Content calendar prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when you have one campaign (a launch, a season, an event) and need a two- or four-week plan of emails and posts around it. Left to itself, the AI tends to schedule an email every day, repeat the same "it's here" message and invent a discount to fill the gaps. This prompt sets the start date, the channels, a cap on emails and the one offer you actually have, and asks for one row per item so you can paste the plan into a sheet.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are the campaign planner for [BUSINESS], planning content that our own team will write and post. Context: Our audience is [AUDIENCE]. The campaign is [CAMPAIGN], starting [START DATE]. The only offer is: [OFFER]. Don't invent other discounts, deadlines, reviews or claims. Task: Plan a [LENGTH] calendar that mixes email with [CHANNELS]. Send no more than 2 emails a week. Give every item a different angle, such as the launch, how it's made, how to use it, gifting and answers to customer questions. Format: A table with the columns Date, Channel, Topic, Draft Copy (one or two sentences) and Status (always "Draft"). One row per item, in date order.
Fill in the blanks
[BUSINESS]- Your business name and what you sell.
[AUDIENCE]- Who the campaign is for, in a sentence.
[CAMPAIGN]- The one theme: a product launch, a seasonal push, an event. One theme per calendar keeps it focused.
[START DATE]- The first day, with the weekday, such as "Monday, November 2."
[OFFER]- The real offer and its terms, or "none." The AI may mention nothing else.
[LENGTH]- How long the plan runs, such as "two-week."
[CHANNELS]- The other places you post, such as Instagram and Facebook.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Build an n8n AI Agent That Plans Your Content Calendar. Harbor & Pine Coffee Roasters is the made-up online coffee brand in the content calendar agent lesson. It's launching its Holiday Ember Blend and wants two weeks of emails and posts, using the lesson's own campaign details.
Role: You are the campaign planner for Harbor & Pine Coffee Roasters, a small online coffee brand that roasts in small batches, planning content that our own team will write and post. Context: Our audience is home coffee drinkers and people buying coffee as a gift. The campaign is the launch of our Holiday Ember Blend, starting Monday, November 2. The only offer is: free shipping on orders over $35. Don't invent other discounts, deadlines, reviews or claims. Task: Plan a two-week calendar that mixes email with Instagram and Facebook posts. Send no more than 2 emails a week. Give every item a different angle, such as the launch, how it's made, how to use it, gifting and answers to customer questions. Format: A table with the columns Date, Channel, Topic, Draft Copy (one or two sentences) and Status (always "Draft"). One row per item, in date order.
What a good answer looks like
- Dates that start on your start date and run in order, with no more than 2 emails in any week.
- A different angle on each row, not three "Holiday Ember is here" posts in a row.
- Your offer worded the same way every time it appears, and no other offers.
- Draft Copy of one or two sentences: a starting point for the writer, not finished posts.
- Status set to Draft on every row, so nothing looks approved before a person has read it.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Count the emails in each week. Models lose count; if a week has three, ask it to turn one into a social post.
- Check every promise: each mention of shipping, price, stock or dates must match your Context. Delete invented extras like "ends Sunday" or "back by popular demand."
- Check the dates on a real calendar. AI sometimes pairs a date with the wrong weekday or skips a day.
- Look for claims your brand doesn't make, such as health or energy claims for coffee, and remove them.
Why this prompt works
The email cap and the "different angle" rule are prompt constraints aimed at the two most common calendar problems: too many emails and the same message on repeat. The fixed columns make the answer a content calendar you can paste into Google Sheets, sort and assign.
Practice it in the free lesson
Build an n8n AI Agent That Plans Your Content Calendar: Build an AI agent for Harbor & Pine Coffee Roasters that turns one campaign theme into a two-week email and content calendar in Google Sheets — chat trigger, AI Agent, system prompt, model, memory, and the Sheets tool. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of n8n, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format
Terms used here
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Frequently asked questions
- Can an AI agent save the calendar for me?
- Yes. The content calendar agent lesson builds an n8n agent with nearly this prompt as its system message and a Google Sheets tool that saves each item as a row when you ask.