FREE CONTENT CALENDAR PLANNER
In my last blog post, I mentioned that this entry would focus on selling products online. However, I’ve decided to pivot a bit. The truth is, you can’t sell anything online without first driving traffic to your shop, and the most effective way to do that? You guessed it—social media.
I must confess, I’ve never been great at posting content consistently on social media. Honestly, I’d almost prefer a trip to the dentist—ugh! As I shared in my first blog post I admitted, “I HATE social media!” Yep, I actually yelled it. I naively believed I could bypass this whole social media thing, relying solely on my carefully crafted titles, descriptions, and keywords. Spoiler alert: that approach didn’t work out so well! My feelings about social media haven’t really shifted, and even my wonderful business partner tends to shy away from that vast, chaotic online world.
But here we are, at the dawn of a new year, and it feels like the right time to embrace change. I thought it might be useful to take you along on this journey with me. While I’ve had a few successful ideas and strategies up my sleeve that are worth expanding on, I recognize my issue lies in consistency. I’m not just talking about posting regularly; it’s also about maintaining a cohesive message and visual style.
“I’m givin' her all she’s got Captain!”
- Scotty from Star Trek
What seems to be working for me are the free downloads linked to my blog posts. The strategy is quite straightforward, and I touched on it in my first blog post: providing valuable advice and sharing helpful content can make all the difference. While it’s essential to showcase my products and patterns, offering insights from my own practical experiences is truly invaluable. After all, everyone is seeking something that can help them. One thing I’ve learned from my early marketing days is to identify the pain point and find ways to alleviate it.
My approach revolves around sharing the journey of building a small but vibrant business. As I navigate through both successes and setbacks, I document my experiences to assist others in steering clear of my mistakes and attaining similar victories. In each blog post, I strive to include a free download that aligns with the message, adding extra value for my readers.
Additionally, I create a reel for Instagram that encapsulates the essence of the blog post, complete with a compelling caption that highlights the key points and includes a call to action directing viewers to the blog for their freebie download. The beauty of reels is their longevity on the platform, which helps keep the blog post alive. My plan is to post a new reel every couple of months, inviting followers to read the blog and download the available resources. Over time, I hope visitors will come to appreciate my products and choose to order from me.
“She’s gonna blow, Captain!”
- Scotty from Star Trek
What hasn’t been working for me lately is my decision not to boost my posts through paid ads. To be honest, I opted to allocate my marketing budget to holiday markets and craft fair fees instead. In doing so, I realized I’ve strayed from my own advice. Previously, when onboarding new clients for my graphic design business, I always made it a point to discuss their marketing budget upfront. Without that, we often found ourselves limited in vision and planning.
About a year ago, I was boosting posts more consistently, which resulted in better engagement. But skipping the planning of a proper marketing budget has certainly posed a setback. If I had thought ahead, I believe I could have managed both the holiday markets and boosted my posts effectively.
Speaking of holiday markets and craft fairs—are they worth it? Well, that really varies based on the specific market and the products you’re offering. Finding the right fair can be both costly and time-consuming. Last year, we participated in two local holiday markets, one in late October and another in November, and our experiences couldn't have been more different. But I digress—this topic deserves its own blog post, and I’d love to dive deeper into it in the future.
“I made a thing!”
- Jeremy Clarkston (Clarkston Farm)
To help me stay on track and establish a solid plan and budget for the year ahead, I’ve created a “Content Calendar” Planner for 2025. And the best part? It’s a free download that you can use too!
To kick things off, I took a moment to reflect on the past year. I asked myself some key questions: Do we have a specific rhythm or season for creating? What has been our most successful product, and is that truly our core offering? How frequently do I want to post on social media, and how can I create a schedule to hold myself accountable?
The planner features a year-long calendar packed with tips and strategies to get you started and outline what a functional plan can look like. You’ll find ideas for what to post, when to post, and insights into other marketing areas to focus on while creating content.
Each month is laid out on a full page, complete with holidays you might want to target or consider in your planning. Plus, there’s a section for notes and creative prompts in the “Creative Juice” bar at the bottom to spark inspiration. I sincerely hope this planner can assist you just as it’s helping me get organized!
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
-Yogi Berra
As I began my planning for 2025, I took a moment to reflect on the past year. One thing became clear: all of our products spring from a single source – our wall calendar. By committing to creating twelve unique pieces of art for the calendar, we can efficiently streamline the development of our other products. This revelation has guided us to focus our efforts around this central theme, allowing us to structure a schedule for creating artwork, documenting our creative journey, sharing updates on social media, and expanding our mailing list.
To keep ourselves on track, we need the calendar completed and printed by the end of June at the latest, so we can begin promoting it in July and continue through December. The next logical question was how to divide our time between creating and promoting the art throughout the year.
Our plan is straightforward: from January to May, we’ll dedicate our time to creating the artwork for the calendar. During these months, we’ll document our process, share works in progress, discuss our motivations and inspirations, provide “how-to” insights, release new patterns, survey color choices, and reveal the tools and software we use.
From May to June, we’ll focus on finalizing the calendar and our other products. This year, we’re simplifying our design line to just four patterns for our personalized note cards, folded note cards, notepads, notebooks, and our best-selling weekly planner. Our social media posts during this period will highlight our products in use, email marketing efforts, carefully planned reels, works in progress, and insights into our handmade production process.
Then comes the sales phase from July to December. We’ll repurpose social posts with seasonal backgrounds, emphasize the calendar, showcase patterns in our home decor, and demonstrate the tools and software we rely on. We’ll take full advantage of reels, email blasts, and boost our most successful designs. I’m sure as we navigate through this calendar, more ideas will emerge to enhance our posts, and I’m excited to document this journey with you.
“I need to wrap up this mess before anyone gets hurt.”
- Charlie N. Holmberg
Don't hesitate—take the leap and download my "Content Calendar" planner to kickstart your journey! Inside, you’ll find practical tips to help you get started, along with insights into how we discovered our own creative rhythm for planning social media posts. While I’ve included some bullet points on what to post, remember that your approach will ultimately depend on your unique product or service. I also offer some gentle advice on how to determine the right platforms for you.
Even though I focus on just Facebook and Instagram, I've learned that these platforms are distinct enough that you can't simply copy and paste your Instagram posts to Facebook without some adaptation.
If you haven't already, I encourage you to begin building an email list. The beauty of having your own email list is that you truly own it—no one can take that away from you! In the not-so-distant past, many faced the challenge of having their social media accounts shut down, which highlights the importance of diversifying your outreach. Remember, when you post on platforms like Meta, according to their Terms and Conditions, you lose ownership of that content. So, keep as much of your valuable content in your own hands as possible.
Here’s a summary:
- Download the Content Calendar and print it out
- Spread it out and look at the big picture
- The start planning content from your business you can post
- Plan to post 2 to 3 times a month
- Mix posts with reels, stories, and photo posts
- Write captions with a call to action
- Build your email list (that may be a blog post for the future)
Get your Content Calendar Planner for 2025 for FREE right here.
Download it right here👇
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