Good marketing starts with good planning! So that you don’t miss any event that is important for your company marketing over the course of a year, it is best to start planning and designing a marketing calendar the year before.
The central component of marketing planning is a marketing calendar with lots of ideas for professional offline and online marketing. With its long-term conception possible – not an important marketing event is forgotten by everyday stress. We give you tips on how to thoroughly plan your marketing campaigns in advance so that they will be a success.
Tip 1: Create Your Marketing Calendar Early On
A marketing calendar is already planned in the previous year. You can do this in a quiet month, but no later than September or October your marketing calendar should be ready with all the important ideas, dates and facts. So you are well informed about the next year and can plan all campaigns in good time.
Tip 2: Use An Online Calendar For Your Company
To create your marketing calendar, you can either use a tool, an online calendar or a simple Excel list that you share via Dropbox, Google or other cloud providers. This gives all colleagues involved an overview of the important dates.
With an online calendar, you can be reminded of the appointments well in advance. You need this time to organize your activities well!
Tip 3: Add In-house Data And Content
In addition to standard events such as public holidays, Valentine’s Day or Christmas, do not forget the central industry-related events in your marketing calendar. Large trade fairs or internal company events such as company anniversaries should not be missing here, as well as other important milestones – e.g. Sundays open for sale, the open house or the launch of a new product range.
Campaign days such as “Jogging Pants Day” or “Healthy Eating Day” can also be of interest. Sometimes these “days of …” bring you interesting ideas for unusual marketing campaigns beyond the standard holidays.
Tip 4: Set Precise Time Periods For Your Promotions
Remember that you have to organize your marketing campaigns for several weeks in advance and advertise at least two to three weeks in advance. Take these leads into account in your marketing calendar. Just creating the content for promoting a campaign can take some time.
For larger campaigns, such as a campaign for the soccer World Cup or the annual Christmas campaign, you need even more lead time for the organization and implementation of all associated marketing measures.
Tip 5: Plan The Right Marketing Campaign For The Appointment
You can also plan various promotional campaigns for various holidays and other occasions. The skill
- Open days
- Roadshows
- E-mailings
- Shop window designs
- Advertising campaigns
- Competitions campaigns
- Advantage discounts
- Customer appointments or
- Offers for further training
Let your creativity run free. But remember: variety is important here. If marketing campaigns are repeated too often, they lose their attractiveness for customers. The content for marketing is starting to become more and more similar. The “recipients of the advertising message” dull towards the marketing campaigns.
Tip 6: Allocate The Responsibilities And Make A Checklist
Allocate the responsibilities among your colleagues in the company in advance. These responsibilities are a must on your marketing calendar. Starting with the budget, through content creation, to marketing and implementation of the campaign.
With a checklist for the organization of the respective marketing campaign, you can check the status of the work done at any time and recognize delays in the preparations very quickly.
Tip 7: The Evaluation Of The Campaigns Belongs In The Marketing Calendar
At the end of the respective marketing campaign, don’t forget to carry out an evaluation with all colleagues involved – also from sales and distribution. Which content “pulled” the best in advance ?! Where were the preparation bottlenecks ?! Which measure during the campaign received the most feedback – positive and negative ?!
An analysis of the successful marketing campaigns as well as errors that have occurred during the organization will help you to better plan and implement the marketing campaigns in the coming year.
