LinkedIn Content Calendar: How to Plan Content That Attracts B2B Clients [+ Template]

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If you’re trying to grow your personal or company brand, publishing content consistently on LinkedIn is the way to go.

You can reach a big pool of potential B2B clients who also visit the network every day.

And beyond that, you can also build relationships that will boost your brand.

But as you and I know, publishing content consistently on LinkedIn can often fall down the list of priorities.

In the midst of busy workdays, writing a LinkedIn post may be the last thing you want to do. 

I’ve seen many executives who rarely post on LinkedIn, even when their business could benefit from it.

This is where a LinkedIn content calendar can aid your publishing efforts.

And in this guide, I’ll walk you through all you need to know to create an effective LinkedIn content calendar.

Plus, I’ll also share a LinkedIn content calendar template you can adapt to your needs.

Let’s dive in.

How to create a LinkedIn content calendar

Here are critical steps to follow to build a LinkedIn content calendar that aids your publishing efforts:

1. Define target audience

Even though LinkedIn is a professional network, users still have different interests.

This means your posts can’t and won’t appeal to every professional on LinkedIn.

So, you have to define LinkedIn users who can likely become your customers.

Defining your target audience will help you plan posts that can educate and convince them to check your business out.

However, if you already have a buyer persona for your business, it should work for LinkedIn content.

If not, you can define your audience on LinkedIn by specifying details such as:

• Name
• Age
• Job
• Income
• Level of expertise
• Location
• Topics of interest
• Common problems at work

You can also find more information from the people who already follow your account. So, dive into your LinkedIn analytics to learn more about your current audience.

Create a document and put these details in it. This way, you can always refer to the document.

Once you understand the person to create content for, define what you want to achieve.

2. Set LinkedIn content goals

Put simply, content goals are the results you want to achieve with your LinkedIn content.

Examples of LinkedIn content goals include:

• Brand awareness
• Increase in LinkedIn followers
• Increase in LinkedIn profile visits
• Increase in service inquiries
• Website traffic
• Lead generation
• Sales

There’s one main reason I think you should set goals.

Goals dictate the topics you talk about and how often you post on LinkedIn.

To set effective LinkedIn content goals, you can use the SMART framework, which means your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

For example, a SMART goal for a LinkedIn account with 1,000 followers is to increase followers by 100 within a month. 

As a writer, I often set goals to increase the number of profile visits and service inquiries because it’s relevant to my work.

Of course, you can set multiple goals for a month and plan content pieces for each goal.

3. Determine LinkedIn content publishing frequency

How many posts do you think you need to achieve your LinkedIn goals?

Once you answer this question, you can determine how often you’ll post every week.

When people talk about posting frequency, they often refer to LinkedIn posts.

But I believe one other thing you need to pay attention to is comments on other people’s posts.

Sometimes, commenting on other people’s posts can give you a better reach than your LinkedIn post.

And those people may want to reciprocate by commenting on your posts.

But even if they don’t, many people will still take note of your LinkedIn activities.

So, as you plan for LinkedIn posts, also plan to drop insightful comments.

4. Determine the best days and time to post

The best time to publish posts is when your ideal audience is on LinkedIn.

Because audiences differ for various businesses, the best time to post will also differ for each business.

Once you determine the best time and post at that time, you’ll attract more views and engagement from your audience.

This initial burst of engagement tells LinkedIn to promote your post to more people like your audience.

Without this engagement, your post reach can quickly die out.

So, you want many people to see and engage with your posts soon after you post them.

The first step to determining the best time to post is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What time are they likely to be on LinkedIn?

From here, you can experiment a few times to find the right spot.

Another way to find the best time is to check studies online about the best times to post on LinkedIn.

Finally, if you use a social media management tool, you can get time suggestions for optimum performance.

Whatever method you use, you have to check your post performance and adjust accordingly to find the best times for your brand.  

5. Define LinkedIn content types for the month

Posting the same type of content every day can bore your audience really fast. 

To avoid this, you have to mix up your content types to engage your audience.

Some content types you can use for your LinkedIn content include:

• Personal experiences
• Thought experiments
• Studies
• User-generated content (UGC)
• Testimonials
• Share a blog post
• Polls
• Tutorials

These content ideas bring your LinkedIn strategy to life.

One way is that you can use content types that align with your goals. Then, you can engage collaborators long before your publish date.

For example, multi-image and video posts may need work from designers and video creators. With content ideas laid out, these collaborators can start working on content before the publishing date.

The best content types for your post will often depend on your goals.

For example, if lead generation is one of your goals, content ideas like UGC and testimonials can help achieve that.

If your goal is to drive web traffic, then you can share blog posts.

Content types give you many posting options, and you should explore them.

LinkedIn content calendar template

Creating a LinkedIn content calendar from scratch can take some time.

But you can drastically cut down this time with a LinkedIn content calendar template.

A template provides the initial setup where you can enter important details about your LinkedIn content.

Better still, you can tweak a template to meet your unique needs.

To get you started, I’ve created a LinkedIn content calendar template for Google Sheets.

This template has 2 pages.

On the first page, you’ll see an overview of the calendar.

Here, you can enter details such as:

• Post idea
• Post type
• Description

On the second page, there’s a table where you can enter more details about each post.

These details include:

• Title
• Goal
• Caption
• Hashtags
• Media
• Creator
• Status

You can access the LinkedIn content calendar template here.

Note: You can’t edit the template directly. So, you have to create a copy of the template to edit it. To do that, click File and then Make a copy.

Once you make a copy, you can edit the template to fit your needs.

LinkedIn content calendar tools to plan content 

While the LinkedIn content calendar template can meet most of your content needs, some workflows require a more robust tool.

For example, if you need more robust collaboration features and the ability to schedule posts on multiple social media platforms, a social media management tool can fit your needs better.

These LinkedIn schedulers let you publish on LinkedIn personal profiles and company pages.

Here are 3 great options:

Vista social

Vista Social is one of the best social media management tools I’ve tested.

And one of the reasons for that is its robust calendar.

First, the calendar lets you see monthly and weekly views of scheduled posts. You can also see previews of posts for each day.

To get more post ideas, Vista Social shows holidays across religions and countries. 

Then, you can download your calendar to send to an external party.

Vista Social also lets you schedule posts on LinkedIn company pages and personal profiles.

Apart from the calendar features, you can schedule posts on multiple social media platforms, collaborate with team members, and set up a link in bio page.

If you’d like to see the extensive features of this tool, read my Vista Social review.

Pallyy

Pallyy is a robust and affordable tool, especially for solopreneurs.

You get the content calendar in both the weekly and monthly views. You can also find national holidays across various countries to get post ideas.

Beside the calendar, you can see the media gallery. From the gallery, you can drag media to a day on the calendar to schedule posts.

Then, Pallyy suggests the best time to post based on your post performance history. You also get filters to find posts according to various criteria.

Finally, you can share your calendar with external parties.

Beyond the calendar features, you also get a post composer, AI caption generator, and a link in bio tool.

To see more of what this tool offers, read my Pallyy review.

ContentStudio

ContentStudio has a planner to plan your content over a period. You can also see weekly and monthly views of your content calendar.

Then, there are the status and details of posts.

Before scheduling posts, ContentStudio suggests the best time to post for the best performance on LinkedIn.

Plus, ContentStudio has filters to easily find posts according to various criteria.

Beyond the content calendar, you can find content to schedule, write captions with AI caption generator, and collaborate with team members.

Read my ContentStudio review to see more of its features.

Why create a LinkedIn content calendar?

Here are 4 reasons to create a LinkedIn content calendar:

• Publish content consistently: To reach your ideal audience and stay on their mind, you have to show up regularly on LinkedIn. A LinkedIn content calendar helps you achieve this.
• Organize content: If you publish LinkedIn content whenever you feel like it, it’s easy to lose track of how your posts fit into your strategy. But with a calendar, you can strategize and organize posts for weeks.
• Collaborate with team members: If you work with team members or clients, a calendar can be your workspace. For example, you can assign tasks to team members and request post approvals from clients when scheduling posts on LinkedIn.
• Maintain voice tone: When you’re rushing to put out a LinkedIn post, brand voice may be the least of your worries. But if you plan with a calendar, it’s easier to scrutinize brand voice and other elements of your post.

Since you’ve seen how to create a LinkedIn content calendar, you can start seeing these benefits for your brand.

Conclusion 

A LinkedIn content calendar can help organize your content schedule and encourage consistent publishing.

What’s the next step to take?

Follow the steps in this guide to create a LinkedIn content calendar on your favorite work tool.

Alternatively, use the template or any of the social media management tools.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about LinkedIn content calendars 

How often should I post on LinkedIn to stay visible and grow my audience?

The number of times to post on LinkedIn depends on your goals on LinkedIn. Generally, posting three to five times weekly should work, but the quality of your posts matters as much as your posting frequency.

What types of content should I include in my LinkedIn content calendar?

Some types of content to have in your LinkedIn content calendar include text posts, carousels, videos, polls, and articles.

How do I decide what to post on LinkedIn each day or week?

Think of what you’re trying to achieve with your post. For example, if you’re trying to show expertise, then post about practical topics in your industry. You can also have a note where you jot down post ideas.

What is the best time to post on LinkedIn to get the best engagement?

The best time to post is when your ideal audience is active on LinkedIn. One way to determine this is to watch when other professionals post and comment on LinkedIn.

How far in advance should I plan my LinkedIn content calendar?

You can plan your content calendar for one to two weeks, but you should review your post schedule every week.

Which tools can I use to plan, schedule, and manage LinkedIn posts in advance?

Vista Social and Pallyy are solid tools that can help you publish content on company pages and personal profiles.

How do I measure whether my LinkedIn content calendar is working?

One way to measure your calendar performance is the number of posts you publish weekly and how consistently you publish them. Another way to measure the effectiveness of your calendar is your post performance. Ultimately, your post performance should also increase.

How do I adapt my content calendar for a personal LinkedIn profile versus a company page?

In terms of the number of posts, you can publish more on personal profiles. Then, posts on personal profiles should include more personal experiences to show real-life expertise.