How to Build a 90-Day Editorial Calendar for Small Businesses

If you are posting content ad hoc and hoping for the best, you are not alone. The solution is a 90-day editorial calendar that turns guesswork into a measurable plan built around UK seasonality, buyer needs and clear KPIs. This practical guide shows UK small businesses and growing SMEs exactly how to design a 90-day editorial calendar, including a content mix strategy, publishing cadence, repurposing plan and measurement framework you can put to work this week.

Why a 90-day editorial calendar works

Ninety days is long enough to deliver meaningful results and short enough to stay agile. It helps you:

• Align content to commercial goals, campaigns and UK events such as bank holidays and industry awareness weeks.
• Build consistency that compounds in seo and social discovery.
• Resource realistically so your team hits deadlines without burnout.
• Measure performance and iterate every 30 days rather than once a year.

For structure and templates, see Content Marketing Institute’s guidance on editorial calendar tools and templates. For social-first planning, Sprout Social’s downloadable social media calendar template is a solid starting point for SMEs. TechRepublic’s overview of editorial calendar templates helps small teams choose formats that fit their workflows and budgets.

The 90-day framework at a glance

Think in three 30-day cycles. Each cycle includes:

• Objectives and KPIs for each channel
• Audience focus and themes
• Content mix and formats
• Publishing cadence by channel
• Production workflow and approvals
• Repurposing and distribution plan
• Measurement and a 30-day review

Step 1: Set objectives and KPIs you can actually measure

Pick one primary KPI per channel, plus supporting metrics. Examples for UK SMEs:

• Website blog: primary KPI organic sessions, supporting average time on page, scroll depth, assisted conversions.
• LinkedIn: primary KPI profile or company page clicks, supporting post saves and link CTR.
• Instagram: primary KPI reach for awareness bursts, supporting story taps forward and link sticker clicks.
• Email: primary KPI revenue or demo requests from campaign emails, supporting open rate and click rate.

Benchmark realistically. For a small UK service business with a modest list and active social presence, a 90-day target could be a 25 to 40 percent lift in organic sessions from a new hub of three to four articles and a 10 to 20 percent increase in leads from consistent email and social promotion. Treat these as directional and adjust to your baseline.

Step 2: Build your content foundation

1. Define your smallest viable audience. Clarify the problems and triggers of your smallest viable market. For local trades, that might be homeowners within an 8-mile radius with urgent jobs. For B2B, it might be finance managers in UK SaaS firms of 20 to 200 employees.
2. Choose 3 to 5 pillars. Anchor your plan on durable pillars and one larger piece of hero content per quarter. Pillars could be Problem Solving Guides, Case Studies, Buying Advice, and Local Community.
3. Back pillars with topics and keywords. Use audience language and do simple keyword research to validate demand and intent. Prioritise terms you can rank for within 3 to 6 months.
4. Map UK moments. Layer in bank holidays and relevant days from the Link Digital 2025 UK Social Media Content Calendar so your content feels timely and local. Pick only what is relevant to your brand and audience.

Step 3: Choose and customise your template

Use a simple spreadsheet to start, then graduate to a lightweight tool. Good options include the CMI roundup above, the Sprout Social template for collaboration, and TechRepublic’s short list for small teams. For additional inspiration and examples, see this ultimate content calendar template guide.

Your core fields should include:

• Date and channel
• Theme and pillar
• Working title and target keyword
• Format and stage of funnel
• Owner, status and deadline
• Primary KPI
• UK seasonal or local hook
• Repurposing notes and distribution checklist

Tip: add a quick pre-publish checklist for quality, accessibility and technical seo.

Step 4: Design the right content mix

Match your mix to your resources and audience behaviour. Three proven mixes for UK SMEs:

1) Local service business

• Weekly cadence: 1 blog, 3 Instagram posts, 2 Facebook posts, 2 Google Business Profile updates, 1 email per month.
• Formats: before-and-after photo stories, how-to fixes, community highlights, seasonal checklists.
• Boost discovery with local seo tactics and learn to rank higher on google maps.

2) eCommerce SME

• Weekly cadence: 1 buying guide, 1 UGC or creator video, 3 short-form social posts, 1 promotional email, 1 test of paid social with remarketing.
• Formats: comparison guides, seasonal gift edits, unboxings, reviews.
• Double down on visuals and ensure strong image seo for product and article media.

3) B2B professional services

• Weekly cadence: 1 in-depth article, 2 LinkedIn posts, 1 short client story, 1 monthly webinar or clinic, 1 monthly newsletter.
• Formats: checklists, calculators, case studies, webinar snippets.
• Make metadata work harder and consider light automation at scale with this guide to metadata.

Step 5: Set a publishing cadence you can sustain

Consistency beats intensity. A realistic cadence for most small teams:

• Week 1 to 4: Publish one quality blog each week, 3 to 5 social posts, and one email every 2 to 4 weeks.
• Week 5 to 8: Repeat, add one case study or customer story, and test one new format such as a short video.
• Week 9 to 12: Create a quarterly pillar or guide, repurpose best performers, and run a conversion-focused campaign.

Balance your short vs long form content to meet both discovery and conversion goals. Keep posts skimmable, ensure clear calls to action, and include internal links to relevant pages and services.

Step 6: Plan repurposing from day one

Get more value by turning one core piece into many assets:

• Long article to LinkedIn post, Instagram carousel, two reels, one email, and three support posts.
• Webinar to blog summary, clip library, quote graphics and a lead magnet checklist.
• Buying guide to comparison chart, FAQ post and product social series.

Check your rich previews. Use our serp tool to preview titles and descriptions, and make sure social shares look great with correct open graph meta tags.

Step 7: Workflow, governance and quality

Small teams need clarity to move fast:

• Roles: one owner, one editor, one approver. Document who does what and when.
• Briefs: include audience, angle, keyword, outline, examples and CTA.
• Checklists: grammar and clarity, accessibility, links, fact accuracy, on-page SEO, imagery, and structured data if appropriate.
• Quality gates: second pair of eyes before publish, monthly audit of top pages to avoid keyword cannibalisation.

Step 8: Measurement, review and improvement

Build a simple scorecard and review cadence:

• Weekly: publishing hit rate, critical issues, quick wins.
• 30-day: channel KPIs vs target, top 5 pieces by traffic or engagement, search positions for 10 priority keywords.
• 90-day: contribution to pipeline or revenue, content-assisted conversions, CPA trends, content gaps for the next quarter.

If you are publishing but not seeing results, start troubleshooting with these guides on a website not making money or a website not showing on google.

Your 90-day editorial calendar checklist

• Define one business goal per quarter and a primary KPI per channel.
• Pick 3 to 5 content pillars and one quarterly hero piece.
• Validate topics with simple keyword and audience research.
• Add UK bank holidays and relevant awareness days.
• Choose a template and add production and quality fields.
• Set a weekly cadence you can sustain for 12 weeks.
• Plan repurposing and distribution for every core asset.
• Review in 30-day cycles and recalibrate for the next month.

Tools and templates to jump-start

• UK dates and ideas: Link Digital 2025 UK Social Media Content Calendar
• Team-friendly planner: Sprout Social’s social calendar template
• Editorial workflow options: CMI tools and templates, TechRepublic templates
• More examples: Ultimate content calendar template guide

Need a hand

If you want an expert to build and run your plan, our team can design a 90-day calendar, content mix and measurement model aligned to your goals. Explore our content marketing services to get started.