Template 03 - Planning & Strategy
Free Social Media Marketing Plan Template
RecurPost’s social media marketing plan template sets thirteen fields for one client, across one quarter. The template covers the horizon, the goal, the audience, the channels, the content pillars, the formats, the posting cadence, the owner of each channel, the due date, the status, the budget, the KPIs and the review date. This page shows every field, one filled plan, and the arithmetic that turns a weekly cadence into a scheduled month.
1. THE ARTIFACT
What the Social Media Marketing Plan Template Covers
The template holds thirteen fields, and each one settles a decision the agency and the client have to agree before the first post goes live. Nothing in it is a caption or a date. The plan sets the rules; the month that follows applies them.
The rest of RecurPost’s social media templates cover the narrower jobs that sit underneath this one.
CADENCE IS A RULE
Cadence reads “four Instagram posts a week”. A date reads “Tuesday 14 January, 9am”. The plan stores the rule once and the calendar stores every instance the rule produces, which is why this template stops at cadence and hands the dates to a calendar.
BUILT FOR
A retainer starting where channels, cadence, owners and budget are not yet agreed with the client.
SKIP IF
The client has a signed standing plan and only needs next month dated.
FIELD
WHAT IT DECIDES
WHAT GOES IN IT
01 Horizon
The period the plan governs
A named quarter or a month range
02 Goal
The business outcome the quarter is judged on
One measurable outcome with a number attached
03 Audience
Who the posts are written for
A described segment, not a persona name
04 Channel
Which networks the client posts to this quarter
The list of accounts you will actually publish to
05 Content pillar
The recurring themes every post belongs to
Three to five themes, each usable all quarter
06 Format
The post types each channel uses
Per-channel formats, such as Reels, carousels or offer posts
07 Cadence
How often each channel posts
A number of posts per channel per week
08 Owner
Who runs each channel
One named person per channel, agency side or client side
09 Due date
When the plan itself is signed off
A date before the horizon starts
10 Status
Where the plan sits in its own approval
Draft, in review, or approved
11 Budget
What producing the quarter’s content costs
A monthly or quarterly production figure
12 KPI
The numbers reported against the goal
Two to four metrics you can pull every month
13 Review
When the plan is reopened and changed
A recurring date, usually monthly
2. WORKED EXAMPLE
A Filled Plan for One Client Quarter
A four-person agency onboarding a twelve-location fitness chain fills all thirteen fields in one working session. The plan below is that client’s first quarter, and every number in it carries through the rest of this page.
THE OWNER FIELD
The agency runs Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and the client’s own regional lead keeps Google Business Profile because they hold the location data. A plan that names one owner per channel settles that argument in December instead of in February.
ONE PLAN, TWELVE LOCATIONS
Twelve locations do not become twelve plans. The chain runs one plan with one Google Business Profile row, and the locations sit inside that row. A second plan would split the goal and the budget across documents that then disagree.
FIELD
FILLED VALUE · Q1 FITNESS CHAIN
Horizon
Q1, January to March
Goal
15% more booked class trials from social
Audience
Local members within five miles of each club
Channel
Instagram, Facebook, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn
Content pillar
Member results, class schedule, trainer spotlight, local offers
Format
Reels and carousels on Instagram, single images on Facebook, offer posts on Google Business Profile, text and image posts on LinkedIn
Cadence
Instagram 4 a week, Facebook 3 a week, Google Business Profile 2 a week, LinkedIn 1 a week
Owner
Account manager on Instagram and Facebook, strategist on LinkedIn, the client’s regional lead on Google Business Profile
Due date
20 December, signed off before the quarter opens
Status
Approved
Budget
$1,200 a month for content production
KPI
Booked trials from social, Instagram engagement rate, Google Business Profile calls
Review
First Tuesday of each month
3. THE ARITHMETIC
How a Weekly Cadence Becomes a Scheduled Month
The cadence field turns into a post count before it turns into dates. Four Instagram posts, three Facebook posts, two Google Business Profile posts and one LinkedIn post make ten posts a week. Four weeks of that cadence make a forty-post month across the client’s four accounts.
RecurPost’s social media calendar holds the dated instances the plan produces. The calendar shows a client’s month in Month, Week or List view, and you can move a post to a new time by dragging it, so a public holiday or a client request moves one date without changing the plan’s cadence.
PILLARS ROTATE
Four pillars against a four-post Instagram week means one pillar per post per week, which is why the plan sets pillars and cadence together instead of separately.
WRITE A NUMBER
A cadence written as “post regularly” or “as needed” produces no count, so it cannot be dated and cannot be scheduled. Put a number in the cadence field even when the number is one.
CHANNEL
POSTS / WEEK
4
3
Google Business Profile
2
1
Every week
10
× 4 WEEKS
→
ONE MONTH
40
posts across four accounts
Forty is the number you plan against. You assign each of the forty a date and a content pillar, and the month is built.
4. THE FILE
What You Get, and What Happens When You Submit the Form
RecurPost gives the social media marketing plan template away free. The file is a Google Doc, and you take your own copy of it and edit that copy, so nothing you type reaches anyone else.
The form asks for six details and requires one. Business email address is the only required field, and full name, organization, employee count, country and company URL are optional.
RecurPost sends the template to the business email address you supply, and the confirmation on this page tells you it is on the way.
FORMAT
One Google Doc, thirteen fields, one filled example quarter inside it.
ACCESS
You take your own copy, so your client’s numbers stay in your Drive.
PRICE
Free, one required field, no card.
DOWNLOAD FREE
Download Your Free Template
Business email address is the only required field.
5. THE HANDOFF
Moving an Approved Month Into RecurPost
RecurPost schedules an approved month in one pass with bulk scheduling. You export the dated month as a CSV or Excel file, map each row to its account, check the previews, and set the whole batch live.
THREE DOCUMENTS
The plan document is not the upload file. The plan holds the rules, the calendar holds the dates, and the bulk file is what you build once the dates are set.
BATCH SIZE
~100
RecurPost sets no hard cap on how many posts one upload can carry and recommends keeping a batch to around 100 posts so it processes quickly. The fitness chain’s forty-post January therefore fits inside a single batch, and the full quarter is three uploads rather than thirty.
WHAT IT FITS
40 / 40
Bulk scheduling fits a month that is already written and approved. It does not fit a same-day reply to something trending, because that post does not exist when the batch is built. Reactive posts go in one at a time, and the planned forty go in together.
Fill the thirteen fields once, date the month in the calendar, and set the batch live from one screen.
6. FIT
When This Template Fits, and Which Template to Use Instead
The marketing plan sits above campaigns and calendars. It holds rules that stay true for a quarter, and the other two hold work that happens inside it.
THE LIBRARY
All three sit in RecurPost’s social media templates library alongside audit, analytics and proposal documents.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
USE
WHY
Set a client’s standing channels, pillars, cadence, budget and KPIs for a quarter
This social media marketing plan template
It holds rules, not dates
Plan one time-boxed push with its own objective, assets and result
The social media campaign template
A campaign runs inside the plan rather than instead of it
Date and assign next month’s posts
The social media content calendar template
The calendar holds the instances this plan’s cadence produces
TRY RECURPOST
RecurPost’s Agency plan covers 20 social accounts and includes 3 team members. RecurPost prices an extra teammate at a flat $20 per month on any plan instead of multiplying the plan price by every seat. A quarter planned in this template can therefore run across every client account from one calendar without the plan price moving each time someone joins the team.
RecurPost is the social media management software agencies run their client publishing on.
No credit card required
Frequently Asked Questions
What the template holds, how it reaches you, and how many posts a filled plan produces.
What is in a social media marketing plan template?
A social media marketing plan template sets one client’s horizon, goal, audience, channels, content pillars, formats, cadence, owners, due date, status, budget, KPIs and review date. The thirteen fields cover one client over one quarter. None of them holds a caption or a publish date, because the plan sets rules and the calendar holds the dates those rules produce.
How do I get the template, and what do I receive?
RecurPost sends the social media marketing plan template to the business email address you supply on this page. The file is a Google Doc, it is free, and you take your own copy and edit that. Business email address is the only required field on the form.
How is a marketing plan different from a content calendar?
A social media marketing plan sets the rules for a quarter, and a content calendar holds the dated posts those rules produce. The plan says a client gets four Instagram posts a week. The calendar says which four, on which days, with which caption. You fill the plan once a quarter and the calendar every month.
How many posts a month does a plan like this produce?
A cadence of ten posts a week across four channels fills a forty-post month. The count comes straight out of the cadence field: four Instagram, three Facebook, two Google Business Profile and one LinkedIn post a week, multiplied by four weeks. That figure is what you schedule, report against, and revisit at the monthly review.
Discover your must-have Social Media Templates
The plan sets the rules for the quarter. These are the documents that sit beside it and underneath it.
01
PLANNING
Social Media Strategy
Map a client’s goals, audience, and posting plan.
02
PLANNING
Strategy Presentation
Pitch the strategy to a client in slides.
04
PLANNING
Social Media Audit
Assess a client’s current accounts before you start.
01
CALENDAR
Social Media Content Calendar
Plan a month of posts across networks.
02
CALENDAR
Instagram Content Calendar
Plan an Instagram grid and feed in advance.
03
CALENDAR
Google Posts Calendar
Plan Google Business Profile posts ahead.
01
CAMPAIGN
Social Media Campaign
Build out a time-boxed campaign’s posts.
02
CAMPAIGN
Campaign Proposal
Pitch a campaign to a client for sign-off.
03
CAMPAIGN
Paid Social Media Ads
Plan paid ad sets, audiences, and budgets.
01
REPORTING
Social Media Analytics
Track post and account metrics in one sheet.
02
REPORTING
Social Media Reporting
Package monthly results for a client.