Do you have an annual marketing calendar for your business? Successful marketing programs have a calendar. This document begins with your business and marketing goals.
It includes a full calendar of events, promotions, and product launches. It also lays out a monthly cadence of activities that need to be accomplished.
If you don’t have an annual marketing calendar for your business, here are six reasons why you should consider creating one.
Your Annual Marketing Plan…
1. Turns Good Ideas Into GREAT Results
Whether you are a full-time marketing professional or a sales manager that is responsible for marketing, we all have a long list of good ideas. However, good ideas that don’t get put into action will never deliver results. When you take your ideas and put them on a calendar you create the path for ideas and intentions to become reality. A marketing calendar helps you execute consistently.
2. Forces You To Prioritize
Today’s world of online marketing can open Pandora’s box of gadgets. Some of these platforms and tactics may serve your goals, while others may be a distraction. Creating a marketing calendar forces you to look at your goals, target markets, and strategies so you can prioritize which actions will deliver the best results.
3. Makes Sure The “Important But Not Urgent” Items Get Addressed
Stephen Covey’s famous grid of Urgent and Important items rings true when it comes to marketing. Urgent items can end up crowding out actions that may seem less urgent but are critically important. A marketing calendar helps keep you on track to make sure all of the important items get the attention they require.
4. Drives Successful Events
Sales teams thrive on events. How many times have you rushed to promote an event and been disappointed with the attendance. Hosting a successful event requires significant advance planning and promotion. Putting your event on a marketing calendar helps you plan events well in advance helping to ensure the event’s success.
5. Helps You Allocate Resources
You only have so many hours in a day. At some point you realize that if you are going to catch a few hours of sleep each night, you might need some help. There also may be aspects of your marketing plan that require a specialized skill set. Laying out a marketing calendar helps you make good decisions about what tasks you can handle and what areas you need a partner to help execute.
6. Holds You Accountable
Let’s face it. Sometimes upper management wonders, “What do marketing people do all day?” When you have a marketing calendar you have a clear action plan. At the end of the month you can give a clear report of what was accomplished. Even better, that report can include results such as website traffic, event attendance, social media engagement, and sales leads.
