Run a monthly content planning session in 90 minutes

Key takeaways

A monthly content planning meeting should last 90 minutes, include no more than three people, and end with every slot of next month filled and owned. Bring last month's numbers, the dates that matter and your idea backlog. Spend 15 minutes each on review, map, slot and ship, and 30 on filling the slots.

• 90 minutes, three people at most, once a month in week 3.
• Bring numbers, dates and the backlog, or the meeting stalls.
• 30 of the 90 minutes go on filling slots with specific posts.
• Leave with a finished plan, not a list of ideas.

Who should be in a content planning meeting?

Invite the person who owns the calendar, the person who makes most of the posts, and someone who knows what is happening in the business next month, often the owner or a manager. Three is enough. More people bring more ideas but slow the decisions, and the meeting's job is decisions.

Collect ideas from everyone else before the meeting, not during it. A shared note where staff drop photos and customer questions through the month does that job better than inviting them.

• How to build a monthly social media content calendar
• Collect content ideas from your team every month

What should you bring to the meeting?

Bring four things: last month's completion rate and enquiries from social media, a list of next month's business dates, the idea backlog, and the customer question log. Without them, the first half hour is spent remembering things that should have been written down.

• What to gather before you plan a month of posts

What is the 90-minute agenda?

The agenda follows the GBL Five-Step Month, with a time limit on each block so no single step eats the meeting.

• 0 to 15 minutes, review: completion rate, enquiries, three to repeat, three to drop.
• 15 to 30 minutes, map: dates, busy weeks, staff holidays, one goal.
• 30 to 45 minutes, slot: confirm the weekly grid and any changes.
• 45 to 75 minutes, fill: a specific post and brief in every slot.
• 75 to 90 minutes, ship: who makes what, by when, and who approves.

• The five steps that turn a blank month into a schedule

How do you stop the meeting overrunning?

Stop overruns by keeping the slots fixed unless the review shows a real problem, and by parking any idea that needs research. A post that needs a supplier quote or a client's permission goes on the backlog with a note, not into next month. Redesigning the whole calendar is a quarterly job, not a monthly one.

• A quarterly social media plan above the monthly calendar

When is a meeting the wrong format?

A meeting is the wrong format for a one-person business, where the same 90 minutes works as a solo session with the diary blocked. It is also wrong when everyone is remote and busy, in which case one person drafts the plan and the others comment within 48 hours. The steps matter more than the room.

• A content calendar for a one-person business

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a monthly 'marketing meeting' of six people that runs two hours, ranges over the website, the brochure and social media, and ends with actions nobody owns. Splitting out a 90-minute social media session with three people and a fixed agenda usually turns the same effort into a finished month.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Planning session checklist

• Book it in week 3 of every month, same day if possible.
• Invite three people at most.
• Bring numbers, dates, the backlog and the question log.
• Keep to the five timed blocks.
• Park anything that needs research.
• Leave with every slot filled and owned.

• The five steps that turn a blank month into a schedule
• Plan social media monthly or weekly?

Next step

Book next month's session now, invite two people, and send them the four things to bring. The first session is the slowest; by the third it usually runs to time.