Strategy
Part of How to plan a UK copywriting services strategy before you write the brief
What a 90 day copywriting services plan must settle first
How to set up a 90 day copywriting services plan around owners, decisions and review dates, with an illustrative budget and a clear approval route.
What to take away
- Most teams write the content first and assign an owner later. Name the owner, the decision the asset must support and the review date before any drafting starts.
- A ninety day plan is three review cycles, not one long to-do list. Each 30 day block should end with a decision you can act on.
- Plan the approval route at the same time as the brief. Legal, clinical or compliance sign-off is the most common cause of a missed quarter.
- Budget for the whole cycle, including updates to pages you already publish. New pages are rarely the largest cost.
- If a piece cannot be tied to a decision, a page or a person, cut it before the quarter starts.
The mistake most teams make is treating the ninety day plan as a production schedule. It is a decision schedule. Every asset should exist to help someone choose: a buyer, a regulator, an internal budget holder. If you cannot name the decision, you cannot judge the asset.
That is why the plan needs a spine before it needs a calendar. The wider copywriting services strategy and planning guide for 2027 sets out how objectives, audiences and channels fit together, and this guide applies that spine to a single quarter.
How should you split the ninety days?
Three blocks of thirty days, each ending in a decision.
Ninety days in three blocks
- Days 1-30Decide what you will not write
- Days 31-60Produce the smallest test set
- Days 61-90Measure, then keep, change or stop
Days 1 to 30: decide what you will not write. Audit existing pages, list the ones that already answer a question well, and mark the rest for update or retirement. Agree the approval route for each content type.
Days 31 to 60: produce the smallest set that tests the plan. Two or three substantial pieces plus updates to proven pages usually beats a large new batch.
Days 61 to 90: measure, then decide what continues. A quarter that ends with a clear keep, change or stop list is doing its job.
Who owns each asset and each decision?
One named owner per asset, and one named approver. The owner is accountable for accuracy and for the deadline. The approver is accountable for the claim being defensible.
Owner and approver per asset
- One named owner per asset
- One named approver per asset
- Owner accountable for accuracy and deadline
- Approver accountable for defensible claim
- Check Equality Act 2010 before publication
- Check data broker rules if buying lists
Where content touches recruitment, services or pricing, check it against the Equality Act 2010 guidance before publication, because wording that screens out a protected group creates legal risk as well as reputational risk.
If the plan includes paid distribution or bought lists, the approval route changes. Buying audience data brings duties under the rules for organisations using marketing services of data brokers, so build that check into the plan rather than bolting it on later.
What does a realistic ninety day budget look like?
Here is a labelled illustrative example, not a market rate. Suppose a small England-based firm plans one quarter and allocates £9,000.
Realistic ninety day budget
- Strategy and planning
- £1,200
- Three new long-form pages
- £3,600
- Updates to eight existing pages
- £2,000
- Editing and compliance review
- £1,200
- Measurement and reporting
- £1,000
That split puts roughly a fifth of the budget into planning and review, which is where most quarters slip. A team paying £400 a month for ad hoc copy would spend £1,200 a quarter with no owner, no review date and no record of what changed.
Regulated sectors need a further allowance. If claims about health, finance or safety appear anywhere in the plan, check them against the ASA and CAP AdviceOnline library and add review time accordingly.
How do you keep the plan on track?
Use one page, not a project tool. Columns: asset, owner, decision it supports, approver, publish date, review date. Anything without a review date is not in the plan.
Set the review date at publication, not at the end of the quarter. Pages that are never revisited quietly become the firm's public record.
A template saves time here, and the copywriting services planning template in England gives you the columns and the sign-off fields to fill in, so the first week is spent on decisions rather than formatting.
Common questions
How many assets should a ninety day plan cover?
Fewer than most teams expect. For a small firm, three new pieces and eight updates is a full quarter once approval and measurement are counted. Scale up only when the approval route is proven.
What if the plan needs legal or compliance sign-off?
Build the review into days 1 to 30, not the final week. Agree who signs off, what they need to see and how long they take. If sign-off is uncertain, reduce the number of claims rather than the number of pages.
Can the plan start mid-quarter?
Yes, but keep the three thirty day blocks. Start the clock on the day the plan is agreed, and run the first review thirty days later. Aligning to the calendar quarter matters less than completing the cycle.
When should a piece be cut?
When no one can name the decision it supports, or when the owner and approver are the same person with no capacity to review. Cutting early is cheaper than publishing something you cannot defend.
