A content calendar template for a local business only needs a few columns: the week, the theme, the channel (blog, Google Business Profile, email, social), who owns it, and its status. Plan 90 days at a time around your seasons and the services you most want to sell, and you’ll stay consistent without scrambling for ideas every Monday.
Below is a step-by-step way to build that 90-day plan, plus a filled-in table you can copy.
Why 90 Days Is the Right Planning Window
A full-year calendar sounds organized but rarely survives contact with reality. A weekly plan is too short to think about seasons or promotions. Ninety days is long enough to line content up with what’s coming (a busy season, a slow month, a holiday) and short enough that you can adjust based on what actually worked.
At the end of each quarter you review results, keep what performed, and build the next 90 days.
Step 1: Mark Your Seasons and Dates
Before you think about topics, open a calendar for the next three months and mark:
- Your busy and slow periods. A Phoenix pool service ramps up in spring; a tax preparer peaks before April; an HVAC company braces for the first heat wave.
- Holidays and local events your customers care about.
- Business milestones: a new service launching, a new location, a staff certification.
- Weather-driven needs: monsoon season, first freeze, allergy season, back-to-school.
Content should land a few weeks before demand peaks. People research a furnace tune-up before the first cold snap, not during it.
Step 2: Choose Service Priorities
Pick two or three services to emphasize this quarter. Base the choice on what’s profitable, what has capacity, and what fits the season. A dental practice might focus on Invisalign and new-patient exams in the quarter before summer, then shift to cleanings and insurance-year-end reminders in the fall.
Every piece of content in the quarter should connect to one of those priorities. This keeps your marketing pointed at revenue rather than random topics.
Step 3: Assign Channels and a Realistic Cadence
You don’t have to be everywhere. For most local businesses, four channels cover the bases:
| Channel | Suggested cadence | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Blog | 1 to 2 posts per month | Answering detailed customer questions; supporting service pages |
| Google Business Profile posts | Weekly or every other week | Offers, updates, events, recent work photos |
| Monthly | Past customers: seasonal reminders, new posts, referrals | |
| Social | 1 to 3 times per week | Behind-the-scenes, team, finished projects, local community |
The trick is to create once and reuse. A blog post becomes a short Google Business Profile post, a paragraph in the monthly email and two social posts. For ideas on what to post and which photos work on your profile, see our guide to Google Business Profile posts and photos.
Step 4: Assign Owners
Calendars fail when everything belongs to “us.” Put a name on every row, even if it’s the same name. Common roles in a small team:
- Topic owner: usually the business owner or a lead technician who knows the answers.
- Writer or editor: turns notes or a recorded conversation into a post.
- Publisher: uploads to the website, schedules social and Google Business Profile posts, sends email.
- Photo collector: the person in the field who snaps job photos (with customer permission).
Add a due date that’s earlier than the publish date. A week of buffer saves a lot of late-night posting.
A 90-Day Content Calendar Template (Filled Example)
Here’s a sample quarter for a fictional landscaping company heading into fall, prioritizing irrigation repair, fall overseeding and holiday lighting installation.
| Week | Theme | Blog | GBP post | Social | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irrigation check | Signs your drip system is leaking | Fall irrigation check offer | Fall checklist | Before/after valve repair | Maria |
| 2 | Irrigation check | – | Recent job photos | – | Tech tip video | Maria |
| 3 | Overseeding | When to overseed with winter rye | Booking now: overseeding | – | Seed spreading clip | Dev |
| 4 | Overseeding | – | FAQ: watering new seed | – | Customer lawn result | Dev |
| 5 | Overseeding | Overseeding vs. letting grass go dormant | Team spotlight | October newsletter | Crew photo | Dev |
| 6 | Fall cleanup | – | Cleanup service update | – | Leaf cleanup timelapse | Maria |
| 7 | Holiday lighting | How professional holiday lighting installation works | Reserve your lighting date | – | Last year’s best install | Sam |
| 8 | Holiday lighting | – | Lighting gallery | – | Install day behind-the-scenes | Sam |
| 9 | Holiday lighting | Clip-on vs. permanent roofline lights | Limited dates left | November newsletter | Customer feature | Sam |
| 10 | Community | – | Local event sponsorship | – | Event photos | Maria |
| 11 | Year-end | Winter landscape care checklist | Holiday hours | – | Thank-you post | Dev |
| 12 | Year-end | – | New year booking open | December newsletter | Year in photos | Maria |
| 13 | Review | Review results and plan next quarter | ||||
Notice the rhythm: one blog post roughly every other week, a Google Business Profile post every week, one email a month and steady social. Each block of weeks pushes one service priority.
Step 5: Review and Adjust Each Quarter
Week 13 is for looking back. Check:
- Which blog posts earned impressions and clicks in Google Search Console.
- Which Google Business Profile posts led to calls or website visits (the profile’s performance view gives you a rough sense).
- Email open and click patterns.
- Which service priorities actually generated leads.
Keep what worked, drop what didn’t, and carry unfinished ideas into the next quarter’s plan.
Tools: Keep It Simple
A shared spreadsheet is enough for most small teams. Add a status column (idea, drafting, ready, published) and color-code by channel. If you prefer a visual board, any project tool with a calendar view works. The tool matters far less than the habit of filling it in and checking it weekly.
If blogging is new for you, start with our beginner’s blogging strategy for small businesses before committing to a posting pace.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should go in a content calendar template?
At minimum: publish date, theme or service, channel, title or topic, owner and status. Optional columns include target keyword, call to action and a link to the finished piece. More columns than that tend to go unused.
How far ahead should I write content?
Aim to have content drafted at least one to two weeks before it publishes. Seasonal blog posts should go live several weeks before the season starts so they have time to be found.
What if we fall behind schedule?
Skip, don’t stack. Drop the missed item or move it to next quarter rather than publishing three things in one day. Keep the weekly Google Business Profile post going even when the blog slips, since it’s the quickest to produce.
Turn the Calendar Into Search Visibility
A content calendar is really a promise to keep your website and profiles active with useful, timely information, which is exactly what search engines and customers look for. If you want your quarterly plan tied to the keywords and service pages that matter most for your business, that planning fits naturally into our SEO services.