How to schedule your marketing activities

If you are a business owner or marketing manager then you know how important it is to have a marketing calendar. Your marketing calendar will help you see any upcoming marketing activities and help you to stay on track to meet your marketing goals. Having a marketing calendar can also help you to plan for large marketing expenses, and other resources that you will need to make your marketing plan work. However, many businesses overlook the need in having a marketing calendar.This can be a mistake that seriously detracts from your marketing plan, and slows down the progress of the marketing.Here is what you need to know about how to schedule your marketing activities-

- How can you schedule marketing activities? Planning a marketing calendar is actually easier then you think it would be. Some marketing teams like to have a large calendar where everyone can see exactly what is going on, and what is coming up on the schedule. Other businesses use to-do lists or activity lists. For most businesses it can beneficial to incorporate technology into their planning. The internet and other electronic devices, offer many different planning options that allow you to have the marketing schedule, right at your fingertips. You can even input all of your upcoming marketing events into any electronic planner and then have alerts sent to your email and cell phone, to remind you to start focusing on a particular event or marketing activity.
- What type of marketing activities do you need to schedule? Experienced marketing managers feel that there are three basic types of marketing activities. These types of marketing activities are-
1. Everyday marketing activities
2. One-time projects (such as thank-you mailers and yearly fundraisers)
3. Message generation
Each business will be using the marketing techniques that benefit their product or the service the most. While some companies will focus heavily on internet marketing, and social media, other companies will focus on direct mail, or special events, to market their product. Remember, that good marketing is about creating a relationship with your customers, based on their needs and preferences. You will need to find the specific marketing techniques that will bring in the highest return on marketing dollars.
- What else should be included on your marketing calendar? There are often marketing activities that fall beyond the scope of just the marketing department. Some times businesses will host large events to boost their marketing profile. For example-If the marketing department in your business is working with public relations to host a fundraising event, then that event should be placed on the marketing calendar. There are other marketing activities that should be included but are not limited to: new product design, referral programs, upcoming workshops, blogs or forum, customer research and new product ideas.
- Where should the marketing calendar be located? First, the marketing calendar should be visible to everyone who works in the marketing department. Secondly, all employees in the company should have access to the marketing schedule. Finally, the marketing calendar should be placed on the company website. This means that both the website and the marketing calendar should be receiving regular maintenance. You will need to make sure that any marketing information that is placed on the website is correct and current. You want to let your customers know what you are doing to promote your company, and how they can become involved in it. If you just place the marketing calendar on the website and fail to maintain it, chances are the information will become out of date, and your web site visitors will not take your marketing efforts seriously.