Running a business without a content plan is like throwing a handful of spaghetti at the wall and praying that something sticks. If that’s what business has felt like last year, it’s time to implement a content plan. And don’t worry: It’s never too late to start.
What is Content Planning?
Content Planning is the process of creating a plan around your content strategy and business goals to reach your target market or audience. It’s not enough just to design the cutest invitations out there. You also need to have a plan to sell by producing the right content that will reach your potential customers. So instead of working around the clock trying to churn out content with no rhyme or reason, you’ll be able to focus on the content that aligns with every part of your business and helps reach your audience where they’re at.
You may have heard the term content planning, but you’ve also heard it called content mapping, strategy, or even batching. No matter what term you’ve heard, it all points to the same result: alignment and productivity. We’ll get into content strategy a little bit later, but for now, we want to focus on why you need to plan out your content.
Why You Need a Content Plan
At first thought, it may not seem fun to produce content ahead of time. If you’re someone who produces content when inspiration hits, it might feel a bit foreign at first. But trust us: planning your content to match your promotion calendar will benefit you as a business owner, not to mention your bottom line. Instead of spinning your wheels, wondering how to turn your followers into customers, a content plan will help you get there.
Many stationery designers like to build their content calendars around the seasonality of their business, then sprinkle in the gaps with events and any creative inspiration that strikes.
A stationer might focus on designing around Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter and then include all the holidays and events within those seasons. For example, a wedding stationer might focus her content to highlight weddings across each season, personalized stationery trends, birthdays, girls’ weekends, and even the importance of always having a nice set of thank you cards on hand.
Here are some reasons a content plan is such an important part of your overall business strategy:
Content Planning vs Content Strategy
Psst: It’s not one over the other, it’s both.
Developing a content plan is directly related to your overall content strategy because it’s how you put that strategy into action. A great content strategy looks at your target audience, your content pillars, your business and sales goals, your brand (and messaging), and the distribution of your content.
Once you have your content strategy in place, you can then get into the nitty gritty. You get to start planning out what kind of content will put that strategy into action. So, while a strategy creates a general idea of where you want to go and how you want to do it, a content plan dives deep into the what and when.
How to Create a Content Plan
Now that you know what a content plan is and how it can benefit your stationery business, it’s time to learn how to create one. There are hundreds of free content planning resources out there, but if we’re honest, all you really need is a blank calendar and some intentional time to think strategically.
Step One: Create your content goals.
If you have already created your content strategy, answering this question should be pretty easy. Think about what your goals are for 2026 and how content can help you reach them:
Whatever your goals are, now is the time to write them down and make them as specific as possible. When you write them down, you’ll be able to come back to them often, measuring your progress as you go.
Step Two: Determine your timeframe.
You might decide that it’s easier to look at the year altogether so you can see how each season’s promotions fit together with the next. Or you might decide to do a seasonal content calendar, focusing only on the next three months of your business. For example, if you’re planning for 2026, you might focus on all things Spring.
Step Three: Figure out which content pillars are important to you.
What some call “pillars” others call topics. Decide in advance what kind of topics your audience will want to see from your brand. If you specialize in weddings, your pillars will determine what kind of content you’re going to be producing. For example, you might create a blog post that highlights the biggest spring wedding invitation trends for 2026. Or you might highlight the types of invitations that you’ve created in the past, filled with spring blooms or snippets of you designing those in real time. Whatever it is, just make sure your content fits into your pillars because it will keep you focused and consistent for your audience.
Step Three: Decide on your promotions, sales, or offers ahead of time.
The answer to this question is going to drive the kinds of call to action that you’ll be placing on your content. For instance, if you’re going to be hosting a Mother’s Day sale, it’s important to plan that out in advance. What numbers are you hoping to see? How many posts should you create and publish? How many days will you be having your sale? Planning these promotions ahead of time will directly speak to the content you’ll be publishing as well.
Step Four: Determine what channels you want to use.
In today’s fast-paced world of social media and technology, there are dozens of marketing channels to choose from. You’ll want to plan your content for the channels that your customers are used to seeing you. For instance, if you’ve only built a presence on Instagram, focusing on your newsletter might end up being a miss.
Remember, people aren’t going to buy your designs unless you’re showing up in their feed, inbox, or scroll. Whatever channel you choose to focus on, do it big!
Step Five: Build out your calendar.
This is where you start planning out the small details. Get out a blank calendar and write out all the details. What day your big sale starts, what day you’re going to do a behind-the-scenes vlog about how you design your greeting cards, when you’re going to be at trade show, and even when you’re posting and what you’re posting. Once you’ve got everything filled in, see if there’s anything missing. Does it look so full that you’re already overwhelmed? It’s time to cut something. Does it look a little too empty? You may need to think of a few more ideas that will help you meet your goals.
Step Six: Start creating.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. And your content ideas won’t be either. But you can get a jump on it. Now that you’ve got the ideas for your seasonal content, it’s time to start putting some bones on them. If you’re going to be posting a behind-the-scenes vlog, write down a script. What do you want to say? What call to action are you going to share? Putting these thoughts together will save you time and energy when shoot day comes around. (You’ll be glad you did, trust us!)
Step Seven: Schedule and post.
Now that you’ve got a great content plan, you can get a jump on scheduling your posts. If you’re utilizing social media, you can use helpful resources like Later, HootSuite, Sprout Social, and others to help you post. These tools are great for content batching. When you’re done creating, you can easily upload, write your captions, and then schedule them to post on specific days. This will save you time and energy so you can focus on other parts of your business. (One and done!)
Step Eight: Measure and track.
You’ll never know what went right (or wrong) unless you track your metrics. Did planning out your content help free up your productivity? How did your Mother’s Day greeting card sale go? Did you post often enough? Was your call-to-action clear? How did people respond?
Knowing the answers to those questions will help you determine what to replicate (or leave behind) for the future. Measuring and tracking how it all went will also help you determine how to adjust your overall strategy and speak into your content plan for the next season.
Learn How to Streamline Your Business
We love helping stationery designers like you learn how to be successful in your business. Not only that, but we also love helping you streamline your processes so you can focus on what you love to do: design beautiful stationery.
Streamlining your content is one thing, but streamlining your production is just as important. Did you know we help stationery designers just like you fulfill your orders? We partner with designers across the nation, bringing their beautiful designs to life with quality and consistency. With over ten years of experience, we’re the partner you can trust.
Want to partner together in 2026? Learn more about us here.