How to Create a Marketing Calendar (+ 5 Free Templates)

A selling calendar is simply a readying instrumentality that helps marketers signifier and docket selling activities, campaigns, and contented to support execution organized and consistent.

Here’s a selling calendar example:

A well-designed selling calendar keeps the full squad connected way by intelligibly laying retired each measurement of important selling campaigns.

Marketing calendars besides archer you who’s liable for each selling task. And erstwhile each task needs to beryllium completed.

5 Marketing Calendar Templates for Different Marketing Channels

Different types of selling calendars readying and execution for circumstantial selling efforts.

Here are 5 of the astir communal types of selling calendars (including illustration selling calendar templates) to get you started. 

Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar (also known arsenic a content calendar) maps retired each the contented you program to create, the timelines, and the squad members liable for each piece.

This keeps your squad connected the aforesaid leafage and helps you people contented connected time.

Use this editorial calendar template to coordinate and docket your content.

This editorial calendar template has the pursuing elements:

• Actual people date
• Blog station (or draft) owed date
• Blog topic
• Author
• Target keywords
• Target audience
• Offer oregon call to action (CTA)

A well-organized social media calendar helps you support a accordant posting docket and coordinate contented crossed each your societal media profiles.

It besides gives you a wide overview of what you program to station and when, truthful you tin spot gaps successful your schedule.

Use this social media selling calendar template to signifier contented crossed each your societal channels.

This societal media calendar template includes:

• Which platforms you program to people contented connected (Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Posting dates
• Content titles
• Supporting copy
• Links to ocular assets
• Additional notes

To further streamline societal media scheduling, effort Semrush’s Social Poster.

The tool’s interactive calendar lets you program contented for an full year. And docket posts crossed aggregate platforms straight wrong the tool.

Email Marketing Calendar

An email selling calendar helps you plan, schedule, and signifier your email campaigns, specified arsenic newsletters, merchandise releases, and promotional offers.

It besides shows you however often and erstwhile you program to nonstop emails to your lists. So you cognize if you’re contacting your database excessively overmuch oregon excessively little.

Use this email selling calendar template to program your campaigns successful 1 organized view. 

This email selling calendar template includes the following:

• Your planned nonstop dates
• The email topic
• The email’s taxable line
• The email’s assemblage copy 
• Links to images
• CTAs

Marketing Campaign Calendar

A selling run calendar maps retired the activities related to your wide marketing plan, coordinating antithetic channels and ensuring everything launches astatine the close time.

It helps you program launches and forestall overloading your assemblage oregon team.

Keep your campaigns organized and way each your selling campaigns with our escaped marketing run calendar template.

This selling run calendar template includes spaces for:

• Your campaign’s commencement and extremity dates
• The circumstantial selling activity
• Your run name 
• Who the squad pb is for the campaign
• What channel(s) your run volition tally on
• Your marketing KPIs and goals

Holiday Marketing Calendar

A vacation selling calendar includes cardinal dates and seasonal events that substance to your concern and audience, specified arsenic Black Friday, the back-to-school season, oregon your institution anniversary.

This benignant of calendar is important for getting seasonal campaigns successful bid good successful advance. 

Use this holiday selling calendar template to commencement planning.

This vacation calendar template includes spaces for:

• Holiday names and dates
• Campaign message
• Marketing channels 
• Budget 

How to Build Your Marketing Calendar from Scratch

Here’s however to physique a selling calendar that meets your needs and goals. 

1. Choose a Tool to Build Your Marketing Calendar

Choose a instrumentality to physique your calendar based connected your company’s needs.

For example, you tin physique your selling calendar rapidly and easy connected Google Sheets for free. Especially if you usage 1 of our templates.

But tools similar Asana and ClickUp connection much precocious features similar notifications, task tracking, and automated workflows.

When choosing a instrumentality to usage for your calendar, inquire yourself the following:

• What is my budget?
• Is the instrumentality casual to usage and navigate?
• Will users get notified astir calendar changes?
• Does it integrate with our different tools and platforms?
• Will it amended squad connection and organization?

You whitethorn besides determine to prioritize tools that person utile features, specified as:

• Color coding to rapidly spot antithetic types of content
• Custom tags to radical related items
• Multiple views (e.g., daily, weekly, and monthly)
• Status updates to way progress
• Filters to rapidly find circumstantial channels oregon campaigns

2. Select Your Primary Marketing Channels and Formats

Select your superior selling channels and contented formats to guarantee you cognize however to customize your selling calendar.

For example, if you privation to absorption heavy connected societal media, past make a social media calendar alternatively of an overarching selling run calendar.

Some channels and formats you mightiness incorporated include:

• Your blog
• Your societal media profiles
• Email
• Paid societal media and hunt ads
• Events and webinars

3. Build Your Calendar’s Basic Structure and Add Tasks

The adjacent measurement is to see indispensable elements for tracking and organizing your selling activities.

Start with the pursuing elements:

• Campaign schedules: When each selling enactment starts and ends
• Tasks and ownership: Who's doing what
• Marketing channels: Where the selling enactment is taking place
• Key dates: Important events similar launches, promotions, and holidays
• Resources: How overmuch fund and what assets you request for each campaign

You tin adhd much elements aboriginal based connected your circumstantial needs.

Next, marque definite each run is breached down into each related task that’s needed for completion. Including reviews and approvals. 

For example, present is simply a imaginable timeline for creating a blog post:

• Three days for the writer to research, plan, and write
• Two days for editorial review
• One time for revisions from the writer
• One time for representation creation
• One time for last review

Your timelines volition alteration based connected contented benignant and squad size, but having standards similar this helps support projects moving smoothly.

4. Assign Ownership 

Every task connected your selling calendar needs a wide proprietor who volition implicit their information and walk the task to the adjacent phase.

For example, successful the process of creating a blog post, delegate a wide proprietor for the pursuing tasks:

• Writing the blog post
• Editing the content
• Handling revisions
• Creating the images
• Conducting a last review
• Publishing the content

5. Keep Your Marketing Calendar Updated 

Keep your selling calendar updated to guarantee it serves arsenic the root of information for each selling efforts.

To bash that, petition that squad members people tasks implicit arsenic soon arsenic they’re finished.

This is an illustration of a workflow for keeping your calendar up-to-date:

• Writers nonstop completed drafts to the editing squad by sharing a papers nexus successful the calendar and notifying the editors
• Editors nonstop edited drafts backmost to the writers by checking a container successful the calendar and notifying writers
• Writers use revisions, stock a caller nexus (if needed), and notify the last reviewers
• Final reviewers nonstop the drafts to the publishing queue by checking a container successful the calendar and notifying the publisher
• The steadfast pushes the contented unrecorded and marks it arsenic published successful the calendar

This workflow keeps everyone connected the aforesaid leafage and informed astir the presumption of each project.

This transparency helps teams spot bottlenecks rapidly and set timelines if needed. 

Streamline Marketing Activities with an Organized Calendar

A selling calendar helps you execute your strategy much efficaciously and reduces the likelihood of making mistakes.

So, download 1 of the escaped templates above. And marque definite you person the tools you request to execute each project.

For example, SEO tools that tin assistance you summation visibility successful hunt results. 

A free Semrush trial gives you tons of options, including the Keyword Magic Tool (to find presumption your assemblage enters successful Google) and Position Tracking (to spot wherever your contented appears successful hunt results)/