{"id":8165,"date":"2023-11-30T18:37:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T18:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colateral.io\/en\/?p=8165"},"modified":"2023-11-30T18:37:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T18:37:05","slug":"visualise-your-in-store-marketing-strategy-with-an-integrated-marketing-calendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colateral.io\/en\/blog\/visualise-your-in-store-marketing-strategy-with-an-integrated-marketing-calendar\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualise your in-store marketing strategy with an integrated marketing calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exceptional marketers and a competent marketing calendar are the bread and butter of any successful marketing strategy.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

A visible global marketing calendar is essential for every marketing team. It gives you the visibility of your teams, while ensuring there is alignment and accountability within individual departments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And, when it comes to complex campaigns delivered across multiple channels and hundreds of geographical locations, business divisions or even territories, the need for visibility is even more acute.<\/span><\/p>\n

An effective marketing calendar goes far beyond a place to plot key dates, seasonal periods and upcoming campaigns.<\/span> It is the central starting point and single source of truth for any of your organisation\u2019s go-to market \/ marketing activities.<\/b><\/p>\n

Not only does it ensure efficiency, but being able to schedule and plan well-timed promotions and campaigns can guarantee maximum sales during peak periods. Complete visibility of every planned and upcoming campaign ensures your organisation can optimise all of its available marketing spaces and potential. It can help you get a better return on investment from stores and prevent over saturation of promotional materials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your marketing team’s calendar can also provide a valuable source of data for campaigns. From launch dates and campaign durations to themes, it can all be utilised when tracking marketing performance. If accurate, it can provide a detailed record of all previous work or initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, there is even more a marketing calendar is capable of\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A brilliant marketing calendar should be just one element in a unified campaign delivery process. It should allow your marketing team to plan individual campaigns while constantly being reminded of the larger strategy at play. It should allow you to see bigger picture, while also being able understand regional variances and timings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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So, what marketing calendar software are most retailers using?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Most retailers and other multi-location businesses plan their marketing campaigns across a combination of online calendars, spreadsheets and shared documents. Sound familiar? Some organisations use specific marketing calendar software, but even then, the tools to actually create the in-store campaigns are often entirely separate.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can see exactly what other retailers report using to plan their marketing campaigns here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Where do common marketing planning methods fall short?<\/b><\/h2>\n

With spreadsheets, it\u2019s hard to see which campaigns are running and where. And when planning numerous campaigns, they\u2019re usually extremely complex and mistakes are easy to make, and almost impossible to spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, online calendars can hold key dates, but they are not integrated into your current martech.\u00a0 Most marketing calendar software is focussed on digital and online campaigns, so planning for in-store (or other physical locations) is often neglected.<\/span><\/p>\n

When calendar tools that are separate to campaign planning are used, there is a real disconnect as the data is static and what\u2019s displayed is frequently not the reality of what is happening. Plus\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n