Have you ever found yourself planning content for your brand that’s due week of, or worse – that day?
The importance of having a marketing plan to prepare for the year ahead is crucial if you want your company to survive and thrive. By taking initiative on a proper strategy and distinguishing steps and actions to achieve goals, it can help lead your team to success. This marketing plan shouldn’t just graze the surface; it needs to be constructed from a masterbrand view down to the campaign level. This will ensure that all of your bases are covered, and it will keep your marketing efforts organized, too.
With that said, this blog will help you identify what you should think about when creating an effective marketing calendar and what types of content should be added to it. Discover how to put together your own marketing roadmap for your brand’s journey.
Pre-Calendar Planning
Before diving into the deep end of calendar planning, you will want to take a moment to consider what is in store for your brand. The approach doesn’t have to be within a year’s timeframe. However, it is the recommended period to keep track of timely, high-level marketing events. A year is also suggested as it gives you enough time to consider what you want your brand to communicate to your audiences. Just because you are planning ahead, doesn’t mean your efforts are set in concrete. You can always go in and adjust where you see fit.
Planning ahead may involve discussing content such as holiday sales, back to school promotions, and more. If these are events you know your brand embraces each year, you can begin by planning those. Once your typical campaigns are listed, take a look at what is trending in your industry. Would implementing them into your marketing plan make potential consumers look for your product or service in the future? These could be strategies ranging anywhere from your landscaping company advertising its new patio installations during the summer or having a special on your HVAC repair services before winter begins.
Target Audiences and Marketing Channels
Now that you have an idea of the types of events to implement into your marketing calendar, you’re going to want to think about who your target audience is. Additionally, consider what channels you will be using to promote your brand’s message. Here is how to get started:
- Begin with a target audience. Look into your effective marketing strategy and brainstorm who your target customer is for each of your promotions. Once you have established your “who,” research your “what.” Take some time to understand what that target audience’s purchasing behavior, interests, geographic, and demographic data is. This will help you construct high-level messages that will lead to campaign launch success.
- Decide on marketing channels. Take a look at your frequently used channels and their performance and determine if your current methods are working before adding them to your marketing plan. If they are effective, they will increase audience engagement, awareness, and conversion rate.
- Put the two together. Once you have addressed who your brand is communicating to and on what platform, you can begin plugging these audiences and corresponding channels into your calendar for future use.
When you have established what channels you will be using, decide on the type of content that will be included. This could be your brand’s advertising campaigns, events, email marketing cadences and flows, or your blogs, press releases, and media buys. You can also present in-person marketing efforts such as in-store displays and printed content.
The final step to ensuring marketing calendar success is staying organized. Tools that can help keep you on schedule in a neat and efficient way are Google Sheets, Monday, Asana, and others alike. It is ultimately up to your team to decide what organizational platform is the best fit.
ZGM Can Help Create Your Ultimate Marketing Calendar
An effective, well-developed marketing calendar begins with identifying what direction you want to take your brand and the steps to get there. You must consider the types of events and promotions you want to carry out, who you are creating them for, and on what marketing channels.
Need help getting started on your integrated marketing calendar? Zero Gravity Marketing provides support with all marketing strategies. Contact our team of professionals today!
