Every successful business is always working on developing new and improved ways of conducting business. If you've never thought about keeping a marketing calendar or never heard of a marketing calendar, then you need to learn about this marketing strategy to make it work for your business.
It doesn't matter how small your business might be or if you have a larger enterprise, a marketing calendar can help you immensely when it comes to attracting and retaining new customers. A marketing calendar can offer you many benefits that you should take advantage of.
The more you learn about marketing calendars and how you can expand your business and make it enticing for new customers, the more successful you may be.
What is a marketing calendar?
A marketing calendar is a type of digital marketing calendar that provides you with a detailed written plan for your marketing initiatives. These can be marketing plans that you have already implemented, campaigns that have been tried and were proven to be unsuccessful, and plans that are being researched and could possibly be used in the future.
Strategic planning is essential for any business to achieve its goals, and a marketing plan calendar encourages organization, allowing you to compile all data regarding marketing and keep it in one place.
A marketing calendar isn't just for you. It's for everyone involved in making decisions about marketing activities and growing the company, as well as those responsible for new business plans.
There isn't one type of marketing campaign calendar, as different businesses might find different types more useful. Using multiple marketing calendars for each initiative can help you stay organized and on track. Here's an overview of the different kinds available, so you can choose to create a smarter marketing calendar.
Editorial
An editorial calendar can make keeping up with important events easy. By keeping track of all of your events and key dates in one place, everyone involved will be aware of these dates, so they won't ever worry about missing deadlines.
Using a blogging editorial calendar template, investing in software for this kind of content, or creating a calendar from scratch can be extremely helpful.
Social media
A social media marketing calendar enables you to do several things. First of all, it allows you to write down which social media posts you plan to manage on different days.
Social media calendar templates also allow you to determine what information your social media followers are most interested in and make any necessary changes based on the results.
Advertising
An advertising calendar focuses on all types of ads that you would like to experiment with in the future, what hasn't been successful in the past, and more.
Special events
Most businesses plan special events, whether they're fundraisers or giveaways. A special events calendar encourages you to keep track of all the important dates of upcoming marketing activities.
Email marketing
An email marketing calendar enables you to keep track of ideas, dates to send out email marketing campaigns, and more. You can include an email marketing calendar as part of your overarching content marketing calendar or keep it separate, depending on your business's needs and available resources.
Reasons to use a marketing calendar
There are many benefits to using marketing calendars at your business. Here are some of the most popular reasons businesses use them.
Stay on top of important dates
Running a business takes extensive planning, meetings, and other important marketing tasks. Creating and maintaining a marketing calendar can help you stay on top of significant dates so you won't miss any appointments, calls, emails, and so forth.
Remain organized
Sometimes things can get hectic when you're running a business, and it's easy to quickly jot something down on random pieces of paper that you could misplace. Maintaining a marketing calendar ensures you keep all relevant information in one place, so you and your employees can easily access it on demand.
Unify your marketing team
A well-kept marketing calendar empowers you to unify your entire team, ensuring that team members remain aware of everything going on with marketing for the company and more.
Identify content gaps
If content gaps have been a problem and you're not sure how to solve the issue, then a marketing calendar can help you identify them. As a result, you can make the necessary changes.
Get a holistic overview of campaigns
A calendar can provide you with a holistic overview of your marketing campaigns, so you can identify possible problems, things that need to be upgraded or kept the same, and more.
Ensure consistency
Consistency is key to running a winning marketing campaign, and a marketing calendar can help ensure consistency on a regular basis.
Regularly publish content
A marketing calendar enables you to create and keep track of the content you plan to publish and on which dates ahead of time. That way, on each day you're planning to publish the content, all you have to do is transfer the pre-written post, and you'll be done in no time.
It doesn't have to be a tedious task to create a calendar for your marketing strategy; it can be fun if you go about it the right way. Here are some important tips for creating a detailed marketing calendar.
Decide your format
Marketing calendars can be created in different ways, depending on your needs and personal preferences.
- Using spreadsheets on platforms such as Microsoft Word and Google Sheets are popular for formatting your calendar.
- Software tools are an extremely popular choice, and marketing gurus like Mailchimp can provide you with a straightforward and convenient calendar to use.
- Marketing calendar templates are also valuable, but they don't always provide the comprehensive analytics of marketing software.
Identify your goals
Before you start creating your calendar and marketing strategy, you need to determine what your goals are. Once you've made that determination, you'll be amazed at how helpful your marketing calendar can be in assisting you accomplish your goals.
Think of campaign ideas
Coming up with effective marketing campaign ideas is vital to ensuring you have content regularly and that aligns with other campaigns taking place at the same time. Successful campaigns can help you achieve your business-related goals faster.
Appoint team members
Even though you might like to, you can't handle everything alone. By appointing team members, you can easily delegate certain tasks when you need to, so they can help you create an amazing marketing calendar that'll exceed everyone's expectations.
Determine a publishing schedule
By determining a publishing schedule ahead of time, you know exactly what type of content you need to have available on which days. If you've assigned creating content to others, that information will also be available to them in the calendar. As a result, you can support your marketing efforts and team.
Creating a publishing schedule also ensures that content is published when it's most appropriate. For example, you may publish a blog and social media post about recycling on Earth Day.
Create content
Of course, you'll need content to include in your calendar. As mentioned, the type of content you can create includes blogs, social media posts, whitepapers, and so forth.
Top elements to include in a marketing calendar
There are many elements you can include in a marketing calendar, but the following are the most important:
- Project name: No marketing calendar is complete without a catchy project name. You and your team can come up with one together.
- Important dates: Every well-run business needs to keep important dates on their marketing calendar, since it's the best way to ensure you don't miss any events.
- Upcoming campaigns: Campaigns are a huge marketing tool, and planning for upcoming campaigns and keeping track of them on your marketing calendar is smart.
- Status: Knowing the status of your marketing plan at all times is important, so be sure to include this when creating yours.
What to consider when building your marketing calendar
When building a marketing calendar, you need to take several things into consideration. First of all, creating an effective calendar requires strategic thinking since you don't want to throw anything together that won't help you achieve your short-term and long-term goals.
In addition to taking your time to build the ultimate calendar, you need to review it regularly. By carefully scrutinizing your marketing activities regularly, you can identify ways to improve aspects that need to be enhanced and make any other necessary changes.
Running a business without a marketing calendar is like navigating a city without a map. It helps you see the bigger picture and stay a step ahead of market changes and customer needs.
A well-planned marketing calendar gives you the strategic edge you need to turn good timing into better results. Here's how a marketing calendar helps you stay ahead:
Anticipate industry trends before your competitors do
When you have your marketing calendar laid out in front of you, you can get a bird's eye view of your industry's landscape.
Take the holiday shopping season, for instance. While most retailers start their Christmas promotions in November, your calendar might show you that online searches for gift ideas start ramping up in September.
This insight lets you get ahead of the game, maybe launching your gift guides early or starting your email campaign before the holiday noise gets too loud.
Plan product launches or promotions for maximum impact
Instead of scrambling at the last minute to think of ways to announce a launch or promotion, a marketing calendar allows you to plan every step in advance. Let's say you're releasing a new fitness app. Your calendar helps you schedule everything, from teaser social media posts and influencer partnerships to your email sequence and press releases.
You might notice that gym memberships spike in January, so you plan your launch for December to catch that New Year's resolution wave. This kind of strategic timing can make the difference between a good launch and a great one.
Measure and learn from past campaigns to build better ones
Your marketing calendar is also a valuable record of what you've already done. When you track your campaigns over time, patterns start emerging. Maybe you notice your email campaigns get better engagement from your target audience on Tuesday mornings, or your social media posts perform best during lunch hours.
For example, a coffee shop might discover that its Instagram posts get the most likes at 7 AM when people are thinking about their morning coffee. These insights help you fine-tune your timing and content for better results next time around.
Make your marketing calendar work for you
Marketing calendars have many benefits. From allowing you to ensure your team is organized to making it easy to stay on top of important upcoming events, marketing calendars are a must-have.
Now that you've learned all there is to know about marketing calendars and how they can help grow your business and promote customer retention, it's time to start building one.
If you don't know where to begin, Mailchimp's comprehensive marketing calendar software lets you easily view all the social media and email campaigns you have lined up. Plus, you can effortlessly track changes and verify that campaigns are going as planned. Creating a marketing calendar doesn't have to be tedious or time consuming, so let us help you today.
Key Takeaways
- A marketing calendar keeps all your marketing activities organized in one place - from social media posts and email campaigns to product launches and special events.
- Track past campaign performance, spot content gaps, and maintain consistency across all marketing channels to drive better results.
- Plan ahead strategically by mapping out important dates, campaign timelines, and content schedules, helping you stay ahead of industry trends.
- Keep your entire marketing team aligned on goals, deadlines, and responsibilities while making it easier to adjust strategies based on what's working.