How to plan a month of posts around one idea.

Pick one idea for the month, write it as a one-sentence opinion, and make every post that month serve it. "Evenings are for putting the phone down" is an idea. "New autumn candles" is a product list.

Here is why one idea works better than eight, how to choose it, and a candle brand's month built around one sentence.

One idea, done completely

Every extra message makes a month harder to remember. A new product, a sale, a second theme, a different customer: each one pulls the posts another way. One idea, said eight times in eight ways, is what people remember.

A bakery that spends October on "good bread takes two days" shows the starter, the overnight rise, the early bake and a customer's Sunday toast. By the end of the month, people who have never been inside the shop know what it stands for.

Write it as an opinion

An opinion is something a person could disagree with. "Skincare is three steps, not nine." "A good coat should last ten years." That is what makes it stick: it gives people something to agree with, and agreeing with you is how they remember you.

A skincare shop that writes "three steps, not nine" has its month: the three products, a customer's shelf with space on it, the owner's own morning in five minutes. "Discover our range" gives nobody anything to agree with.

How to choose the month's idea

Look in three places. What customers keep asking you, which you find by sorting your comments and messages. What the season brings. And something you believe about your trade that you have never said out loud.

Then check that it is specific: a moment in people's lives, not a general wish. "Evenings are for putting the phone down" is a moment. "Relax more" is a wish.

The month's idea is not your brand sentence. The sentence about who you are for stays for years. The month's opinion changes every month and sits inside it. A florist's brand sentence stays the same all year, while its idea for February is "flowers are not only for couples".

A candle brand's month

Take "evenings are for putting the phone down". Two posts a week gives you eight, and they spread across the five kinds of post without extra planning.

The product post is the candle lit on a side table, the phone face down beside it. The proof post is a customer's photo of her evening, in her words. The process post is the owner pouring wax after the shop has closed. The people post is the owner's own evening, phone in a drawer. The point-of-view post is the opinion itself, said plainly in one caption.

That makes five. The other three are the candle in a different room, a second customer, and the evening routine step by step. The month is planned before a single photo has been taken.

Let it be for someone

An opinion will not suit everyone, and that is the point. Work that is made for one kind of person feels personal. Work made to suit everyone feels like it was made for a meeting.

The candle brand's month will not appeal to someone shopping for a party candle, and it does not need to. The people who put their phone down in the evening will feel the month was written for them, and they are the ones who buy.

What CP3® does here

Market Trends shows what your audience is searching for this month, scored for fit with your brand, and every trend comes with a campaign angle, which makes it a good place to look for the month's idea. Branded Content turns your brand profile and the trend you pick into ideas, and drafts each post onto your calendar with a visual direction, a caption direction and a date, twenty a month on Professional. The opinion is yours to write, and you shape each caption to it before you approve.