How a campaign calendar works
A campaign calendar is a page with a set of doors. Each door has its own opening date, and until that date it stays closed. When a door opens, people find a game, an offer or a prize draw behind it.
You decide everything: how many doors there are, when they open and what's behind them. Seven doors for a launch week, twelve doors for "12 days of summer", or one door every Friday for two months — it's up to you.
The first time people visit, they fill in a short form and accept your newsletter. After that, they come back to open the next door. Turn on auto-submit, and returning players don't need to fill in the form again, so playing takes one click.
Behind the doors you can use any game you like. A scratch card or a spin the wheel is quick to play every day. A quiz is great when you want people to learn something about your brand along the way.
When to use a campaign calendar
A campaign calendar is the right choice whenever your campaign runs for more than a single day and you want people to keep coming back. It's a flexible way to build a story over time. Use it when you want to:
- Build hype before a launch with teasers and sneak peeks.
- Celebrate a birthday or anniversary with daily gifts for your customers.
- Run a seasonal campaign for Easter, summer, back to school or Black Friday week.
- Count down to an event, like a festival, a concert or a store opening.
- Teach people something with a short lesson or tip behind each door.
The format works for webshops, food and drink brands, travel and hotels, events, sports clubs, health brands and B2B companies. Planning a Christmas campaign? Then the Christmas calendar or the advent calendar are already set up for December.
6 ideas for your campaign calendar
- 12 days of summer: a new summer prize every day, from sunglasses to a weekend trip.
- Launch week: seven doors that each reveal one new feature of your product.
- Birthday week: one prize a day to thank your customers for another year.
- Black Friday countdown: a new deal every day in the week before Black Friday.
- Festival countdown: artist reveals and ticket prizes for every week until the gates open.
- Easter hunt: a new egg to open every day over Easter, with a prize inside.
Looking for dates to build on? Read our guide to planning marketing calendar events all year round, or get more inspiration on our campaign ideas page.
Tips for a campaign calendar that converts
Tip #1: Pick a length that fits your story
More doors isn't always better. A calendar that is too long can lose people along the way.
- A week works well for launches and birthdays.
- Two to four weeks work for seasons and countdowns.
- Weekly doors are a good fit for longer periods.
Tip #2: Get people signed up before day one
The first door is often the busiest. Build up a list of people who are waiting for it.
- Add a pre-registration page with a countdown.
- Tell your newsletter subscribers what's coming.
Tip #3: Keep the games simple
The same game every day is easy to understand. If you mix games, make sure each one fits your goal.
- Luck games for quick visits and many sign-ups.
- Quizzes or skill games when you want people to spend more time with your brand.
Tip #4: Spread out the prizes
People come back when there's something to win. Mix small instant prizes with one bigger prize at the end, and set it all up once in prizes.
Tip #5: Remind people when a door opens
A short reminder is often all it takes. Send an email when a new door opens (from Scratcher with the Email module, or from your own email tool), show the calendar as a pop-up on your website and share it on social media.
When the calendar ends, send your new subscribers a welcome email, look at which doors and channels worked best, and use what you learned for your next campaign.
