Most small companies do not lack content ideas. They have a shared document with sixty of them, three people who add to it and nobody who knows which one to write on Monday. The result is either silence for weeks or articles chosen by whoever spoke last.
This article is for marketing leads and managing directors who publish with a small team or none at all. It covers one narrow task: choosing the topics for one quarter. It is not about measuring marketing in general; for that, see a one-page monthly marketing report.
Why six
Six articles in a quarter is one every two weeks. That is a pace a team can keep next to its normal work, and it leaves room for a delay or two. Your number may differ, but pick it from your real capacity, not from what looks impressive. A plan that is missed in the second week is quickly ignored.
Everything that does not make the six stays on the idea list. Nothing is deleted; it just does not compete for this quarter.
Where topics should come from
Start with questions, not with keywords or opinions. Three sources are enough:
- Sales and enquiries. Which questions do prospects ask before they buy? Which objections come up again and again? Ask the person who answers the phone or reads the contact form.
- Customer support. What do existing customers ask in the first month? A question that is repeated ten times is an article waiting to be written.
- Lost deals. Where did a conversation end because the buyer was unsure about something you could have explained?
Write each question down in the customer's own words. If your reports seem to say one thing and your sales team another, read why a marketing dashboard can mislead you before trusting either.
Score the ideas in ten minutes
Take the idea list and give each item a quick mark from one to three on four points. Do not build a spreadsheet model; the point is to compare, not to calculate.
- Frequency: how often do customers or prospects ask this?
- Closeness to a sale: is the reader choosing between suppliers, or only curious?
- Our knowledge: can we answer from our own experience, without research that takes a week?
- Effort: can one person finish it in a few working days?
Add the marks, take the six highest, and read the list once more. If five of the six are about the same service, swap one out. A quarter should touch at least two areas of the business, so the plan does not depend on a single topic.
Give each article a job
Before anyone writes, fill in three lines for every article. Keep them on the plan page.
- Reader: one role, for example "operations manager in a company of 30 people".
- Question: the exact question the article answers, in a sentence.
- Next step: what the reader may do afterwards, such as read a related article, ask for a conversation or download a checklist.
If you cannot fill in one of the lines, the idea is not ready. Move it back to the list rather than writing something vague.
An example of a plan page
Imagine a ten-person firm that installs and supports booking systems for clinics. Its idea list has sixty items. After scoring, the six are:
| Week | Question | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What should a clinic ask before changing its booking system? | Sales calls |
| 3 | How do we move existing appointments without losing any? | Lost deal |
| 5 | Who should have access to patient bookings? | Support |
| 7 | What does a reminder message need to say? | Support |
| 9 | What does a normal week of support look like after launch? | Sales calls |
| 11 | How do we know if the new system is working? | Customers |
The example is illustrative and does not describe a real client. The point is the shape: every row has a source, a question and a date, and two weeks are left free at the end of the quarter.
Decide how you will judge the result
At the start, not at the end, write down what would make you repeat a topic. Choose one or two signs that are easy to find and that you can honestly read. Examples are "a salesperson sent this article to a prospect", "an enquiry mentioned it" or "it was among the most read pages of the quarter". Avoid long dashboards. With only six articles, the numbers are small, so combine them with what your team tells you.
At the end of the quarter, hold a 30-minute review with three questions: which article was used, which was ignored, and which question did we learn about but not answer? The last answers feed the next idea list.
Common mistakes
- Planning twelve and writing five. The unfinished articles make the plan look like a failure. Plan only what fits.
- Choosing by taste. The topic the team finds most interesting is not always the one the customer needs. Let the questions decide.
- Skipping the owner. Each article needs one named person and a date. Without them, the plan is only a wish.
- Never reviewing. If nobody looks back, the next plan repeats the same mistakes.
A short checklist
- The idea list exists, and the six are chosen from it by scoring.
- Every article has a reader, a question, a next step, an owner and a date.
- Two weeks are left free.
- You have written down what result would make you repeat a topic.
- A 30-minute review is in the calendar for the end of the quarter.
If the lead-handling side of your marketing is the weaker part, you may also find the sheet for handing leads from marketing to sales useful.
Sources
- Our related articles linked above.
- The approach described is a general working practice, not a standard; adapt it to your organisation. The example is illustrative and does not describe a real client. No figures or client results are claimed in this article.
