Whether your marketing efforts include a blog, a podcast or social media, you need to produce engaging and relevant content. Content creation takes time and a strategic approach, which can get lost in your day-to-day marketing tasks. To create and stick to a winning content marketing strategy, you need a marketing calendar.
A marketing calendar is a planning tool that helps you strategize and draft marketing content in advance. Marketing calendars can take the form of a master calendar to align themes across channels or a channel-specific calendar for a blog or social media channel.
In this article, we’ll talk about why you need a marketing calendar and how to create one for the coming year. We’ll also share a free marketing calendar template for Google Sheets and Excel, as well as a US marketing calendar with the top 2023 holidays, events and social media days you should know so you never miss an engagement opportunity.
Free marketing calendar template
Download your free content marketing calendar template – which can also be used as a social media or email marketing calendar template – below.
Get your free internal marketing calendar template
What is a marketing calendar?
A marketing calendar is a visual framework for planning your marketing activities for weeks, months or even an entire year in advance.
It helps you brainstorm and plan at a high level. Marketing calendars can help with rolling out content strategies, remembering important dates (like seasonal campaigns) and planning distribution.
Beyond visual organization, marketing calendars help drive revenue. Marketing teams that document their strategies are 313% more likely to succeed, and 70% of teams who set marketing goals end up reaching them.
Marketing calendars answer three key questions about content and marketing activities:
Who? Who is responsible for each marketing task? Are there enough resources to complete all of the tasks in your marketing plan?
What? What upcoming tasks do we need to prioritize? What are the marketing plans for any seasonal deals, launches or sales?
When? When does each campaign start and finish? When will the components of a campaign, like articles or social media posts, need to be completed?
Why do you need a marketing calendar?
Once the core questions of your marketing efforts are answered, it’s easier to plan and execute marketing campaigns that are both strategic and cohesive.
Creating a marketing calendar in advance lets you capitalize on holidays, themes and events that are important to your audience. By using timely hashtags and creating content around trending topics, you can join global conversations and earn impressions and followers.
If you’re a coffee shop, for example, you don’t want to miss out on International Coffee Day (Oct 1, 2023) as a chance to offer special promotions and drive online engagement and store traffic.
A marketing calendar is also valuable for managing workflows and internal marketing processes. It can help you determine how and when content is developed and delivered.
What are the key parts of an internal marketing calendar?
There are different tools and frameworks for marketing calendars depending on your needs (more on those later). No matter which you choose, though, there are some core components to every marketing calendar:
Visibility. Everyone involved should be able to see your marketing calendar (but they don’t all need permission to make changes). Transparency keeps everyone on the same page with deadlines, project timelines and publishing dates.
Collaboration. Marketing calendars should allow team members to make comments on items in the calendar, so they can add updates or questions. This helps keep communication in one place and keeps everyone informed.
Milestones. Marketing calendars should allow you to break up projects into smaller goals. Milestones make processes and next steps clear and keep every contributor on track.
Deadlines. Marketing calendars should allow marketing managers to set deadlines and publishing dates. This helps marketing team members ensure campaigns are launched on time.
Functionality. The marketing calendar design should be simple enough for your team to easily see what tasks they’ve got coming up. If they need to wade through complicated blocks of information, there’s a greater chance they’ll miss something.
Now that you know the key ingredients to a successful internal marketing calendar, let’s take a look at how you can implement one for your team.
5 steps for creating an internal marketing calendar
Omnichannel marketing campaigns should work together. If you’re running a Twitter campaign alongside an email marketing campaign about the same event, they should make sense side-by-side.
An internal marketing calendar can help you do this while allowing you to negotiate the available resources to execute it.
Here are five steps you can follow to create an internal marketing calendar from scratch.
Step 1: Start with your goals
Before you start adding campaigns to your calendar, you have to answer some very simple questions, such as:
What are your goals (e.g. to drive brand awareness, introduce a new feature, etc.)?
How many campaigns can you realistically run with the resources you have?
What is the start-to-finish process of campaign creation?
Basic questions like these will keep your calendar under control as you develop and execute new ideas.
Step 2: Decide on a schedule based on your internal marketing needs
Decide how far in advance you will plan your marketing strategy (e.g. per quarter or per year).
Then, lay down your team’s plans for that period. Pull out each element of your marketing strategy, including the following, to know how much content you’re expecting to produce.
Your content: Whether you publish internal blog posts, guest posts, ebooks or all of the above, decide on your publishing frequency.
Your social media marketing posts: Decide how often you will post on social media channels. Industry best practice varies by platform and by field, but this may also be limited by your available resources.
Your email marketing strategy: Settle on a newsletter frequency and include any other email campaigns you plan to run.
Any other content your team is producing: Plan out the time involved in any other types of content, such as videos, podcasts, Instagram Live posts, etc.
After breaking down your goals, you’ll be able to choose the best tool for helping you keep organized.
Step 3: Choose a marketing calendar tool
When it comes to picking an internal marketing calendar, it’s all about ticking the boxes that suit your team’s needs. At a minimum, you want something that will let you compile simple information in a visual, chronological format accessible to all stakeholders.
More complex strategies may require additional functionality such as publishing tools, content optimization or project management. Overall, marketing calendar tools fall into three buckets.
1. Spreadsheets
You can create a simple marketing calendar in tools like Excel, Google Sheets or Google Calendar.
You can add tabs to track tasks, projects, timelines and more. However, there can be limitations for complex marketing departments.
The customization is endless, but you won’t benefit from any automation. If you’re creating one for a team, use a cloud-based solution so you can collaborate in real time with comments.
The benefit of creating a calendar this way is that it’s very easy to get started and cost-effective (often free). They’re useful for simple marketing strategies and companies with a low budget.
2. Project management and CRM software
Some brands successfully use project management software or a CRM platform like Asana or Pipedrive to create and assign content to their team. This approach can be helpful in creating content calendars for larger teams with complex workflows.
The benefit of creating a calendar in a project management tool is that you can easily track tasks, contributors and deadlines across multiple projects. Managers can easily assign and track multiple tasks, deadlines and contributors at once. The software can notify the team about upcoming projects and people can leave comments and updates and see project details all in one place.
Many tools have email marketing calendar templates for content or editorial calendars, making it easy to get started with even complex strategies.
3. Social media and content management tools
Specialized tools designed for planning marketing content, such as a content marketing calendar template, can help you save time and optimize the content you put out.
They let you input draft content with text and images, share it with a client or supervisor for approval and simply press publish to schedule your finalized content for the month.
Going beyond workflows, content planning tools often have extra features to help you optimize your content and measure the success of your campaigns. These can include:
Headline analysis
Optimized published times
Image and video asset organization
Keyword discovery and research
Marketing analytics
Ads management
These features can help save you time or boost your content performance.
Step 4: Plan out content
Once you’ve created a structure for your calendar, you’re ready to start brainstorming content. Consider which types of content you want to include such as social media, articles, promotions or email campaigns.
In this step, you’re determining when and how to engage with your audience. Here are some tips on how to decide what engagement opportunities are best for your brand:
Coordinate content with any promotions your brand has planned this quarter or year
Identify any important deadlines like registration for enrollment
Identify any industry awareness days or events you can live tweet
Brainstorm seasonal or holiday tie-ins (e.g. running a Black Friday email campaign or interviewing team members or customers for International Women’s Day)
Repurpose content (e.g. turn podcast interviews into blog posts, turn research into infographics etc.)
If you see a gap, don’t be afraid to create your own campaign or hashtag around a topic
Consult the US holidays list below and consider which are most important to your target audience
Decide on which content you want to tackle and populate your calendar accordingly. Remember to leave room for flexibility. You’ll inevitably come across unexpected content and engagement opportunities – and you’ll want to capitalize on them.
Step 5: Set up workflows
Your final step is to break projects into tasks and add them to your calendar. Add your landmarks for each event, product launch or seasonal activity to the calendar and work backward to establish a timeline for each moving piece.
For instance, if you know you have a product launch at the end of the first quarter, work backward from the delivery date, adding in tasks, due dates and milestones (e.g. sign-off meetings). Attach documents or checklists to projects or tasks as needed.
To make your processes consistent and ensure everyone knows what they should be doing, you can create task lists for each stage of the project and assign tasks to team members.
Be sure to note anything that may disrupt your timelines, like team members on vacation or scheduled away days, and factor those in as you plan.
Get your free internal marketing calendar template
US marketing calendar dates for 2023
To spur your creativity and help you create a powerful marketing calendar, we’ve compiled a list of US holidays you should know. This includes everything from federal holidays to health awareness months, from religious and cultural holidays to less formal commemorations and awareness days.
We’ve also included suggested themes for each month to help you keep your content cohesive.
January
New Year’s Day – January 1
College Football Playoff National Championship – January 9
Golden Globe Awards – January 10
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day – January 11
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – January 19
National Cheese Lovers Day – January 20
Lunar/Chinese New Year – January 22
Australia Day, January – 26
Winter X Games – January 27–29
Monthly Themes: New Year’s Resolutions, Wellness, National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Black History Month, National Mentoring Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Hobby Month
February
Groundhog Day – February 2
Wear Red Day – February 3
World Cancer Day – February 4
GRAMMY Awards – February 5
National Pizza Day – February 9
International Day of Women and Girls in Science – February 11
Super Bowl – February 12
Valentine’s Day – February 14
Random Act of Kindness Day – February 17
National Engineers Week – February 19–25
President’s Day – February 20
Family Day (Canada) – February 20
Mardi Gras – February 21
Ash Wednesday – February 22
National Walk Your Dog Day – February 22
National Margarita Day – February 22
Monthly Themes: Love, American Heart Month, Black History Month
March
Read Across America Week – March 2–6
Employee Appreciation Day – March 3
World Wildlife Day – March 3
International Women’s Day – March 8
Holi Festival – March 8
Academy Awards – March 12
Daylight Savings Time Begins – March 12
Pi Day – March 14
March Madness NCAA Tournament – March 14 – April 3
St. Patrick’s Day – March 17
World Sleep Day – March 17
Mother’s Day (UK) – March 19
Spring Equinox (First Day of Spring) – March 20
International Day of Happiness – March 20
World Down Syndrome Day – March 21
Start of Ramadan – March 22
World Water Day – March 22
Monthly Themes: Spring, Basketball, Women’s History Month
April
April Fool’s Day – April 1
Passover – April 5–13
National Parks Week – April 6–24
National Walk to Work Day – April 7
International Beer Day – April 7
Good Friday – April 7
Easter Sunday – April 9
National Siblings Day – April 10
National Pet Day – April 11
Tax Day – April 15
National Volunteer Week – April 17–23
Eid Al Fitr – April 21–22
Earth Day – April 22
World Book Day – April 23
Administrative Professionals Day – April 26
Take Your Child to Work Day – April 27
Arbor Day – April 28
Monthly Themes: Sustainability, National Poetry Month, National Volunteer Month
May
Cinco de Mayo – May 4
Star Wars Day – May 4
National Firefighters Day – May 4
Kentucky Derby – May 6
National Nurses Day – May 6
Teacher Appreciation Week – May 8–12
World Fair Trade Day – May 13
Mother’s Day – May 14
National Bike to Work Day – May 19
Indianapolis 500 Race – May 28
Memorial Day – May 29
Monthly Themes: Teacher Appreciation Month, Nurse Appreciation Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Small Business Month, National Military Appreciation Month
June
National Donut Day – June 2
World Environment Day – June 5
National Best Friends Day – June 8
International Children’s Day – June 11
US Open (Golf) – June 12–18
Father’s Day – June 18
Juneteenth – June 19
Summer Solstice (First Day of Summer) – June 21
National Work from Home Day – June 24
CONCACAF Gold Cup – June 24 – July 16
Monthly Themes: Summer, Pride Month, National Safety Month, Men’s Health Month, National Camping Month
July
National Postal Workers Day – July 1
Independence Day – July 4
World Chocolate Day – July 7
National Ice Cream Day – July 16
World Emoji Day – July 17
FIFA Women’s World Cup – July 20 – August 20
World Hepatitis Day – July 28
International Day of Friendship – July 30
Monthly Themes: Independence
August
National Girlfriend Day – August 1
Book Lovers Day – August 9
International Left–Handers Day – August 13
National Senior Citizens Day – August 21
National Dog Day – August 26
US Open (Tennis) – August 28 – Sept. 10
Monthly Themes: Black Business Month, Back to School, Football, National Breastfeeding Month
September
Labor Day – September 4
World Suicide Prevention Day – September 10
Grandparents Day – September 11
9/11 Remembrance – September 11
Rosh Hashanah – September 15–17
Oktoberfest – September 16–October 3
Constitution Day – September 17
Autumn Equinox (First Day of Fall) – September 21
International Day of Peace – September 21
Yom Kippur – September 24–25
National Daughters Day – September 25
World Tourism Day – September 27
National Sons Day – September 28
National Coffee Day – September 29
World Heart Day – September 29
Monthly Themes: Fall, Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15), National Preparedness Month
October
International Coffee Day – October 1
World Teachers Day – October 5
Columbus Day – October 9
Indigenous People’s Day – October 9
Canadian Thanksgiving – October 9
World Mental Health Day – October 10
National Farmers Day – October 10
National Bosses Day – October 16
National Business Women’s Week – October 22–29
United Nations Day – October 24
International Cat Day – October 29
Halloween – October 31
Monthly Themes: Spooky/Scary, LGBTQ History Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Animal Safety and Protection Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, Bullying Prevention Month
November
World Vegan Day – November 1
Day of the Dead – November 1–2
Daylight Savings Time Ends – November 5
Veterans Day – November 11
Remembrance Day – November 11
Diwali – November 12
World Kindness Day – November 13
World Diabetes Day – November 14
National Entrepreneurs Day – November 21
Thanksgiving – November 23
Black Friday – November 24
Small Business Saturday – November 25
Cyber Monday – November 27
Giving Tuesday – November 28
Monthly Themes: Gratitude, Holiday Sales, National Entrepreneurship Month, Movember, National Adoption Month, American Diabetes Month
December
World AIDS Day – December 1
St. Nicholas Day – December 6
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – December 7
Hanukkah – December 7–15
Nobel Prize Day – December 10
Christmas Eve – December 24
Christmas Day – December 25
Boxing Day – December 26
Kwanzaa – December 26
Winter Solstice (First Day of Winter) – December 21
New Year’s Eve – December 31
Monthly Themes: Holiday Season, National Write a Business Plan Month
Best practices for holiday marketing in 2023
As you start to integrate holidays and seasonal tie-ins, use best practices and common sense to avoid costly content or email marketing mistakes. Keep your content varied. For example, don’t create too many posts around “National ____ Day”, as that will turn your audience off.
Use caution whenever you create content for holidays or cultural celebrations such as Black History Month or Diwali. If possible, ask someone from that culture or represented group to collaborate on the content. Double-check your messaging and imagery to make sure you aren’t falling into stereotyping.
Finally, make sure your planned content doesn’t clash with holidays and events going on. For instance, somber days like 9/11 or Veteran’s Day aren’t the best timing for funny, irreverent posts. Labor Day probably isn’t the best day to launch an email marketing campaign as many people are off work and may not be checking their email.
Final thoughts
Remember that a marketing calendar is a living document: You can revise the structure and themes at any time throughout the year to meet changing business priorities or timely topics.
As you analyze your marketing campaigns and what’s performing best, you may tweak your content based on what you learn. The calendar is there to serve you, not the other way around.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how simple or complex your marketing calendar is. If it helps you set a vision for your content, organize your thoughts and create content your audience will love, you’ll succeed in 2023.
