7 Factors to Consider When Creating a Marketing Calendar

Adekunle Oludele
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1.1K Views
Feb 10, 2023

It's no secret that the best marketing campaigns are planned out in advance. The same goes for your brand's overall marketing strategy, which should include a calendar for pitching stories to journalists, hosting events, and more. If you're just starting out (or have been doing this for years), here are some factors to consider when creating your own marketing calendar:

Evaluate Your Audience

The first step in creating a marketing calendar is to evaluate your audience. Who are your customers? What do they want or need? How can you provide value to them? How much time and money do they have to spend on products like yours?

What are the interests of this group, both in terms of hobbies and professional pursuits? Are there trends within the industry that could be leveraged for greater interest in what you offer (for example, "green" technology)? What other companies offer similar products or services as yours—and how do they differ from yours?

It's also important to consider who influences your target market: Which social media influencers could be tapped for promotion of new products or services; which journalists might cover exciting developments at work; which bloggers write about topics related to what you sell.

Plan for the Long-Term

As you prepare your marketing calendar, it's important to take a long-term view of your business. That means considering the goals and trends that will affect your industry over the next 12 months—and possibly even beyond.

It's also helpful to know what you want to achieve within each quarter of that time period. For example, if one of your main goals is to increase sales leads by 20% by year's end, then it makes sense for this goal to be reflected in every quarter's plan (e.g., "In Q1, we will increase sales leads by 10%, then again in Q2, by another 10%, etc.").

Finally, keep in mind where you'd like things like traffic and revenue levels to be five years from now as well as ten years from now as part of this exercise so that everything aligns with those objectives too!

Consider the Medium

When you're creating a marketing calendar, it's important to consider the medium. The right medium for your message will help you reach and engage with your target audience in ways that are more effective than other options.

Consider how your audience is most likely to receive your message. For example, if you're selling software online and targeting small businesses in North America, email marketing may be an ideal way for you to connect with these potential customers. But if your goal is instead focused on driving awareness of new products or services (and not actually selling anything), then social media platforms like Facebook might make more sense because they can provide similar reach at a lower cost than email lists do—and social networks allow users more opportunities for engagement as well!

Consider what type of impact would be best suited for this particular campaign, message, event, etc. If there's one thing we've learned from working with clients over time, it's that it all comes down to who matters most here: YOU! If there was ever any doubt before now let me reassure those doubts away by saying again: YOU MATTER MOST HERE!!

Focus on Your Goals

Before you start creating your marketing calendar, it's important to define your goals. If you don't know where you want to go and how long it will take, how will you know when and if your strategy has been successful?

It can be easy to get caught up in other people's plans or expectations—after all, they probably have their own ideas about what a "good" marketing plan should look like. But ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether or not your calendar meets the needs of both yourself and your business (and maybe even some friends). So don't worry about whether or not something fits into someone else's definition of success; instead focus on finding out what works best for YOU! You can always change things later if necessary, but first things first: set some concrete goals so we can figure out how much time each task will take us!

Work Backwards From Your End Goal

When you're creating a marketing calendar, it's important to start with the end goal in mind. You want to make sure that everything you do is moving you towards this goal.

For example, if your business has an upcoming product launch and its success depends on getting as many people as possible through the door at one time, your focus should be on getting those sales as soon as possible (and not necessarily maximizing revenue). On the other hand, if it doesn't matter when those sales happen because they'll happen over time anyway, then maybe what matters most is maximizing revenue instead of focusing solely on volume at launch time.

Once you've got your end goal in mind—whether that's revenue or volume—work backwards from there toward what needs doing now and how much time each task will take before moving onto another task (or even another month).

Use Marketing Calendar Software

Marketing calendar software can help you plan, organize, manage, and monitor your marketing activities.

It allows you to create a calendar that is customized for your business needs. This means that if you have multiple products or services, each one can be placed on its own marketing calendar. The software will also allow for the creation of tasks so that each activity has an assigned person responsible for completing it by a certain date.

This tool allows businesses to take control over their own marketing efforts and ensure they are not missing out on opportunities because they haven't been planned in advance or forgotten about due to lack of time management skills.

Consider Partners and Resources

If you're planning on creating a marketing calendar, it's important to consider the resources that will be needed to execute your plan. You might need:

A good marketing calendar software. If you're starting from scratch with no existing structure or data, it'll be helpful to use a tool that can help organize all of your marketing initiatives into one place and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
A copywriter or designer who can create visual assets like logos and graphics for social media posts in addition to writing blog posts themselves.
A virtual assistant who can take care of administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings and responding to emails so that more time is spent focusing on strategy rather than getting bogged down with logistics; they may also be able to assist with other tasks such as managing email lists and sending out newsletters regularly!

Conclusion

We hope this article has given you some ideas on how to create a marketing calendar that works for your business and helps you reach your goals. Remember to keep it strategic and not just based on when you have time to do your marketing activities. Also consider vendor partners and other resources needed to execute your plan so they can be included in the creation process as well!