The 30-Day Content Plan: The Template and the Prompt That Fills It
Stop planning one video at a time. This gives you the 5 steps, the 30-day plan template, and one Claude Code prompt that asks about your business first, then fills in your whole month.
Most people plan content the night before. They open the app, stare at it, and post whatever comes to mind.
Some ask AI for 30 days of content. They get 30 ideas that could belong to anyone, with no plan for which one goes when.
Planning a month comes down to 5 steps. Do them once, and the prompt at the end fills in the whole month.
Step 1. Pick your volume
One a day is 30 videos a month. Pick a number you can keep.
Mine is 35 reels a week. That's my number, not yours. The right number is the one you'll still hit in week four, on a bad week.
A smaller number you keep beats a big one you quit. You can always raise it next month.
Step 2. Pick your split
Most of it teaches. Some builds trust. A little sells.
- Teach: shows your people how to do one thing, or fixes one mistake.
- Trust: shows who you are and why they should listen. Your story, what you believe, behind the scenes, a real result.
- Sell: tells them about your offer. What it is, who it's for, how to get it.
If you don't know where to start, start at 70 teach, 20 trust, 10 sell. Change it as you learn what your people respond to.
You can name your types your own way. My week: 16 teach, 8 diary, 6 story, 5 belief.
Step 3. Pick your buckets
The 3 to 5 topics inside your niche you want to be known for.
Mine all sit under AI for online creator businesses.
Say you teach busy parents to meal prep. Your buckets might be the Sunday prep session, dinners kids will eat, the grocery list, and freezer meals. Every video you make should fit in one of them.
Fewer buckets is better than more. If someone watched 10 of your videos, they should be able to say what you're about.
Step 4. Find what's working
Look at the topics and content formats doing well in your niche right now. Then model the proven ones.
Here's how I'd look.
- Pick 5 to 10 creators your people already follow.
- Open each profile and scroll their last month or two.
- Look for the videos that got way more views than that creator usually gets. A big account isn't proof. A video that beat its creator's normal is.
- For each one, write down two things: the topic, in a few words, and the content format.
A content format is how the video is filmed. Here are 10 to pick from:
- Talking to the camera
- Green screen (you in front of a post, a page or a screenshot)
- A list on screen (the points as text over a simple shot)
- A skit (two of you: one asks, one answers)
- A screen demo (show the thing working on your screen)
- Before and after
- Walk and talk
- Reply to a comment (a real comment on screen, you answer it)
- React (someone else's post on screen, then your take)
- Story time (one moment, told sitting down)
Model means you keep the topic and the format, and say it your own way, with your own stories. Don't copy their words.
Step 5. Script it, then spread it
Every script gets a plan first: the hook, the take, the points.
- The hook: the first line you say. Its only job is to stop the scroll.
- The take: what you think about the topic, in one sentence. Your point of view, not a fact anyone could say.
- The points: the few things you say to back up the take. Two to four is plenty.
Write those three before you write a single line of script. If you can't say the take in one sentence, the video isn't ready.
Then spread your buckets across the week, so you never post the same thing twice in a row.
If three videos about the grocery list go out back to back, the person who finds you that week thinks that's all you do. Mix them, and they see the whole range.
The 30-day plan template
One row is one video. Here's what goes in each column, with one row filled in for that meal prep coach.
| Column | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| day | Day 1 to Day 30 | Day 1 |
| bucket | One of your 3 to 5 buckets | freezer meals |
| split type | Teach, trust or sell (or your own types) | teach |
| topic | What this one video is about, in a few words | what not to freeze |
| content format | One of the 10 formats | A list on screen |
| hook | The first line you say | Stop freezing these. They come out mushy. |
| take | What you think, in one sentence | Most freezer meals fail because of what went in, not how long they sat. |
| points | The few points that back it up | soft vegetables turn to mush / creamy sauces split / cook pasta a little less |
| status | Planned, filmed or posted | planned |
If you'd rather fill it in by hand, put this line at the top of a file called month.csv, and add one row under it for each video:
day,bucket,split type,topic,content format,hook,take,points,status
Or let the prompt fill it for you.
The prompt that fills it
Make a new folder on your computer called month. Open Claude Code in that folder and paste the prompt below. There's nothing to fill in first. It asks you.
Here's what happens. It asks about your niche, your offer, how many videos you can really post, your buckets, and what you've seen working. Then it shows you the plan before it writes it: your total for the month, your buckets, and a starting split you can change. When you say go, it writes every video into month.csv, with no two videos from the same bucket in a row and a hook, take and points for each one.
It won't make up stories, results or numbers for you. Where a video needs your real story, it leaves a blank like [my story: ...] for you to fill in.
Help me plan my next 30 days of content, and save the plan in a file called month.csv in this folder. Do this in 3 parts, in order. PART 1. Ask me these questions in one message, then stop and wait for my answers. 1. My niche: what I want to be known for, and who I help. 2. My offer: what I sell, who it's for, and how people get it. 3. My volume: how many videos I can really post, per day or per week. A number I'll still keep on a bad week. 4. My buckets: the 3 to 5 topics inside my niche I want to be known for. If I'm not sure, I can say so and you'll suggest some. 5. What's working: the topics and content formats I've seen doing well in my niche lately. If I haven't looked yet, I can say so. Also tell me I can add real stories or results of mine you're allowed to use. If I don't, you leave blanks. PART 2. When I answer, show me the plan before you write it. Then stop and wait. - My total: how many videos in the 30 days. If I gave a number per week, work it out for 30 days, rounded down to whole videos. - My buckets. If you suggested any, say they're your picks, not mine. - A starting split, as a count of videos for each type, adding up to my total. Start from 70 teach, 20 trust, 10 sell, unless my answers give you a clear reason to change it. If you change it, say why in one line. teach: shows my people how to do one thing, or fixes one mistake. trust: shows who I am and why to listen: my story, what I believe, behind the scenes, a real result. sell: tells them about my offer: what it is, who it's for, how to get it. - Tell me I can change the counts, or use my own types instead of teach, trust and sell. I'll say go, or change it. PART 3. When I say go, write the whole plan into month.csv. Write the file directly. Don't write or run any code to make it or to check it. Don't stop to ask me anything until it's done. The file: - The first line is exactly: day,bucket,split type,topic,content format,hook,take,points,status - Then one row for each video, in order by day. Put every field in double quotes. Never use a double quote inside a field. - day: Day 1 to Day 30. Spread my videos evenly across the 30 days. If I post more than one a day, each video gets its own row with the same day. - bucket: one of my buckets, spelled the same way every time. Sell videos get a bucket too: the one that video's offer pitch fits best. - split type: one of my types, spelled the same way every time. The counts match the split I OK'd, exactly. - topic: what this one video is about, in a few words. One idea, never just the bucket name. No topic used twice. - content format: how I film it. One name from the list below, spelled exactly, the name only (the part before the colon). - hook: the first line I say on camera, written to stop someone scrolling. Under 15 words. Never a label like "Story time:" in front. - take: what I think about this topic, in one sentence. A point of view, not a fact anyone could say. - points: 2 to 4 short points that back up the take, with " / " between them. - status: planned - Write the hook, take and points the way I'd say them out loud: plain words and short ones, with don't, it's and here's, not do not, it is and here is. The content formats: 1. Talking to the camera 2. Green screen: me in front of a post, a page or a screenshot 3. A list on screen: the points as text over a simple shot 4. A skit: two of me, one asks, one answers 5. A screen demo: show the thing working on my screen 6. Before and after 7. Walk and talk 8. Reply to a comment: a real comment on screen, I answer it 9. React: someone else's post on screen, then my take 10. Story time: one moment, told sitting down How to spread it: - Never put two videos from the same bucket in a row. Every bucket shows up every week, if there are enough videos for that. - Spread the split types too. Never two sell videos in a row, and don't save them all for the end. - Lean on what I said is working. Use those topics and content formats more, for my buckets, in my words. Mix in other formats so it doesn't get stale. - If I said I haven't looked at what's working, plan from my buckets, and tell me at the end that looking will make next month's plan stronger. Never make anything up: - No numbers I didn't give you in the topic, hook, take or points. No stats, percentages, prices, dates, times, amounts, results or counts, in digits or in words (like "ten minutes"). If a hook would count things, like "3 mistakes", say it without the number. - No made-up stories, client wins or quotes. When a video needs my real story, write [my story: what it's about]. A real result: [my result: what to show]. A real comment: [real comment: what kind to look for]. A post to react to: [real post: what kind to look for]. - Use the stories and results I gave you where they fit, only as I gave them. Don't add details, feelings, reasons or an order of events I didn't give you. - Never write that I did, saw, felt or learned something unless I told you. If a row has a blank, the hook, take and points set it up without saying what's in the blank. - Sell videos use only the facts I gave you about my offer. - When you model what's working, keep the topic and the format only. The other creator's times, amounts and results aren't mine. If their video says "I did this in ten minutes", mine doesn't name a time unless I gave you one. - Don't name real people or creators, and don't copy anyone's words. Say it my way. When the file is written, read it back and check it: one row per video, the split counts match, no two rows in a row from the same bucket, every format name spelled exactly, no number I didn't give you. Fix anything that's off. Then tell me it's done. Show me the count for each type and each bucket, and the first 7 rows. Don't paste the whole file.
When it's done, open month.csv in Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers. One row is one video.
Read the takes first. They're Claude's first draft of your opinion. If you don't believe one, change it before you film. Then fill the blanks with what really happened, or swap that row for another topic.
Each day, take that day's row, write the script from its hook, take and points, film it, and change the status.
When the month is done, rename the file and run the prompt again. Tell it which videos did best when it asks what's working.
The limits, honestly
- It can't see what's working on social media. It plans from what you tell it you've seen. Step 4 is your job.
- The plan is only as good as your answers. Vague buckets give you vague topics.
- Fill the [my story: ...] blanks with what really happened, or swap that video. Never film a story you didn't live.
- Check every fact before you film it. Claude can be wrong about how things work in your field.
- If week one is too much, lower your volume and run the prompt again.
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