Why You Need a Marketing Calendar (And How to Create One)
Aug 14, 2025
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until my dying breath: winging it is not a winning business strategy. Marketing can easily become reactive. You get busy, the client work stacks up, and your marketing drops to the bottom of the list. Weeks go by, and before you know it, you’re scrambling to post literally anything just to stay visible. And let’s be real, at this point, every time you even think about your marketing, your heart rate ratchets up a few notches.
A marketing calendar is your ticket to ditch that cycle of avoidance and overwhelm. It gives your business structure, focus, and a clear direction. Instead of guessing or posting for the sake of it, you know exactly what’s coming up and what you need to do to prepare for it. With a calendar in place, you can stop chasing your tail and start making smart, strategic marketing decisions that actually move the needle in your business.
What is a marketing calendar?
A marketing calendar is a schedule of marketing activities planned over a period of time. Some business owners map theirs monthly, quarterly, or annually, but we recommend an annual marketing calendar so you can see your entire year at a glance. And bloody hell, your marketing calendar is not something you map out and stuff in your digital drawer to gather dust! It is a living, breathing document and it needs to be reviewed and updated regularly to track your progress and adjust priorities.
At its simplest, a marketing calendar tells you what’s happening and when. It gives you a bird's-eye view of your campaign periods, content, events, product or offer launches, and other key marketing activities.
The difference between a marketing calendar vs a content calendar
A marketing calendar maps out what you’re promoting and when. It includes key events, campaign dates, promotions, launches, and business milestones across your channels.
A content calendar, on the other hand, maps out what you’re publishing. It includes topics, platforms, publishing dates, and formats, but it doesn’t always show the bigger picture of why that content matters.
Think of your marketing calendar as the strategy layer. Your content calendar is what supports the roll-out of your strategy.
For example, Mia’s marketing calendar for Campaign Del Mar is a 12-month Gantt chart that includes campaign periods, events, and seasonal offers. Elyce, our social media manager’s content calendar shows the exact post that’s going out on Tuesday with the copy and image attached. Both are useful, but they serve different purposes.
Image via Campaign Del Mar.
Start with your marketing objectives
Before you start plotting dates or drafting content, set your objectives. What are you trying to achieve?
Pick one clear goal at a time. Trying to generate leads, make sales, grow your audience, and get bums on seats at your events all at once will muddy your message and confuse your audience.
Decide what matters most right now and plan your marketing activities around that. When your goal is clear, the rest of your planning gets easier. The objective shapes the campaign, the campaign shapes the content, and suddenly your marketing has flow.
How to create a marketing calendar
Start by mapping the year. Begin with the big-ticket milestones:
- Campaign periods
- Product or service launches
- Events or webinars
- Industry conferences or trade shows
- Sales or promotional periods like EOFY and Black Friday
- Content series
- Email marketing sends
- Holidays or seasonal opportunities (be sure to include your annual leave here!)
Plot these into a simple spreadsheet, Gantt chart, or project management tool like Asana or Notion. Include start and end dates, goals, and key deliverables. Think about phasing. What’s happening before your campaign to warm people up? What’s happening after it wraps to stay top of mind? Remember, your marketing needs to take people on a cohesive journey, rather than having campaigns pop up like a jarring Jack-in-the-box.
Build in flexibility. Your marketing calendar shouldn’t be set in stone. Make it part of your routine and review it weekly to guide your priorities and update your progress. Do a deeper review every quarter to shift timelines, adjust goals, or add in new opportunities.
What to include in your marketing calendar
Many small business owners over-invest in social media (a borrowed channel), and putting all your eggs in a borrowed basket is never a smart marketing move. A comprehensive marketing calendar covers more than just social media. It helps you use a smart mix of owned, earned, and paid channels, which all revolve around different stages of the buyer journey:
Owned Channels
Purpose: to nurture and convert
Examples: website, email list, blog, lead magnets, communities, apps
Earned Channels
Purpose: to build trust
Examples: PR, user-generated content, shares, reviews, recommendations, collaborations
Paid Channels
Purpose: to increase reach
Examples: pay-per-click ads, display ads, retargeting ads, social media ads, paid influencers, sponsorships, out-of-home media
You should include:
- Launch dates
- Campaign themes
- Key content pillars/themes for your always-on content
- Lead magnet releases
- Email newsletter topics
- Content creation and repurposing notes
- Channel-specific activity
Over time, your calendar becomes a record of what you’ve done, what worked, and what didn’t. You might notice email open rates spike on Tuesdays, or your social posts tank during school holidays. These patterns only emerge when you track consistently. And once you’ve spotted a pattern, you can build on it.
Why it works
A marketing calendar gives you clarity. You know what to focus on and when. You can:
- Prioritise your goals
- Allocate time and resources
- Stay one step ahead
- Avoid last-minute stress and panic posting
- Identify gaps and overlaps
- Make creative decisions from a place of strategy, not panic
- Reduce busywork (aka doomscrolling under the guise of “research”, and finishing with nothing but comparisonitis)
Without a calendar, marketing is reactive. With one, it becomes proactive. When your planning is solid, you stop relying on recycled tactics and copying your competitors and start making space for original ideas. The calendar gives you the distance you need to see what’s working and what needs to shift, and that’s where good marketing comes from.
Get our Marketing Calendar template
Want to see exactly how the sausage is made? Download the marketing calendar template we use inside Campaign Del Mar.
It’s the same one we use to plan our campaigns, track our key dates, and keep our content aligned with our goals. No fluff. Just a clear, practical tool to help you stay organised, strategic, and on track.
Written By
Mia Fileman
Marketing Strategist
Author
Mia Fileman
Marketing Strategist and Founder
