How to use a marketing calendar
A marketing calendar lists the days in the year when people are already thinking about buying, giving or celebrating. Plan your campaigns around them, and you ride on attention that is already there instead of creating it from scratch.
Start with the big shopping days
Every retail calendar has a few peaks. In Europe they are Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day, Singles' Day on 11 November, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and Christmas. Most of them now start well before the day itself. People sign up for offers in the weeks before, so start collecting emails early. See Black Friday popups for ideas that work in the run-up, and Singles' Day campaign ideas for 11.11.
Every country has its own dates
Mother's Day is in February in Norway, in March in the UK and in May or June in most other countries. Midsummer is a big day in the Nordic countries, King's Day in the Netherlands and St Nicholas' Day in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Poland. If you sell in several countries, make one plan per country. The calendar above shows the dates for 18 countries, so you can compare them side by side. Read more in Mother's Day and Father's Day campaign ideas.
Use public holidays to plan, not only to sell
A long weekend changes how people shop. Some stay at home and have time to play, others travel and do not open their email. Use the public holidays to plan when to send, when to run ads and when your customer service is closed. For B2B, the summer holidays and the weeks around Christmas are quiet; the weeks after back to school are busy.
Plan four to six weeks ahead
A good rule is to decide on the campaign six weeks before the day, build it four weeks before and launch one to two weeks before. For Christmas, start in October. The Christmas calendar planner helps you plan a calendar door by door, and Christmas campaign ideas has more ideas for December.
Pick a game that suits the day
A quiz suits national days and traditions, because people like to show what they know. A spin the wheel or a scratch card suits shopping days, because the prize is the point. A product finder helps people choose a gift for Mother's Day or Father's Day. Each date in the calendar comes with a suggestion, but any format can work. Need more ideas? Browse campaign ideas or let the competition idea generator suggest one.
Export the calendar
Copy the list into a spreadsheet, download it as CSV, or download a calendar file (.ics) and add all the dates to Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar in one go. The dates are worked out by rule for the year you choose, so you can come back next year and get next year's dates.
