To make a Notion content request form, create a Requests database with properties for the idea, goal, format, audience and deadline, add a Form view, and share the link with the people who ask for content. Each submission becomes a row you can review. Approved requests then move onto your editorial calendar, either in the same database or a related Calendar database.
The form is the easy part. Most guides skip the harder call: whether requests and published pieces share one database.
What a Notion content request form should ask
A Notion content request form should capture what the requester needs, why it matters and when they need it, in as few questions as possible. The Content Marketing Institute’s prioritization template puts it plainly: keep the form short, one page at the most, if possible.
CMI asks “What is your idea/need?”, which business objective it fits, where it sits in the sales funnel and what happens if it’s not produced. The last two do the filtering. They make the requester argue for the piece.
In Notion, each question becomes a property:
| Question | Notion property | Why it’s there |
|---|---|---|
| What do you need? | Title | A short working title for the piece |
| What’s the goal? | Select | Ties the request to an objective |
| Format | Select: Blog post, Newsletter, Social, Video | Routes it to the right person |
| Audience or funnel stage | Select | Top, middle or bottom of funnel |
| What research do you already have? | Text (long answer) | Links, data, customer quotes |
| What happens if we don’t make it? | Text | A quick priority check |
| Needed by | Date | Feeds the calendar |
| Your name and team | Text | Who to ask about it |
Mark the title, goal and Needed by date as required. Notion’s forms help page lists Required, Description and Long answer as options on each question, so use the description to show a good example answer.
How to build the content request form in Notion
You build the form as a view of the Requests database. Open the database, click + next to your views and choose Form, or type /form on a new page. The step-by-step version is in how to create a form in Notion.
- Create the Requests database with the properties from the table.
- Add a Form view and add one question per property. Notion sets each question’s type to match the property type.
- Show the Format question as a dropdown if you have many formats.
- In the Submit screen settings, turn on the email copy of each submission.
- Share the link and pin it somewhere your team already looks, such as the marketing wiki page.
Two catches come straight from Notion’s forms guide. Forms only work in the original database, so if Form is missing from the menu, you’re in a linked view. And you can only build or edit forms on desktop or the web, not on mobile.
Skip the templates. Notion’s help page says to build your own form from scratch so the responses come to you.
One database or two: connecting requests to the editorial calendar
You can run requests and the editorial calendar in one database or in two related ones. One database is simpler; two keep your calendar free of ideas nobody approved. Pick based on how many requests you reject.
| Setup | How it works | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| One database | Requests and scheduled pieces are the same rows. A Status property moves them from New to Scheduled to Published. | A small team that approves most requests |
| Two databases | Requests stays an inbox. Approved items get a page in a Content Calendar database, linked by a Relation property. | Many requesters, many rejections, or a calendar the whole company views |
The one-database setup
Add a Status property. Notion’s property reference groups status tags into To-do, In Progress and Complete. A workable set is New and Approved under To-do, Drafting and Scheduled under In Progress, and Published and Declined under Complete.
Then add a second Date property called Publish date, separate from the requester’s Needed by date. Notion’s calendar view guide says a calendar needs a Date property, and when there are several you choose one under Layout, then Show calendar by. Point the calendar at Publish date, so only scheduled pieces show up.
Filter the calendar view to hide Declined items, and add a Board view grouped by Status for weekly triage.
The two-database setup
Create a Content Calendar database with a Title, Publish date, Owner (Person), Status and a Relation property pointing to Requests. The Relation lets one calendar piece link back to the request it came from, or to several requests that ask for the same thing.
To move an approved request across, open it and add a related Calendar page. On a paid plan, a database automation can do it for you: trigger on Status edited to Approved, then use the Add page to action to create the calendar page.
Assigning and notifying the editor
Notion database automations can route each new request, but most of them need a paid plan. The automations help page says Free plan users can create Slack notification automations and no other kinds.
Notion’s own forms guide uses a content request as its example. When the content needed property is set to Blog post, one automation sets Assigned to a person. A second automation then sends a Slack notification or an email when Assigned to changes.
Before you build that:
- Send mail to needs a Gmail account, and emails may take up to two minutes to arrive.
- Automations can’t be triggered by other automations, so a chain like the one above can stall. Test it with a real submission.
- The email copy from the form’s Submit screen works on any plan, so use it if you’re on Free.
Sharing the form with requesters
How you share the form decides who can ask for content. Notion offers three choices: anyone in your workspace with the link, anyone on the web with the link, or no access.
Your own team. Share with the workspace. For a form built on an existing database, add a Created by property so you can see who submitted each request.
Sales, clients or freelancers outside the workspace. Share with anyone on the web. Notion makes those responses automatically anonymous, which is why the form above asks for a name and team. Requesters don’t need a Notion account; this explainer covers why.
When the native form isn’t enough
The native form gets limiting once you want different questions per format. A video request needs footage and length; a blog request needs a keyword and an expert to quote. Notion’s conditional logic does that, but only on Business and Enterprise plans.
My take: on Free or Plus, don’t build one giant form. Make a short form per format, all feeding the same Requests database. The forms guide confirms several forms can share one database.
If you need branching on a cheaper plan, nDBForms is one option. Its logic rules show or hide questions on its Pro plan and work with any Notion plan, and it has a Notion relation question type, so a requester can pick the campaign a piece belongs to. The limit: logic and file uploads aren’t on its Free plan, which allows 3 forms and 100 responses a month. More on the trade-offs in Notion forms conditional logic, or start from a ready-made layout in our form templates.
FAQ
Can a Notion content request form ask different questions for blog posts and videos?
Only on Notion’s Business and Enterprise plans, where conditional logic works on multiple choice questions. On other plans, keep one short form or make a separate form per format that feeds the same database.
Do stakeholders need a Notion account to submit a content request?
Not if you share the form with Anyone on the web with link. Those responses are automatically anonymous, so add a name or email question if you need to know who asked.
How do I see content requests on a calendar in Notion?
Add a Date property such as Publish date, then add a Calendar view to the database. If the database has several dates, pick the one to use under Layout, Show calendar by.
Can Notion automatically assign new content requests to an editor?
Yes, on a paid plan. A database automation can set the Assigned to property when a request comes in, and a second one can send a Slack message or email. The Free plan only allows Slack notification automations.