10 Oct What is a Marketing Planner?

Introduction

A marketing planner, or a marketing strategy planner, is a marketing asset that enables you to plan and execute your marketing activities.

It’s a tool that puts all your marketing duty and due dates in one place. It’s the only source of truth for marketing teams of all sizes, including single units. Instead of referencing multiple notes, documents and emails, you can rely on this central hub to know precisely what is needed to achieve your marketing goals.

A Marketing Planner helps You:

• Align all marketing projects and tasks. No more confusion, chores are falling through the cracks, or focusing on low-priority projects.
• Send more projects in less time and without stress. Each team member always knows what to work on, reducing friction and increasing concentration, deep work and creativity. And also
• Share progress with superiors. You can quickly provide status updates to your managers and executives, as you can see what you’re working on and what happens next at a glance.

With a marketing plan, you can set your big, hairy and bold goal (also known as BHAG) and break it down into manageable projects and milestones.

Importance of a Marketing Planner

A marketing planner can help you shorten complex marketing goals into small, manageable projects and milestones. Marketing planners are, therefore, essential

Alignment of all Marketing tasks and Projects

This alignment will help prevent all the chaos that would otherwise have arisen. Marketing plans also help you find all the marketing tasks that have fallen through the cracks and that need to be discarded or updated. The one that is more profitable and leads to higher returns on investment.

In addition, it will help you avoid low-priority projects that would likely only have led to higher operating expenses compared to operating income.

Complete more Projects in less time and Stress

Through a marketing planner, each team member is always aware of what to do next. It reduces friction while increasing creativity, focus and doing more work.

Share Progress with Larger Companies

Marketing planners have also made it easy for you to share your progress with superiors from one place, knowing what you and your team members are working on, your status, and what you would work on next.

Types of Marketing Planners to Choose From

Here are some different versions of a marketing planner, ranging from physical products to software solutions. And also,

Printed Paper Calendars – Marketing Planner

If you’re already using paper calendars in your personal life, you might want a marketing version of that planner.

Your paper calendar can have a monthly, quarterly, or annual summary. From there, you can use it to create ideas and maps:

1. Your publication dates for blog posts, emails, videos, and any other content formats you use.
2. Critical dates for product launches.
3. Seasons/holidays relevant to your industry (e.g., Black Friday, Mother’s Day, and holidays on social media, such as International Coffee Day or National Dentist Day).

It will give you a quick view of your marketing plan. Remember that any change in release dates can cause you to lose other plans on the same calendar, and you may need to fix them one by one.

Marketing Calendar Software – Marketing Planner

Finally, there is the option of a marketing calendar software with features adapted to you and the needs of your marketing team.

This option is the last central place for all your blogging and social media activity. It’s your daily reference centre for everything you do as a marketing team. If you choose an option such as the CoSchedule Marketing Calendar, you can:

1. Switch between calendar view and Kanban.
2. Move dates, campaigns and responsibilities with a simple drag and drop.
3. Get an overview of content formats, social media campaigns, individual assignments, and more on a timeline.

Marketing planning software will allow you to regain control over your marketing actions. Everything that supports your company’s progress will live in a central place that facilitates the access, modification and programming of your content.

Also Read: How Much Does A Senior Marketing Manager Salary?

Physical Notebook-Style Planners

A notebook-style marketing planner is a solid version of the printed paper marketing planner. These are pretty popular among solo entrepreneurs and bloggers and remain designed per the conditions of each marketing content.

Since they are notebooks that transfer your marketing plan, a team cannot use this type of marketing planner as it does not facilitate collaboration and idea-sharing. Lastly, because these marketing planners remain based on paper, they take a little longer to get updated in case of changes in your campaigns, timelines, or launches.

Conclusion

A marketing planner will make you more planned, efficient and tailored to your marketing and business goals. You can delight your target audience and turn them into loyal readers and customers. By following these five steps, your productivity as a marketing team will increase while helping you meet your deadlines.

Also Read: Few Trends in Digital Marketing in 2020