weak for three months in a row, try it in a different format before you drop it, since the format alone may be the problem.
Regular content supports your ads too. Someone who sees your ad, opens your account and finds recent, useful posts trusts you more, as we explain in a digital marketing plan for a small business. If your content relies on video, our article on writing an explainer video script will help you write it.
We plan, produce and publish monthly content for companies as part of our digital marketing service. Send us links to your accounts, and we'll suggest content pillars that fit your business.
Questions our partners ask
How many posts do I need per month?
As many as you can commit to at acceptable quality. For many small businesses, a few posts a week plus regular stories is enough, and consistency matters more than volume.
Should I post the same content on every platform?
You can use the same idea and adjust the format: a short video for Instagram and TikTok, longer text for LinkedIn, and a clear image with a link for Facebook.
Which planning tool should I use?
A simple spreadsheet is enough for planning. For scheduling, you can use Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram, or a scheduling tool that supports the platforms you use.
Written by the Visual Innovate team, the people who build, host and follow up systems, websites and apps for our clients in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt.
