An important, but often overlooked element of your marketing planning process is the Marketing Calendar.    This one page ( and it is mandatory that it be one page) document is a great tool to help you stay on track with your marketing all year long.    It does not matter how you choose to promote your small business; a well organized calendar will help you save time, lower costs, track progress and ultimately increase the effectiveness of all your marketing.   Sounds like a lot from one page?  Done well, your calendar will deliver!

I have seen several different versions, some more complex then others.  My favorite is a simple spread sheet which lists every marketing investment the business will make over the course of a year, when, how much and why you are making the investment.  It should also track the results of a campaign, like the example below.

I created this in excel, if you would like a copy of the file to use for your business, simply click here