Hey Reader,

Last week, I sent you my Content Calendar Template, which I updated for 2026.

The template itself is straightforward. But when it comes time to actually brainstorm the content ideas that go into it, a lot of people hit a wall.

I get it. I see that kind of thing a lot in this line of work; people have the best intentions to create a robust content calendar, but then when tasked with coming up with the actual ideas, they experience analysis paralysis.

Fear not. I've got more than a decade of experience coming up with content ideas that excite audiences and deliver results. I have a process that I follow to start coming up with ideas, and I'm going to spell it out for you right... now.

1. Focus on 3 months at a time

Coming up with 12 months of content ideas in one sitting isn't possible. More than that, it's not a great idea. Things will change over the course of this year. New developments in your industry and the world at large require you to have a content plan that is flexible and changeable. Don't waste your time putting in lots of ideas that might be scrapped in the long run. Instead, I schedule quarterly strategy reviews and planning sessions with my clients, a time to look back on the last three months and plan for the three months to come.

This is why the first page of the content calendar template is a quarterly planner, not a 12-month planner. It's to encourage you to focus on three months at a time, and save you heartache later.

2. Be realistic about your capacity

In a dream world, you'd be producing a new long-form blog, a few videos, and lots of social media content every single week. That's not realistic for most businesses that don't have a large internal content-creation arm. Think about your resources before you start planning. How many pieces can you actually create and set live and promote every single month? Stick to that number, because scheduling too much content for yourself to create will cause you to lose steam quickly.

3. Start with the internal must-haves

The first items to go in your content planner should be the ones you know you'll need to cover for the business's internal goals. Maybe you have a launch coming up, or some scheduled media events, or your stakeholders have been breathing down your neck about covering specific topics of interest to them. Get all of these scheduled first, so you know they're prioritized, and then you'll be able to see where there are gaps to fill.

4. Think about what's coming up in time and space

Next, think about things that are time-specific. What holidays and events are coming up in the next few months? Do you need to get out any specific messaging around these moments? If so, schedule those with plenty of time to create, refine, publish, and promote the content before the time crunch is upon you.

5. Take stock and round out the diversity

Now, look at your content calendar and think about what types of content you have coming out, and more specifically, what's missing. A robust content strategy has a lot of different varieties of content: thought leadership, SEO pieces, graphic and video content, interviews... I could go on, but I recommend reading this newsletter about all of the different types of content you can and should be creating. Content diversity is one of the best ways to win the SEO game, and you'll learn a heck of a lot more about your audience if you test different mediums to see what sticks.

6. Let the data guide you

Now that you've got a bunch of ideas in your content calendar, it's time to test them against the data. This is where it's useful to have Semrush (or to have a handsome SEO specialist who is really good with Semrush... ahem...) to help you figure out what people are actually searching for. I use a combination of keyword research and AI prompt research to find new topics my clients missed and clarify or refine topics they've chosen to get the maximum number of eyeballs on the things we create.

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If you do all of that, you should have a pretty healthy content plan on your hands. But it's a lot of work! That's why people hire me to help them.

When I take on a client for content ideation or strategy work, we sit down together and go through all of these different ideation points. I give them prompts and ask lots of questions to stimulate ideas. Then I go away and take all of those thoughts into my SEO and AI tools, and put them into the content plan for my clients.

After that, all we have to do is create, create, create! It's so much easier, and dare I say fun?, when you have a solid plan you can rely on.

If that sounds like fun (or just helpful) to you, then why not book a free 30-minute strategy call with me? We can kickstart this process together, and I'll answer any questions you have about your specific content plans for 2026. No obligations, just free advice.

Or you can just reply to this email, or any email I send you, with questions.

-- Liam

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