how to create a marketing calendar

what is a marketing calendar?

how to create a marketing calendar: a step-by-step guide

• List the key objectives for your brand. Perhaps it’s boosting sales, growing your brand awareness, launching new products or collections, developing a new territory, etc. If you want, you can set SMART goals for these (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

• If you haven’t already, develop buyer personas to understand your target audience.

• Stay ahead of the curve by monitoring fashion trends and consumer preferences.
• If relevant, bring trending themes into your marketing calendar for timely and relevant campaigns. I.e. Use your new influencer in London to wear and promote your new collection during London Fashion Week, where she is hosting a seminar on sustainability at the Royal College of Art.

• Choose the platforms that resonate with your audience: social media, email, influencers, etc.
• Highlight which channels suit each of your activities, based on the most effective channels for each one.

• Plan engaging content aligned with your initial marketing objectives from step 1.
• Think about the sorts of visual assets and types of content you need to generate for each activity. Like creating a short social media film and three images to support the seminar you’re supporting during London Fashion Week that your new influencer partner and press could use.

• Plot specific dates for the activities you’ve decided to focus on. If you need to, you can expand with any lead times for content and asset making so you’re not rushing everything ad-hoc.
• Ensure a balanced distribution to avoid overwhelming your audience with constant promotions. And use your chosen channels wisely and with relevance.
• It can be a good idea to mark the timings of when you need to send content live, so your chain of events is structured and easy to action.

• If you have a marketing spend, give each initiative a budget to help you track it’s return on investment.
• Keep a little in reserve for activities that may pop up unexpectedly that you can capitalize upon.

• Use analytics tools to measure the success of each marketing campaign.
• Use your findings to refine future marketing strategies and improve performance.