How to Plan a Seasonal Content Calendar

Alex Hormozi's rule is the warning a seasonal calendar most needs to hear: "Boring done consistently beats brilliance done once," per Hormozi. Seasonal content is the brilliance-done-once temptation, a flurry of holiday posts that spikes and fades, while the evergreen base is the boring consistency that actually compounds. A seasonal calendar's real job is to capture timely moments without letting them crowd out the steady content that grows the account.

Done well, seasonal planning is two disciplines: lead time, so holiday and launch content is produced before the rush instead of scrambled the night before, and proportion, so the seasonal spikes ride on top of a consistent evergreen base rather than replacing it. This guide is built around both, plus the part most brands skip: putting your own angle on a moment everyone else is posting about too.

The two seasonal traps: scramble and over-index

Seasonal content fails in two predictable ways. The first is the scramble: realizing a few days before the holiday that you have no content for it, then posting something rushed and forgettable. The second, subtler one is over-indexing: filling the calendar with so much seasonal content that the evergreen base, the content that compounds year-round, gets crowded out, leaving a feed that goes quiet the moment the season ends.

The fix is lead time and proportion. Map the moments a quarter ahead and produce them before the rush, and cap seasonal content so it layers on top of a steady evergreen cadence rather than replacing it. A seasonal spike is worth catching; it is not worth sacrificing the base that grows the account the other fifty weeks of the year.

Step by step

1. 01

   Step 1. Map the moments a quarter ahead with lead times

   Mark every relevant date on a quarterly calendar: major holidays, industry events, launches, and the cultural and unofficial moments that fit your brand. Then mark the lead time backward from each: concept three to four weeks out, film two weeks out, schedule one week out. The lead time is the entire difference between planned seasonal content and a last-minute scramble that produces something forgettable.

   Deliverable

   A quarterly calendar with each moment and its production lead time.

2. 02

   Step 2. Set the seasonal-to-evergreen ratio

   Cap seasonal content so it rides on top of the base rather than replacing it: roughly seventy percent evergreen, thirty percent seasonal and timely is a sane default. Evergreen compounds and carries the account between moments; seasonal spikes and then fades. Protecting the evergreen majority is what keeps the feed alive after the holiday passes, instead of going quiet until the next one.

   Deliverable

   A capped seasonal share that protects the evergreen base.

3. 03

   Step 3. Put your brand's twist on shared moments

   Everyone posts about the same holidays, so a generic seasonal post disappears into the feed. "We try to lean into the trend, but always with a Ramp twist," per Tucker (marketingbrew.com): take the shared moment and run it through your specific angle, so your holiday content is recognizably yours and not interchangeable with every other brand chasing the same date.

   Deliverable

   A brand-specific angle on each seasonal moment.

4. 04

   Step 4. Batch-produce by type, not by date

   Group production by content type and setup, not by posting date: if you need five December videos, film them in one late-November session. Map the workflow on the calendar, concept, script, film, edit, schedule, so quality stays consistent and nothing is made at the last minute. Batching is what makes the lead time from step one actually achievable rather than aspirational.

   Deliverable

   A batch production schedule grouped by setup.

5. 05

   Step 5. Review each quarter and build the playbook

   After each quarter, review which seasonal moments earned engagement and which felt forced. Sara Karten's rule keeps it honest: "Pick the two or three numbers that change what you'd do tomorrow," per Karten (milkkarten.net). Document which holidays worked, which to drop, and which you missed, and fold it into next year's template, so the calendar improves every cycle into an institutional playbook.

   Deliverable

   A documented seasonal playbook updated each quarter.

What a seasonal calendar should produce

Timely content that lands because it was planned and branded, riding on top of an evergreen base that never goes quiet. The signals are the same as always, watch time and sends, which Adam Mosseri named as "Watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach," per Mosseri (instagram.com); a good seasonal post earns them by being a specific take on a shared moment, not a generic holiday graphic. The win is catching the spike without betting the account on it.

And the evergreen base matters more as reach thins. Buffer's 2026 State of Social Media Engagement report (buffer.com), built on 52 million posts across ten platforms, recorded a 24% year-over-year drop in median engagement, and Metricool's 2026 Social Media Study (metricool.com), built on 39,762,999 posts, recorded a 35% drop in Reels reach. When each post earns less, a feed that depends on a few seasonal spikes is fragile; one that compounds on evergreen and adds seasonal on top is durable.

The failure modes

The last-minute scramble. No lead time means rushed, forgettable seasonal content; plan a quarter ahead and produce before the rush.

Over-indexing on seasonal. Too much timely content crowds out the evergreen base that compounds year-round.

Generic holiday posts. A moment everyone posts about needs your specific angle, or it disappears into the feed.

Producing by date. Filming each seasonal video the week it posts guarantees a scramble; batch by type instead.

What to track

Engagement on seasonal versus evergreen posts, to keep the ratio honest and learn which moments are worth it.

Lead time achieved versus planned, the read on whether the calendar is actually preventing scrambles.

Per-moment performance year over year, the basis for the institutional playbook.

Where a planning-first tool fits

The calendar and the batching live in any scheduler; the discipline is what matters. Where a planning tool helps is filling the seasonal slots fast and on-brand: turning a moment and a brand profile into scripted, shot-planned posts so the lead time is realistic and the brand twist is built in rather than improvised under deadline. A planning-first tool that turns a brand profile into scripts is one way to do that. The method is the point; the tool is the speed dial on it. Superdirector is the planning-first tool I built around turning ideas into scripts and shot plans.

Disclosure by Bell Chen, founder of Superdirector: the planning features referenced above are part of the product I build. The procedure on this page is platform-agnostic and the tool choice is a workflow preference, not a quality requirement; the consistency principle is sourced from Alex Hormozi, the brand-twist principle from Alex Tucker of Ramp via Marketing Brew, the measurement discipline from Sara Karten, the reach signals from Adam Mosseri, and the reach benchmarks from the Buffer and Metricool reports, all cited inline.

Frequently asked questions