Marketing Master Calendar Development Best Practices

Best Practices in the Development of a Marketing Master Calendar

Having developed numerous marketing master calendars for Fortune clients world-wide, here are top 10 lessons learned & best practices for developing a marketing planning master calendar:

1) All involved marketing & supporting departments must have input into the development of, and be fully represented on the master marketing calendar.

2) All the departments represented on the calendar in must understand their responsibilities, deliverables, due dates, inter-dependencies with other departments as well as the metrics that they are being held accountable for in each step in the process.

3) Process Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) shall be in place for each process handoff such that the overall calendar timeline retains tactical delivery integrity.

4) The calendar must be chronologically intuitive (flow left to right for each sequential major marketing event).

5) Process details must be developed for each major milestone represented on the marketing calendar.

6) A process step owner must be identified for each process step with clear articulation of their responsibilities.

7) Calendar post-event reviews must capture marketing event & campaign lessons learned, planned vs. actual metrics, customer feedback, etc.

8) An actively managed marketing best practices knowledge base must be maintained to capture & propagate captured calendar relevant & other best practices & lessons learned to all stakeholders.

9) Marketing executive sponsors & steering committee members must play a role in the development & execution of the master marketing calendar.

10) Periodic calendar process reviews must be conducted to ensure the calendar & critical processes on the calendar are as efficient & effective as possible.

The following are Master marketing calendar and planning best practices examples that I developed for several Fortune 500 clients as represented by this one (of several examples):

A Best Practice Master Marketing Calendar Represents All Major Events, The Critical Timeline and Major Calendar Development Participants and Stakeholders

 

A Very Honest Assessment of the Current State Marketing Capability along with Gaps and Development Needs is Critical for Future Process Improvements

A Future-State Solution Vision Must Be Established in Order to Achieve Future State Capabilities

For Each Meeting on The Marketing Master Calendar, Critical Outcomes must be determined for each Calendar Development Meeting Along with Identification of the Meeting Key Owner

Every Stakeholder and Responsible Leader Must Be Represented on Marketing Master Calendar Development Meeting Master List

Clearly Defined Responsibilities and Outputs Must Be Defined for Each Marketing Calendar Channel

Clearly Defined Accountability Must Be Defined for Marketing Calendar Development

Clearly Defined Accountability Must Be Defined for Marketing Calendar Development

Clearly Defined Accountability Must Be Defined for Each Functional Area (left Blue Boxes) in the Marketing Calendar Development Process

Critical Success Factors Must Be Identified in the Master Marketing Calendar Development Process

Summary Actions & Next Steps Must Be Identified in the Master Marketing Calendar Development Process

For Additional Information on this topic reference the following:

1. American Marketing Association Planning Resources. URL: https://www.ama.org
2. Content Marketing Institute Editorial Calendar Resources. URL: Content Marketing Institute