Creating a marketing calendar

A marketing calendar is used to show businesses what their current marketing plans are and media campaigns that are in the future. It also helps to show businesses what the results are for their current marketing efforts. A good marketing calendar will not be created overnight; it may take a few weeks to create one. In order to build a good calendar, you need to plan what you want to add on the calendar and what you see your future profits as. The marketing calendar will help to improve your marketing campaign to make your business more profitable and organized.

Most companies use marketing calendars to remind them of certain holidays they can use for promotion. There are also other special events on the calendar that companies use throughout the year to promote their products or services. Marketing calendars help to keep you ahead when it comes to using certain marketing campaigns.

Take a look at all of your products and determine if you can market them in conjunction with certain holidays or events. Organize all the products according to the holiday or event and plan marketing campaigns for that time. For example, if you are a clothing company, you want to market your swimsuits in the spring and summer and clearance the old ones in the winter.

Some companies use a big whiteboard to put all of their marketing efforts on. Other companies prefer to use electronic calendars that can be easily altered according to the current market conditions. It is important to document your plan and to look at your calendar to make sure you are staying focused and on-track.

If you use an online calendar, set up electronic notices. Every time a big holiday is approaching and you have a marketing plan to use, the electronic notice should remind you of this about 3-4 weeks before the event. This way you have plenty of time to order extra supplies to build-up for the promotion.

It is also important to have a plan on how you are going to target your audience. If you need to print postcards, fliers, or advertisements, you need to give the printer enough time to print the items and they also need to distribute them to the post office. Decide how long it will take the mailing pieces to reach your audience, as you may end up needing an extra week just for postage. If you plan on using email and word-of-mouth, give yourself enough time to get the ball rolling. It takes word-of-mouth a long time to start working so you must plan ahead if you are going to use this marketing method.

If your products don't correspond with any holidays, promote them around company celebrations. Company anniversaries are a great time to promote your products to your target audience and they are a wonderful way to grow your client-base. Weekly specials are another popular way to promote your business, you may even dedicate one day out of the week to your returning customers. Companies like Kohl's dedicate Wednesdays to senior citizens and they will give them 10 percent off their purchase.

Once you have promoted your products according to your marketing calendar, decide what worked and what didn't work. If you notice the results are less than desirable, change the plan for next year. This will help you decide what you need to work harder on and where you need to stop wasting your time and money. Don't forget to take a look at your competitors and find out what their marketing calendars are. You can do this by watching when they promote their products and if they do it with their own holidays or with national holidays.