Digital marketing content plan and examples
Seven content types, grouped by the job each one does rather than by format — because "write more blog posts" is not a plan. It covers which type earns links, which closes deals, and which is almost never worth making, with a free Excel planner whose refresh-date column is the one most content plans omit and most need.
- TEMPLATE
- XLSX
- EXAMPLE
- FREE
- Best for
- Anyone planning content who is tired of measuring posts published
- Includes
- Excel planner + content types by job
- Time to use
- 90 minutes for a quarter
Free to download and use in your own client work. No email address required.
Created by Alston Antony Commercial-page-first content practice for B2B SaaS Updated
“Publish two posts a week” is not a content plan. It is a production quota, and it is why so many content programmes are expensive without being effective.
The useful axis is the job each piece does.
Content types, by job
| Type | Job it does | Effort | Useful for | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comparison / alternative-to | Capture buyers already choosing | Medium | Years | The highest-converting content most sites never write |
| Template or tool | Earn links and repeat visits | High | Years | Expensive once, then compounds |
| How-to for a real task | Answer a job someone is doing now | Medium | Years | Needs refreshing when the tool changes |
| Original data or teardown | Earn citations | High | Months to years | The only type that reliably earns links without asking |
| Definition / glossary | Support other pages | Low | Years | Weak alone. Strong as a cluster |
| News or reaction | Short-term attention | Low | Days | Almost never worth it unless distribution is solved |
| Case study | Close deals, not win traffic | Medium | Years | Judge it on sales conversations, not sessions |
The rule that decides what to make next
Make the thing that would still be useful in two years, for a task somebody is doing today. Everything else is filler — and filler is what makes a content programme expensive without making it effective.
The two types most sites underuse
Comparison and alternative-to pages. They feel uncomfortable to write because they acknowledge competitors exist. They also capture people at the exact moment of deciding, which is why they convert several times better than the top-of-funnel content most sites produce instead.
Templates and tools. High effort once, then they compound: they earn links without asking, bring people back, and are the hardest thing for a competitor to copy quickly. This entire site is built on that observation.
Preview of the file
The column most plans omit
Refresh due. Content decays quietly: a how-to goes stale when the tool changes its interface, a comparison goes stale when a competitor changes pricing. Nothing in a normal calendar surfaces that, so the calendar fills with new pieces while existing ones rot.
Set a refresh date when you publish. For most pieces twelve months is right; for anything describing a tool’s interface, six.
Refreshing an existing page that already has impressions is almost always a better use of an hour than publishing a new one. It is also the least popular recommendation I give, because it produces no new thing to point at.
Common mistakes
- Planning by volume of posts rather than by job to be done.
- No refresh date, so pages decay quietly while the calendar fills with new ones.
- Every piece top-of-funnel, so nothing on the site helps somebody decide.
- A cadence you cannot sustain, producing a graveyard of half-finished clusters.
- No owner, so the piece needing the subject-matter expert never gets written.
- Measuring output — posts published — instead of outcome.
Measuring it
Not posts published. Three numbers that actually mean something: non-paid sessions to the pages you planned, conversions from them, and how many pieces are past their refresh date. The third is the leading indicator — a growing refresh backlog predicts a decline that has not shown up in the traffic yet.
Those rows belong on the dashboard, not in a content report of their own.