2017 Content Marketing Calendar (Infographic + Template)

We felt bad about not getting you anything for Christmas, so here is our little present for you, our beloved reader! We’re just going to assume that you haven’t been naughty, and we got you a brand new Content Marketing Calendar.

Here you’ll find an infographic of all notable events/campaigns, and a sign up form to receive our Google Sheet Content Marketing Calendar template, that is filled with actionable tips, and an editorial calendar that you might appreciate.

Do I really need a Content Marketing Calendar?

God yes.

Start of the year is a great time to take stock of the previous one, and begin making plans for the year ahead of us. While digital marketing tends to allow some liberties with how and when you do certain things, any success that you achieve without a carefully planned and timed strategy is more a fluke than something you can hope to scale.
For instance, while on its own, one month might be as suitable as the next one for a social media contest you’ve thought about running, you shouldn’t just go ahead with it without first taking a close look at how that particular campaign fits in with the rest of your strategy for the client in question. So, do you have enough credibility to actually engage audience on social media? If not, you might want to first associate your brand with influencers in your niche, get published on important blogs, etc. Would you benefit more if the contest coincided with a new product release, an important industry event or something your competitors are doing?
The fact that you are not isolated and have to respond to the changes in your market will necessitate some flexibility in your strategy, i.e. you might have to change some plans as you go; but if you want any kind of consistent success, you’ll need a schedule and you’ll need to stick to it as much as possible.

Basically, no tactic or promotional method is an island, they exist in the context of your industry, competitors, moment in time, your other tactics, desired audience, etc. This is why the only way to make sure that your promotional efforts are complementing each other and bringing you as much benefit as possible, is to have a detailed plan for their rollout.

Here is to another productive year our dear colleagues! Happy (end of the) holidays!