Editorial plan example: steps and essential tools

To build an effective digital marketing strategy, it is vital to rely on a robust editorial strategy that matches your business objectives. For true consistency, having a clear editorial plan example is indispensable.

Editorial plan example: steps and essential tools

An editorial plan sets out all planned publishing actions. It acts as a roadmap for coordinating teams, maintaining regular publication, and ensuring every piece of content supports your goals for visibility, engagement and conversion. This document brings together your key messages, formats, channels, timings and editorial responsibilities. By integrating data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics (via a 360° SEO SaaS solution), you can monitor editorial performance in real time.

How do you create an editorial plan example that works?

Key steps: understanding your audience, objectives and requirements

Developing an editorial plan example starts with a detailed analysis of your target audience and their online behaviour. It’s essential to set clear objectives (such as brand awareness or lead generation) and use reliable data to spot keyword opportunities.

Selecting the right topics and formats

Once you’ve identified your needs, choose the most relevant topics. Using a mix of formats—blog articles, infographics, videos, social media posts—helps you reach a wider audience.

Structuring and organising your content

Structure comes from a well-planned editorial calendar, which schedules publications according to seasonality and business priorities.

Editorial plan example: choosing the right editorial calendar (free template, Excel, dedicated tool...)

There are various editorial plan templates depending on your content needs. A typical editorial plan example includes publication dates, topics, formats, responsible team members and channels. For social media, consistency and the right tone are crucial. A dedicated plan helps you anticipate key dates and vary your formats. While several free editorial calendar templates exist, the best approach is to tailor them to your organisation, ideally with a dedicated editorial planning module for advanced customisation.

What is the difference between an editorial plan and a content plan?

Editorial plans and content plans are often confused, but they serve different, complementary purposes. The editorial plan sets the strategic framework: it defines objectives (SEO, brand awareness, conversion), target audiences, editorial pillars, tone, formats, distribution channels and the main themes to cover over time. It answers the why and what. The content plan, meanwhile, is operational: it translates this strategy into specific content to produce, with a detailed calendar, topics, keywords, formats, responsibilities and publication dates. It answers how, when and by whom. In short, the editorial plan provides vision and overall coherence, while the content plan ensures practical execution.

A practical editorial plan example over three months

1. Define your SEO objectives

 
• Increase qualified organic traffic
 
• Rank for both transactional and informational keywords
 
• Strengthen your site’s topical authority
 
• Generate leads with high-value content

2. Targeting & personas

 
• Main persona: decision-maker or end user in active research phase
 
• Maturity level: information → comparison → decision
 
• Search intent: informational, commercial, transactional

3. Editorial pillars (content themes)

 
• Guides & educational content (top of funnel)
 
• Comparisons & solutions (middle of funnel)
 
• Expert pages & conversion (bottom of funnel)
 
• News & trends (SEO freshness)

4. Site structure & SEO clusters

Pillar page: “comprehensive guide to [main topic]”

Supporting articles linked by internal links:

 
• Definitions / key concepts
 
• Methods / best practices
 
• Tools & comparisons
 
• Case studies / examples

5. Editorial schedule

Month 1

 
• Pillar article (3,000 words): comprehensive guide to [topic]
 
• Supporting article: what is [main keyword]?
 
• Supporting article: five mistakes to avoid in [topic]

Month 2

 
• Supporting article: how to choose [solution]?
 
• Comparison: [solution A] vs [solution B]
 
• Expert article: checklist for successful [key action]

Month 3

 
• Client case study
 
• Trends article: [year] trends in [topic]
 
• Conversion-optimised page: [service / product]

6. SEO optimisation for each content

 
• 1 main keyword + 3–5 secondary keywords
 
• Clear heading structure (H1–H3)
 
• Rich data (FAQ, HowTo where relevant)
 
• Consistent internal linking to the pillar page
 
• CTA tailored to search intent

7. Key performance indicators (KPIs)

 
• SEO rankings by keyword
 
• Organic traffic per page
 
• Click-through rate (CTR)
 
• Conversions / leads generated
 
• Time on page & bounce rate

Balancing editorial work between AI and humans

By 2026, a strong editorial plan example will be built on SEO Next Gen: a smart balance between human expertise and automation through artificial intelligence. The human editorial team focuses on strategic content: the homepage, main category pages, “best sellers” product articles and high-value or topical blog posts. This ensures consistency, brand alignment and editorial quality for key pages.

To cover all keyword opportunities and semantic variations, personalised AI takes over: it enables rapid, large-scale generation of all complementary content, such as semantic clusters for category pages, long-tail product descriptions, local or marketplace pages, and updating existing articles. Unlike generic AI, which produces standardised, undifferentiated text, Incremys’ personalised AI draws on brand identity, precise briefs and controlled data to deliver unique, ready-to-use content that meets Google’s requirements. This combination speeds up production, maximises SEO coverage and allows your team to focus on strategy, while automating low-value tasks.

To further develop your approach and stay up to date, explore all resources on the Incremys blog.