How to build a content plan for your accounting firm | AccountingStack

A content plan is the operational document that sits beneath a content strategy. Where the strategy answers "why" and "what", the plan answers "what specifically", "when", and "who". It turns strategic intention into a schedule you can follow without making fresh decisions every week.

Most accounting firms that start content marketing with good intentions drop it within two to three months because they have not built a plan. When there is no plan, every piece of content requires effort to decide what to write about, when to publish, and what channel to use. That decision overhead accumulates and the content stops.

What a content plan contains

A working plan has five elements:

1. Content calendar — what will be published, on which channel, on which date.
2. Topic list — at least six to eight weeks of specific titles or topics, ideally twelve or more.
3. Format specifications — blog post vs LinkedIn post vs email vs video, and the standard length or format for each.
4. Owner — who is responsible for producing each piece.
5. Status tracking — draft, in review, scheduled, published.

The plan does not need to cover the entire year. A rolling twelve-week plan, reviewed monthly, is easier to maintain and more responsive to timely content opportunities.

Step 1: Define your content mix

Before you plan specific pieces, decide what proportion of your content will serve each purpose.

A useful starting mix for an accounting firm:

• Evergreen educational content (50%) — articles that answer the questions your ideal clients search for, consistently useful regardless of when they are read. "How to calculate your self-assessment tax bill" is evergreen. "What the Autumn Budget 2025 means for your payroll" is not.
• Timely and seasonal content (25%) — content tied to tax deadlines, budget announcements, regulatory changes. Higher short-term traffic potential; less long-term value.
• Brand and positioning content (15%) — case studies, client stories, team introductions, firm values. Builds trust with prospects who have found you through evergreen content.
• Promotional content (10%) — service announcements, events, specific CTAs. Keep this at ten percent; more than that and the channel starts to feel like advertising.

Adjust the mix based on your goals. If a new service is launching, temporarily increase promotional content. If you are building SEO authority, increase evergreen content.

Step 2: Generate your topic list

A topic list is a bank of specific titles or questions you will turn into content. Generate it once a month and keep it rolling.

Sources for topics:

Client questions: what do clients and prospects ask most often? Keep a running list of questions from discovery calls, client emails, and onboarding conversations. Every question is a content topic.

Search autocomplete: type your main keywords into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions and "People Also Ask" questions. These are real questions that real people in your audience are searching.

HMRC and Companies House updates: every regulatory change is a content opportunity. "What the new CGT rates mean for you" or "Making Tax Digital for income tax — what you need to do now" serve a specific informational need at an exact moment.

Competitor and sector content: what are other accounting firms writing about? What content exists in your niche that is outdated, shallow, or missing entirely? Fill those gaps.

Seasonality: the accounting calendar is full of recurring content opportunities — January self-assessment deadline, April year-end, July corporation tax deadlines, autumn budget season. Plan these in advance.

Step 3: Build the calendar

Create a simple spreadsheet or use a planning tool (Notion, Trello, Asana) with columns for: publish date, title/topic, channel, format, word count or length target, owner, and status.

Block out the timely and seasonal dates first — these are fixed by events outside your control. Fill in the remaining slots with evergreen content from your topic list.

For a small firm with a realistic output of one blog post per fortnight and two LinkedIn posts per week:

This cadence is sustainable with four to six hours per week and produces twenty-six blog posts and over a hundred LinkedIn posts per year.

Step 4: Batch and schedule

Writing one piece at a time as the deadline approaches is inefficient. Block a half-day or full day each month for content creation. In one session, you can draft two blog posts, outline the next four LinkedIn posts, and plan the monthly newsletter. Schedule what you can through a scheduling tool (Buffer, Hootsuite, or native scheduling on LinkedIn).

Batching reduces the per-piece mental overhead significantly and makes it easier to maintain consistency when client work is heavy.

Key takeaways

• A content plan is the operational schedule that turns strategy into consistent execution — without it, most content marketing programmes collapse within three months.
• The plan needs five things: a calendar, a topic list, format specifications, an owner, and status tracking.
• A rolling twelve-week plan reviewed monthly is more manageable than an annual plan that quickly becomes out of date.
• Build the topic list from client questions, search autocomplete, regulatory updates, and the seasonal accounting calendar.
• Batch content creation into monthly sessions rather than writing reactively; it saves time and maintains consistency during busy periods.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should we plan content?

A rolling twelve-week horizon with specific titles and dates is ideal. Beyond twelve weeks, you are planning without context that will change. Review and extend monthly.

What tool should we use for the content calendar?

For small firms: a Google Sheets or Notion table is sufficient. For teams: Trello or Asana add status workflows and ownership tracking. Content-specific tools like CoSchedule or Buffer's planning features are useful if you are managing multiple channels.

What if we run out of topics?

Unlikely if you are using client questions and search research actively. Run a "content audit" of competitor sites and note everything they have that you do not. Ask your team what questions they fielded last month. Fresh topics accumulate faster than most firms can publish them.

Can one person produce content for the whole firm?

Yes for a small firm, though the content will be better if multiple experts contribute their knowledge — even if one person does the actual writing. The best accounting content comes from a subject expert briefing a writer, not a writer making it up from research.

Should we use AI to help write content?

AI writing tools can help with drafts, outlines, and first passes. They should not be the voice of the firm — content that sounds generic undermines positioning. Use them for efficiency; edit for voice, accuracy, and originality.