What’s the key to a successful marketing calendar? Planning!

If you don’t have your 2023 marketing calendar set and ready to execute, there’s no time like the present to get it started. 

Not sure how? That’s okay. 

Today we’ll tell you all about creating a successful marketing calendar for the year, inclusive of holidays, special days, and events to remember. 

 

What is a marketing calendar? 

A marketing calendar, among other things, is any marketing strategy’s saving grace. It should cover all of your marketing plans for the year. They range in complexity depending on your needs. You can purchase marketing calendars, find tools to help you create one, or use a basic spreadsheet.

 

Whatever your format, you should always have included things like:

  • Advertising campaigns
  • Holidays and important dates
  • Company and industry events or trade shows 
  • Social media campaigns
  • Email campaigns or email blasts 
  • Product launches
  • Promotions
  • Blog posts
  • Lead magnets
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Social media ads
  • Other events

 

Basically, your marketing calendar will display your marketing strategy for the whole year.

 

Not only does it detail what your marketing activities are, but it should also provide:

  • Name of the project
  • Deadlines
  • Go-live date
  • Assignees or parties responsible for each step
  • Where your deliverables are in the production stream
  • All holidays, vacations, events, and financial quarters  
  • The results of each marketing effort upon completion

 

When you know that something will be relevant to your audience at a particular time of the year, you can plan accordingly.

Some examples include: 

  • Writing a blog post about a new product
  • Sending out an email about an event
  • Scheduling Facebook ads around a promo

 

Having the ability to look at a calendar and see exactly what’s going on in your company or industry or throughout the nation will alleviate missing out on golden opportunities. 

Not sure what’s going on each month? At the bottom of this post, we’ve included holidays and observations to help you plan out your calendar.

 

What to think about before you create your marketing calendar

Before you dive into the nitty-gritty, ask yourself a few questions about your audience to ensure you’re providing the best possible content for them, your brand, and the search engines.

 

Ask yourself:

  • What does my target audience (buyer persona) want, need, and like?
  • What are my target audience’s interests?
  • Where is my audience, and when are they there?
  • How do I want my audience to interact with my content?
  • What time of the year do I get the most engagement or replies to my CTA?

 

Understanding your audience is a key element to creating a successful marketing calendar. 

 

Kinds of marketing calendars

What kind of marketing calendar you utilize is just as important as what goes on it. If you’re new to this, you may want to consider trying the free calendars or making one on your own, then upgrade if needed. 

 

Here are a few to choose from:

  • PDFs or printouts – these are great to help you start brainstorming out ideas to get you going, but keeping a digital version is much easier to update and keep others in the loop on changes
  • Excel Spreadsheets 
  • Google Docs
  • Google Calendars
  • Outlook Calendars
  • Grab a copy of our Marketing Calendar with Holidays and Hashtags 

 

Creating your marketing calendar

Now that you have the bare bones, you can start filling it in with your company’s content schedule. 

If you write weekly blog posts, fill that information in. If you have a monthly newsletter, add it.

Maybe you have quarterly email blasts? Daily social media posts? That should all be delineated. You get the idea.

Next, think about your promotions. 

Do you run campaigns during the holidays? Perhaps you have VIP customers you promote to a few times a year.

Plan your strategy, and always be sure to provide enough time for proper management. No one wants to feel rushed through the marketing process. It’s stressful, and your audience may notice.

One of the best things about this process is that you’ll be able to see where gaps in your content are. This is such a great way to come up with opportunities for growth. Have a brainstorming session with your team and figure out how you can fill in those gaps with quality marketing campaigns. 

 

How a marketing calendar helps 

Yes, we’ve covered what it is and what you should have on it, but your marketing calendar does a lot for you.

 

 

Here are some of its benefits:

  • Keeps you organized
  • Saves you time
  • Helps you maintain consistency with posting
  • Keeps you on top of your deadlines
  • Provides time for proper review and editing
  • Keeps everybody informed of where the content is at any given time
  • Shows you what’s happening during that time so you can be relevant with your content 
  • Allows for think-tanks or brainstorming sessions that up your content game
  • Allows for better quality of content 
  • Allows easy access to how your content is relating to the audience or how the content performed

 

 

Depending on how you use your marketing calendar, the benefits are really limitless. 

 

Where to start when creating your own marketing calendar

If you’re into DIY, creating your own marketing calendar that caters to all your needs may be all you need.

You won’t have all the bells and whistles that some of the paid-for calendars provide, but if you don’t need those things, why pay for them? 

 

Grab yourself your free marketing calendar, grab your team, and do this:

  1. Identify your audience, and where and when to meet them with content they’ll respond to the way you intend (this may take some trial and error, as all SEO does, learning what works and what doesn’t is an ongoing process)
  2. Invite all parts of your marketing team to give advice, ask them what they want to see on your calendar
  3. We suggest leaving a space for keywords, making it a no-brainer when your team starts to create the content
  4. Think about repurposing content and creating evergreen content, and create a home for those items on your calendar 
  5. Prepare to put some time and thought into this in the beginning, but know that it will pay off in the end

 

 

Planning for a year of marketing may sound intimidating at first, and we’re not here to minimize that, but once you do it, every year will get easier. 

Don’t over-complicate things. 

Bend the calendar to your goals, and you’ll be on top of your content all year long. 

Before we part, check out the 2023 list below for all the dates you definitely want on your calendar and their hashtags.

 

2023 calendar

 

2023 National & Global Holiday Calendar Dates with #Hashtags

This isn’t a complete list, but it does include some of the most popular holidays and hashtags.

 

January 1: New Year’s Day #NewYearsDay

January 4: National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay

January 16: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day #MLKDay

January 19: Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay

January 20: Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay

January 24: National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay

January 25: Opposite Day #OppositeDay

 

February 2: Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay

February 4: World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay

February 9: National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay

February 12: Super Bowl #SuperBowl

February 14: Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay

February 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay

February 20: Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay

February 21: Mardi Gras #MardiGras

 

March 3: National Employee Appreciation Day #EmployeeAppreciationDay

March 8: International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange

March 9: Popcorn Lover’s Day  #PopcornLoversDay

March 12: Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings

March 13: National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay

March 14: Pi Day #PiDay

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay

March 23: National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay

March 30: Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay

 

April 1: April Fools Day #AprilFools

April 6: National Walking Day #NationalWalkingDay

April 7: World Health Day #LetsTalk

April 11: National Pet Day #NationalPetDay

April 15: National Tax Day #TaxDay

April 16: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay

April 22: Earth Day #EarthDay2023

April 23: World Book Day #WorldBookDay

 

May 4: Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou

May 4: International Firefighters Day #InternationalFirefightersDay

May 5: Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo

May 14: Mother’s Day #MothersDay

May 16: Love a Tree Day #LoveATreeDay

May 24: National Scavenger Hunt Day #NationalScavengerHuntDay

May 28: Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay

May 29: Memorial Day #MemorialDay #MDW

 

June 2: National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay

June 5: World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay

June 6: Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay

June 14: World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood

June 14: National Flag Day #FlagDay

June 18: Father’s Day #FathersDay

June 19: Juneteenth #Juneteenth

June 21: First Day of Summer #FirstDayofSummer

June 23: Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay

June 30: Social Media Day #SMDay

 

July 2: World UFO Day #WorldUFODay

July 4: Independence Day #4thOfJuly

July 7: World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay

July 15: Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay

July 17: World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay

July 30: International Day of Friendship #DayOfFriendship

 

August 8: International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay

August 9: National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay

August 10: National Lazy Day #LazyDay

August 12: International Youth Day #YouthDay

August 16: National Tell a Joke Day #NationalTellAJokeDay

August 19: World Photo Day #WorldPhotoDay

August 26: National Dog Day #NationalDogDay

August 26: National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay

 

September 4: Labor Day (First Monday of September) #LaborDay

September 5: International Day of Charity #CharityDay

September 6: Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay

September 10: National Grandparents Day #NationalGrandparentsDay

September 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day

September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay

September 21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay

September 23: First Day of Fall #FirstDayofFall

September 26: National Pancake Day #NationalPancakeDay

September 27: National Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay

September 30: International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay

 

October 1: International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay

October 4: National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay

October 5: World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay

October 10: World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay

October 14: National Dessert Day #DessertDay

October 16: Bosses Day #BossesDay

October 31: Halloween #Halloween

 

November 1: National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay

November 3: National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay

November 4: National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay

November 5: Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings

November 11: Veterans Day #VeteransDay

November 13: World Kindness Day #WKD

November 15: America Recycles Day #BeRecycled

November 23: Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving

November 25: National Entrepreneurs Day #EntrepreneursDay

November 26: Small Business Saturday #ShopSmall

 

December 4: National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay

December 7: First day of Hanukkah #Hanukkah

December 10: Human Rights Day #HumanRightsDay

December 21: First Day of Winter #WinterSolstice

December 24: Christmas Eve #ChristmasEve

December 25: Christmas #Christmas

December 27: No Interruptions Day #NoInterruptionsDay

December 31: New Year’s Eve #NYE

 

 

The marketing calendar takeaway

Starting this organizational habit for your marketing efforts is a huge win. It gives you information that will serve you throughout the year. It does take some time to create, and that can be deterring. Don’t let it be! Once you get one or two under your belt, the sky’s the limit for your marketing strategy.

Check out Propel’s 2023 Marketing Calendar so you can make this year your company’s best marketing year to date.