The difference between businesses that stay consistent on social media and those that do not is rarely talent or budget. It is planning. When you know what you are posting next Tuesday, posting next Tuesday becomes easy.
A 90-day content calendar gives you that clarity. Here is the exact process we use with clients, which you can complete in an afternoon.
Step 1: Define your goals for the quarter
Before you plan a single post, decide what you want the next three months to achieve. Be specific:
- More enquiries for a particular service?
- More bookings in a quiet month?
- Growing your email list?
- Launching a new product?
Your content should push towards these goals. A calendar without goals is just a list of posts.
Step 2: Choose three to five content pillars
Content pillars are the recurring themes your content revolves around. For a property maintenance company on the Costa Blanca, they might be:
- Expertise — tips on looking after a Spanish property.
- Proof — before-and-after photos and testimonials.
- People — meet the team, behind the scenes.
- Local life — the area, the seasons, community events.
- Offers — services, seasonal packages, availability.
Pillars stop you from posting the same type of content every time, and they make idea generation far easier.
Step 3: Pick repeatable formats
For each pillar, choose two or three formats you can produce again and again. For example: “Tip Tuesday” carousel posts, “Friday Finish” before-and-after Reels or monthly customer spotlights. Repeatable formats mean you only need to think of the idea, not reinvent the design.
If you need inspiration, our list of Instagram Reels ideas for local businesses has 25 formats to choose from.
Step 4: Mark the key dates
Open a calendar for the next 90 days and mark:
- Bank holidays in Spain, the UK and Ireland, depending on your audience.
- Local fiestas and events in your town.
- Seasonal shifts — the start of summer, back to school, the arrival of winter visitors.
- Your own business milestones — anniversaries, launches, promotions.
These dates become natural anchors for content.
Step 5: Build a weekly rhythm
Decide how many posts per platform per week you can sustain (our guide on how often to post can help). Then assign a pillar to each slot. A simple rhythm might look like:
- Monday: Expertise
- Wednesday: Proof
- Friday: People or local life
- Once a fortnight: Offer
Step 6: Fill in the ideas
Now brainstorm specific posts for each slot across the 12–13 weeks. Do not worry about perfect captions yet — a one-line idea is enough. A spreadsheet works perfectly: columns for date, platform, pillar, format, idea, caption, image and status.
Step 7: Batch create
Set aside dedicated time to create content in batches: one session for photos, one for writing captions, one for editing videos. Batching is dramatically faster than creating one post at a time.
Step 8: Schedule it
Use Meta Business Suite to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts for free. LinkedIn and TikTok both offer native scheduling, and paid tools can manage everything in one place if you run several accounts.
Step 9: Leave room for the moment
Keep around 20% of your slots flexible for timely content — a great customer review, breaking local news, a spontaneous behind-the-scenes moment. The calendar is a framework, not a cage.
Step 10: Review monthly
At the end of each month, look at what performed best and adjust the remaining weeks. After 90 days, you will have real data to build an even better plan for the next quarter.
Prefer to hand it over?
Planning content is one of the most common jobs our clients hand to us. We build the calendar, create the content and schedule it, so you only need to approve it. Find out how we can help.
