I love starting off fresh in a new year! It’s like the entire slate is clean, and the possibilities are endless, but nothing will get done unless I commit to it and plan for it! So, I want to take a step back and look at some business basics I have used to help me succeed over the past 20 years in educational sales and product development. First up is a marketing calendar.
A marketing calendar is fundamental in any business, from a sole proprietor to a multinational corporation. Even people who think they don’t have a marketing calendar have probably thought about some of the things I laid out below and mentally created a marketing calendar.
List out Projects and Think About What Needs to be Done to Complete Them
The first thing you want to do when planning your annual marketing calendar is look at your goals. Do you have any big events, new products, recurring marketing campaigns, or yearly or seasonal promotional collateral you produce? Think of all the things you want to produce and accomplish in the year and list them all out. Next, sort them by the due date and make a note of the biggest priorities.
If you have recurring campaigns and annual or seasonal promotional collateral, you should know the time it takes leading up to due dates for these items.
Big events, endeavors, and new products will require their own unique timelines and, if you’re in a larger company, likely involve multiple departments and people.
Here is a quick checklist of some questions you might ask yourself:
- When does this need to be done?
- What does success look like?
- Is it measurable?
- Who needs to be involved?
- Is there a dedicated contact person from each department? What is the time commitment I need from them?
- If so, do they have the time and capacity?
- Is this a recurring project or item on my marketing calendar or a one-off?
- Is there anything I can do in slower periods of time that will alleviate the burden when I anticipate being busier?
- What tools do I need?
- What are the costs?
Break Down Projects into Smaller Steps
This is a good time to individually look at each project due in the next year and break down all of the steps necessary to achieve success within a reasonable timeline. I sometimes
use a whiteboard or even pen and paper to do this. Here’s an example of the steps I wrote down for an actual project I’ve worked on:
Project: Exhibit at Frankfurt Bookfair – October
Steps I need to complete:
- Book a booth (Marketing)
- Decide who will attend (Management)
- Register attendees (Marketing)
- Book hotel and air reservations (Sales Dept)
- Design booth and share designs with attending staff (Sales & Marketing)
- Order furniture & booth logistics (Marketing)
- Decide what to send for the booth, including marketing collateral (Sales & Marketing)
- Create event-specific marketing pieces, including flyer, catalog, and email campaigns (Sales & Marketing)
- Create a shared event calendar to organize meetings and events at the bookfair (Marketing)
- Send out 3 invitations to meet at bookfair (Sales & Marketing)
- Attendee staff to send their own meeting invitations (Sales)
- Share Bookfair info and CTA to meet on LinkedIn (Marketing)
- Gather all items being sent to bookfair (Marketing)
- Reconfirm all meetings prior to bookfair (Sales)
- Ship items that can/should be shipped & ensure they clear customs (Marketing)
- Give items to attending staff that they are hand-carrying (Sales & Marketing)
- Post-show follow-up email campaign to prospects met at bookfair (Sales & Marketing)
You’ll notice I list out some larger steps and some simple ones. It’s important to think about all tasks, who is doing them, and when they need to be completed, not just the larger steps.
Prioritizing
Some projects have hard due dates, such as a new product launch or annual catalog, but some projects have softer due dates, such as creating a new branding guide. It’s helpful to use slower periods to work on projects with softer due dates.
Now is a good time to list out the time-bound projects in order of when they need to be completed. Work backward from the due date to list out due dates for the individual tasks you’ve identified that are needed to complete each project.
Do you have any slower times in your calendar? These are excellent times to work on projects with softer due dates.
Tools to Use and Basic Components of a Marketing Calendar
Now, it’s time to start building out an actual calendar. There are plenty of paid-for options and even project management software you can use, but all you really need to get started is a spreadsheet or paper. Google Sheets are great for sharing a calendar with multiple people or if you work frequently from different devices and want to store it in the cloud.
You can Google search “marketing calendar templates” and most will list some basics like months of the year in the top row, and projects on the first columns along with steps and milestones necessary to reach the milestones. If you have different teams working on a project, it can be helpful to color-coordinate rows of tasks based on the people/teams involved.
Project management software such as Trello can be beneficial if you have many steps you must complete and/or different teams and people involved in projects.
Reviewing Your Marketing Calendar
Business objectives and goals change throughout the year. For example, losing funding, landing one major client, or signing a strategic partner can change your event calendar because you might have to add another conference or even change your advertising approach. It is always a good idea to revisit your marketing calendar regularly and ensure it aligns with current business objectives and needs.
Adhering to a Marketing Calendar
It’s one thing to plan a marketing calendar, and it’s another thing altogether to adhere to it! That takes daily and weekly commitment to finish all steps on time and see projects through. I find a weekly or daily organizational planner is the best way to stay on target. Some I have used include the Full Focus Planner, The 5 Second Journal, Best Self, and Clever Fox. Some are better for planning big goals, some for reflection, and others for prioritizing on a day-to-day basis.
So, let’s get out there and plan for the best year yet! If you want to grow internationally but have too many things on your plate or just want help, drop me a line or book a call with me to discuss how I can help you grow your international business.
You can also check my previous blog where I talk about how to grow your EdTech business with strategic partners.
