How to Create a Marketing Calendar to Manage Upcoming Content & Promotions
For a business to get the most out of your upcoming content and promotions, you need to know how to create a marketing calendar. A marketing calendar is the guiding force that allows you to look ahead, make appropriate plans, and get everything done in time to fully promote a holiday, event, launch, or campaign. Let’s look at what a marketing calendar is, what it should include, and how to create a marketing calendar that will help your whole team maximize upcoming content and promotions. A marketing calendar is a document that outlines important activities and dates for a business. It is shared with all key stakeholders and highlights dates on the calendar as well as timelines for marketing campaigns and content publication. A marketing calendar may mention: A marketing calendar can simply list important dates. For example, a business may use a marketing calendar to highlight upcoming timely promotions such as when you’re running a limited time offer. Or, it can note important dates that matter to your restaurant, such as adding dates for local teams during football season. But a more valuable marketing calendar also includes details for each important date, such as budget for the campaign, due date to prepare, and ownership over the project or initiative. As you learn how to create a marketing calendar for your business, consider what information you need to include to make the calendar more useful to your team. A marketing calendar isn't just for the marketing team. Your entire organization can use it. When you have an organized, up-to-date, shared calendar, your business can reap a variety of benefits. You can: Now that you know the benefits, let’s look at how to create a marketing calendar. While it’s great to allow multiple teams to use a marketing calendar, it’s best to have one person who owns the calendar. Assign a person who is responsible for leading the calendar creation, keeping the calendar up-to-date, and managing and communicating changes. Any marketing initiative should start by defining what you want to accomplish and who you want to reach. Knowing your goals and audience will help you determine which dates, marketing channels, and promotions should be included on your marketing calendar. As mentioned above, a good marketing calendar is used and useful across multiple departments. A product team may need to be involved to share launch dates, while the sales team may need to know about upcoming promotions and campaigns that the marketing department is planning. Get your team together to lay out the first draft of the year’s marketing calendar. Start by simply noting important dates that relate to: Related: 3 Types of Powerful Holiday Marketing Campaigns to Launch in December Once you have important dates and timelines on the calendar, start to consider what campaigns and promotions you should run. What types of promotions relate to important dates? Add the dates for: From this point, you’ll be able to see what type of content you need for each important date and promotion. You can begin to schedule out content for: When you have a list of important dates, promotions, and content needed, you can begin to create a marketing calendar. One thing to remember as you learn how to create a marketing calendar is that things will change. The key to creating your marketing calendar is knowing that changes will happen. Set expectations and guidelines accordingly. Define a process for notifying departments when dates change, and consider setting up monthly meetings to review the calendar and results of your work and make changes as necessary. Your marketing efforts will be more effective when you have a calendar that allows you to plan ahead and execute on time. Hopefully this guide helped you learn how to create a marketing calendar that will empower you to manage upcoming content and promotions and get more out of every one of your marketing initiatives. If you need help creating a marketing calendar, let’s talk. MyArea Network specializes in helping local businesses reach more customers in their area. We can help you set goals, define your audience, and outline the dates and initiatives most likely to attract your ideal local customers. Schedule your free call with our team today.What’s a Marketing Calendar?
Why You Need a Marketing Calendar
How to Create a Marketing Calendar
#1) Assign an owner.
#2) Define your goals and audience.
#3) Brainstorm important dates with your team.
#4) Identity promotions based on important dates.
#5) Identify the content to go with each promotion.
#6) Build out your calendar.
#7) Prepare for changes.
Let MyArea Network Help You Create a Marketing Calendar
Comments