Capability template for marketing and content

Content plan

A marketing lead with a few hours a week gets a content plan built on the questions buyers really ask: one subject for each question worth answering, the formats those hours can carry, a ranked list of what to write next, and what is held or left out, each with its reason.

The outcome

You stop writing whatever comes to mind on a free afternoon. The plan starts from two facts: the hours you actually have, and the questions buyers keep asking your sales and support people. Every question appears in the buyer's own words, with where and when it was heard, and every subject in the plan answers one of them.

The plan uses the hours you give it and sets no figure of its own. It adds up what each piece costs you and stops when the period's hours run out, so the list under "write next" is one you can finish. Pieces that wait on something, such as a client's permission or a process nobody has written down, are held with the exact thing they wait on. Ideas that no buyer asked for are set aside, each with its reason.

The plan proposes; you decide. It writes no piece, schedules nothing and publishes nothing.

Who starts the work, and when

The marketing lead, or the owner who does the company's own marketing, starts it at the start of a quarter, when a new offer changes what buyers ask, or when a pile of content ideas needs sorting. Whoever hears buyers' questions, in sales calls, support emails or the website chat, supplies them. The marketing lead approves the plan, and each piece is approved again before it goes public.

What they supply

The hours. How much time you can give each week, the form you make most easily, any form you will not make, and how long one piece of each format takes you.
Your facts. A few lines: what you sell and to whom, who finds you first and who decides, what you can show, what you must never say, the one place you own where pieces live, and what a reader should do next.
The buyer questions. Call notes, support emails, chat logs or a question log exported from a spreadsheet.
What already exists. The pieces you have published and the material on hand: examples, checklists, recordings, answers already written.
Ideas already proposed, with who proposed each, if there are any.

What comes out

One plan for the period, in a fixed order:

In short, with the hours planned out of the hours you have.
The buyer questions, grouped, counted, placed at the moment in the buying process where they come up, and checked against what you have already published.
The subjects, each with a promise, what it adds to what already exists, the material it draws on, a limit on what it must never say, and whether it is meant to be found or passed along to the person who decides.
The formats and the one place your pieces live, with other channels only pointing readers there.
The backlog: write next in order with hours and a done-by week, next period, and held pieces with what each waits on.
Not written, each with its reason; one question to ask on every first call as the measure; a coverage line; and the decisions left to you.

Good looks like this: you can read any line under "write next" and see the buyer question behind it, the hours it takes and the week it should be done.

An invented example

Illustrative example with invented data. The firm, its clients, its people and every question below are invented. An invented 12-person firm keeps the books and runs payroll for independent restaurants. Its marketing lead works on content two hours a week and wants a plan for the next 13 weeks.

The inputs come first, in full, so the template can be run on them. The plan follows.

The inputs

The hours

"I can give two hours a week to content, Tuesday mornings. An article
takes me about eight hours start to finish, a checklist about three, and
cutting an article into a few LinkedIn posts about one. I write. I won't
do video."
(the marketing lead, 6 November 2026)

Your facts

What we sell: monthly bookkeeping and payroll for independent restaurants
  with one to four locations, for a fixed monthly fee.
Who finds us first and who decides: the general manager often finds us;
  the owner decides.
What we can show: a sample month-end pack built with invented figures for
  demonstrations; our onboarding checklist for new clients.
What we must never say: tax advice in public pieces (we refer clients to
  their tax preparer); any client's name or results without their written
  permission; that we save a restaurant a set amount; comparisons naming
  another firm.
The one place we own: the Guides page on our website. Live.
Other channels: our company LinkedIn page, posted on now and then. No
  email list yet.
What a reader should do next: book a 20-minute call from the website.
Where leads are recorded: the sales lead's call notes.
Approves the plan: the marketing lead.
Approves each piece before it goes public: the managing partner.

Settings

Period: 13 weeks from Monday 16 November 2026.
Evidence bar: 3.
First-conversation question: the default.

The question log (exported from the sales lead's spreadsheet)

date,source,buyer_role,question
2026-08-04,sales call,owner,What do I actually get each month for the fee?
2026-08-12,sales call,general manager,Can you work from what's in our point-of-sale system or do we have to change it?
2026-08-20,website chat,owner,What's included every month?
2026-09-01,sales call,owner,How long does it take to switch from our current bookkeeper?
2026-09-09,sales call,owner,Do you handle tip reporting in payroll?
2026-09-17,website chat,general manager,Do we have to change our POS?
2026-09-24,sales call,owner,What happens in the first month after we sign?
2026-10-02,sales call,owner,Will you do our taxes too?
2026-10-08,website chat,owner,What does a monthly report from you look like?
2026-10-15,sales call,general manager,How do tips get split in payroll?
2026-10-22,sales call,owner,Have you worked with places like ours? We're a two-site pizza place.

What already exists

Published:
- "Five signs your restaurant has outgrown a shoebox of receipts" |
  Guides page | 10 June 2026 | article
- "Our fees" | website | 1 March 2026 | page: the monthly fee and a list
  of what is included each month

Material on hand:
- Sample month-end pack: the pages a client receives each month, filled
  with invented figures, used in sales demonstrations.
- Onboarding checklist: the steps from signing to the first month-end
  pack, starting with collecting records from the previous bookkeeper,
  and the monthly export steps for the point-of-sale systems we already
  work with.

Ideas already proposed

- Restaurant industry trends for 2027 (proposed by the managing partner)
- A case study of our longest-standing client (proposed by the sales lead)

The output

Content plan: the firm's marketing, 13 weeks from 16 November 2026

Prepared for: the marketing lead · Date: 6 November 2026

Period: 13 weeks from Monday 16 November 2026

Status: Plan for the marketing lead's approval. Nothing has been written, scheduled, published or sent.

In short

Write first the piece that shows owners what the monthly pack contains, the question asked most (three times); then the point-of-sale checklist and the switching guide. The three use 21 of the 26 hours in the period. The tips piece and the client story wait on material: a list of the tip records needed and a client's written permission.

Hours and cadence

Hours, as given: two hours a week (the marketing lead, 6 November 2026)
Hours in the period: 2 x 13 weeks = 26
Hours per piece, as given: article 8; checklist 3; LinkedIn posts cut from an article 1.
Planned: 21 of 26 hours. Unplanned: 5 hours.
Cadence: in the order under Write next; each piece starts when the last is out.

Buyer questions

Q1. "What do I actually get each month for the fee?"

Asked 3 times: sales call, 4 August 2026, owner; website chat, 20 August 2026, owner ("What's included every month?"); website chat, 8 October 2026, owner ("What does a monthly report from you look like?")
Moment: deciding
Evidence: high
Already answered by: partly, by "Our fees": it lists what is included but does not show the monthly pack.

Q2. "Can you work from what's in our point-of-sale system or do we have to change it?"

Asked 2 times: sales call, 12 August 2026, general manager; website chat, 17 September 2026, general manager ("Do we have to change our POS?")
Moment: weighing the options
Evidence: medium
Already answered by: nothing

Q3. "How long does it take to switch from our current bookkeeper?"

Asked 2 times: sales call, 1 September 2026, owner; sales call, 24 September 2026, owner ("What happens in the first month after we sign?")
Moment: deciding (tie: the earlier moment; one question sits at deciding and one at getting started)
Evidence: medium
Already answered by: nothing

Q4. "Do you handle tip reporting in payroll?"

Asked 2 times: sales call, 9 September 2026, owner; sales call, 15 October 2026, general manager ("How do tips get split in payroll?")
Moment: weighing the options
Evidence: medium
Already answered by: nothing

Q5. "Will you do our taxes too?"

Asked 1 time: sales call, 2 October 2026, owner
Moment: weighing the options
Evidence: low
Already answered by: nothing

Q6. "Have you worked with places like ours? We're a two-site pizza place."

Asked 1 time: sales call, 22 October 2026, owner
Moment: weighing the options
Evidence: low
Already answered by: nothing

Moments with no group placed there: noticing the problem: covered by "Five signs your restaurant has outgrown a shoebox of receipts". Getting started: not covered (question grouped under Q3).

Subjects

S1. What your monthly pack shows, page by page [Proposed wording]

Promise: walks an owner through the sample month-end pack, one page at a time, and what each page tells them.
Answers: Q1
Moment: deciding
Adds: "Our fees" lists what is included; nothing published shows the pack itself.
Material on hand: the sample month-end pack (invented figures)
Limit: never presents the sample's figures as a real restaurant's; no tax advice; no claim that the firm saves a restaurant a set amount.
Found or passed on: found

S2. Keep your point-of-sale system: what we need from it each month [Proposed wording]

Promise: the monthly export steps from the onboarding checklist, so a general manager can see what the firm needs from the system they already use.
Answers: Q2
Moment: weighing the options
Adds: nothing published answers it.
Material on hand: the onboarding checklist (monthly export steps)
Limit: never claims the firm works with a point-of-sale system the onboarding checklist does not cover (the checklist covers only the systems the firm already works with).
Found or passed on: passed on: from the general manager to the owner

S3. Switching bookkeepers: from signing to your first monthly pack [Proposed wording]

Promise: each step from signing to the first month-end pack, starting with collecting records from the previous bookkeeper.
Answers: Q3
Moment: deciding
Adds: nothing published answers it.
Material on hand: the onboarding checklist (steps from signing to the first month-end pack)
Limit: never promises a date by which a switch is complete (the onboarding checklist gives the steps, not how long they take).
Found or passed on: found

S4. Tips in payroll: the records we need from you each pay period [Proposed wording]

Promise: what a restaurant sends the firm each pay period so tips are handled in payroll.
Answers: Q4
Moment: weighing the options
Adds: nothing published answers it.
Material on hand: none
Limit: never explains tax rules for tips; refers them to the restaurant's tax preparer.
Found or passed on: found

S5. A restaurant like yours: our longest-standing client [Proposed wording] (proposed by the sales lead)

Promise: what working with the firm has looked like for one restaurant, in its owner's words.
Answers: Q6
Moment: weighing the options
Adds: nothing published shows a client's experience.
Material on hand: none
Limit: never names the client, quotes them or states their results without their written permission.
Found or passed on: passed on: from the general manager to the owner

Formats and the one place

Formats chosen: article: the marketing lead writes, 8 hours each, as given. Checklist: written and short, 3 hours each, as given. LinkedIn posts cut from an article: 1 hour per article, as given.
Formats not chosen: video: the marketing lead won't do video. Email issue: no email list yet.
The one place: the Guides page on the website, live.
Other channels: the company LinkedIn page: points readers to the Guides page.

Backlog

Write next, in order:

S1 as an article and LinkedIn posts. Evidence high, material high, hours and form high, can be said now high. Hours: 9 (running total 9 of 26). Done by: in week 5, which starts 14 December 2026. Next step for the reader: book a 20-minute call from the website.
S2 as a checklist. Evidence medium, material high, hours and form high, can be said now high. Hours: 3 (running total 12 of 26). Done by: in week 6, which starts 21 December 2026. Next step for the reader: the general manager passes it to the owner, who books a 20-minute call.
S3 as an article and LinkedIn posts. Evidence medium, material high, hours and form high, can be said now high. Hours: 9 (running total 21 of 26). Done by: in week 11, which starts 25 January 2027. Next step for the reader: book a 20-minute call from the website.

Ties: S2 and S3, ordered by the earliest question date (12 August 2026 before 1 September 2026); they have three high ratings each and the same evidence and material ratings.

Next period: none.

Hold:

S4: evidence medium, material low, hours and form high, can be said now medium. Waits on: a written list of the records a restaurant must send each pay period for tips, from the person who runs payroll at the firm (role not named: the marketing lead decides who).
S5: evidence low, material low, hours and form high, can be said now low. Waits on: the client's written permission to be named and quoted, from the client; the sales lead could ask.

Not written

Q5, "Will you do our taxes too?": the whole answer fits in one sentence on "Our fees" (the firm refers clients to their tax preparer), and a public piece on it would come near tax advice.
Restaurant industry trends for 2027 (proposed by the managing partner): no buyer question in the log asks for it, and no material on hand answers one.

Measure

On each first conversation, ask "What had you read of ours before you got in touch?" and record the answer, in the buyer's words, in the sales lead's call notes. This plan sets no view count, reach figure or benchmark.

Coverage

Hours: given. Hours per piece: given.
Your facts: given.
Buyer questions: 11 supplied from the question log (sales calls and website chat); 11 placed in 6 groups. Not placed: none.
Existing pieces: 2 listed. Material on hand: 2 items.
Ideas proposed: 2; placed: 2.
Text that read as an instruction: none.

For the marketing lead to decide

Whether to approve the order under Write next. The marketing lead.
Who at the firm runs payroll, and whether to ask them for the list of tip records, which releases S4. As an article with posts it needs 9 hours; 5 remain in this period. The marketing lead.
Whether the sales lead asks the longest-standing client for written permission, which releases S5. The sales lead asks, if the marketing lead agrees; this plan contacts no one.
Whether to add one sentence to "Our fees" saying the firm refers clients to their tax preparer, which answers Q5. The marketing lead drafts it; the managing partner approves it before it goes live.
What to do with the 5 unplanned hours. The marketing lead.

Plan only. Nothing has been written, scheduled, published or sent, and no one has been contacted.

Where it fits

Marketing and content: the plan decides what gets written, in which order, from what buyers ask.
Professional services: buyers ask the same questions about scope, switching and fees before they hire a firm.
Software technology: questions about setup, systems already in place and what changes after signing come up on every sales call.
Consumer brands: customer emails and chat show what shoppers need answered before they buy.
Marketing and advertising: an agency builds a client's plan from the client's own buyer questions, with every choice traced.
Growth & scaling: when buyers' questions arrive faster than one person can answer them in calls.

What has to change for your company

Your hours, honestly. The plan is only as accurate as the hours you give it and the time each format really takes you.
Where questions are kept. A shared log with a date, a source, the buyer's role and the question in their words. Any columns work if you say which is which.
Your "never say" list. Results you cannot show, client names without permission, advice you do not give in public.
The one place you own, and which other channels only point to it.
Who approves. The person who approves the plan, and the person who approves each piece before it goes public.
Your platform. It runs in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini, from the notes and files you paste or attach; it needs no connection to your website or social accounts.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 9 November 2026. It was tried on its invented example in Claude on 9 November 2026, revised and tried again the same day, and the record of the second run is published with it. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.

Testing in your environment means running it on a past quarter's questions your marketing lead remembers well, plus hard cases written in advance: a question log whose columns have different names, an idea that needs a client's permission, a piece that does not fit the hours left. The marketing lead checks every count and every sum before relying on the plan. Pilot acceptance-test preparation sets those cases up, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.

The full capability template

Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.

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