How to Plan Your Busy Season Content During Your Slow Season
Every business and organization runs on a rhythm. Some seasons are full and fast paced. Others are lighter and give you more breathing room. If you’ve been in business for at least a year, you’ve probably started to notice your own patterns. When inquiries spike. When things level out. When your calendar feels packed and when it finally opens up again.
For a lot of brick and mortar businesses in tourist towns like Chelan, things kick into high gear around Memorial Day and stay busy through summer. In marketing, it often flips. Summer can feel a bit quieter, while the shoulder seasons tend to bring more focus and follow through since everyone has their heads on straight again. The exact timing looks different for everyone, but the cycle is almost always there.
One of the most helpful shifts I’ve made in my own work is planning my marketing tasks around those natural seasons instead of fighting them. My capacity is not the same every month, and trying to treat it like it is only leads to stress and burnout. When you match your marketing workflow to your actual bandwidth, it gets more effective and a whole lot more sustainable.
Here’s a few tips for how to use your slower season to get your busy season content ready ahead of time:
Plan content themes instead of individual posts.
Trying to pre-write every single post or newsletter months ahead usually backfires. It takes too long and the content often feels stiff and irrelevant by the time you publish it.
Themes are lighter and more flexible. Choose three to five repeatable categories like FAQs, client stories, process education, seasonal reminders, or behind the scenes. Write those themes down and map them to your busy season months. When it’s time to create, you’re not starting from zero. You’re filling in a lane that already exists, which speeds things up and keeps your messaging balanced.
Work on the heavy-lift content first.
Some content types take more focus, planning, and creative energy. Video, long form blogs, case studies, and educational carousels usually fall into this bucket.
Use your slower season to outline, script, or partially produce these heavier pieces. Even getting rough drafts or bullet outlines done now saves real time later. This is also the best window to improve your systems, learn a new tool, or refine your process so execution is faster when your schedule fills up.
Batch your evergreen content.
Evergreen content is anything you can reuse at any time without needing updates. Think core services, common questions, testimonials, brand story posts, or educational basics.
Batching means creating multiple pieces in one sitting while the topic is fresh in your mind. Aim for small batches, not giant marathons. Three emails. Five captions. Two blogs. Store them in a simple folder or content bank. When your busy season hits, you will have ready-to-use material you can drop in without extra pressure.
Even half finished drafts are useful. A headline and bullet points are easier to finish later than starting from a blank page.
Build a plan that fits your actual capacity
Your busy season marketing plan should match your available time and energy, not your ideal scenario. Overcommitting is one of the biggest reasons marketing plans fall apart.
Decide your minimum consistent output first. For example, one email per month and one social post per week. Lock that in as your baseline. Anything above that is a bonus. A simple monthly checklist or lightweight calendar is usually more effective than a complex system you avoid using.
Consistency beats volume when your schedule is tight.
Leave Room for Flexibility
Planning ahead is meant to reduce pressure, not create more of it. Your plan should guide you, not trap you.
Leave open slots for timely updates, new offers, or real world moments you want to share. When your core content is already prepared, it is much easier to adjust without feeling behind. Think of your plan as a framework you can move within, not a script you’re required to follow word for word.
Instead of waiting and hoping your slower season fills up, you can use it to set your future self up for an easier busy season. A little preparation now keeps your marketing consistent, reduces last minute scrambling, and frees up more of your attention for the work and people right in front of you.
