The 10 best marketing calendar templates

Delays. Tapped funding. Overworked teammates. 

These are common signs of a marketing project that’s gone off the rails – or was never on them in the first place. The good news is that in most cases, the situation could have been avoided with better planning. 

A well-organized marketing calendar creates a comprehensive view of a project ahead of the game. This means you can allocate resources and delegate tasks without confusion. 

Let a marketing calendar template guide your work. Here’s a guide to the 10 best types of calendars and their functionality and purpose. Plus, find ready-made, free templates to start using as soon as your next project.

What is a marketing calendar template?

A marketing calendar template is a customizable document that allows teams to schedule projects and tasks, set due dates, and track progress in one place. This shared calendar contains deadlines and details on the person or team responsible for work, allowing everyone involved to stay on the same page. 

Marketing calendars commonly include content creation activities, like writing blog articles and social media posts, and tasks related to product launches, advertising, and consumer-facing communication. There are also different types of calendars specific to certain projects.

Why is a marketing calendar template important?

Marketing calendars act as a single source of truth where team members can view tasks and advances in a central place. While this is great for avoiding confusion, good marketing calendars also optimize time management and resource allocation. 

When marketers thoughtfully schedule and assign tasks ahead of time, they can more accurately project funding and team members’ availability, avoiding potential scheduling or funding issues. And if work goes off track, it’s easier to spot setbacks and adjust the calendar to reflect changes.

Using a template promotes a consistent format for all marketing calendars. Collaborators learn how to read this document and know where to look for information when they need it.

The 10 best marketing calendar templates

Creating one calendar to hold every task seems impossible. And it might be. Robust marketing plans have dozens, if not hundreds of details to track.

Many teams use several calendars to organize different aspects of their strategies. Here are 10 standard calendar types to know, plus some templates to get you started.

1. The master marketing calendar template

A master marketing plan template contains a bird’s-eye view of the tasks a team will perform in a certain period, like a year or quarter. This single source of truth gives collaborators – including those outside of the marketing department – a comprehensive overview of marketing strategy, goals, milestones, and tasks, supporting seamless cross-functional work. 

Looking for free marketing templates to streamline the creation of your next master calendar? Get started with the Marketing Roadmap Template from Roadmunk.

2. The content calendar template

A content calendar template – sometimes called an editorial calendar template – tracks the production of blog pieces, social media posts, and other marketing texts and graphics. These planning documents let teams easily set deadlines for posts, campaigns, and individual tasks.  

Before you create a content calendar, you need to know who’s doing what. Roadmunk’s Content Roadmap provides the high-level view necessary for a clear, detailed calendar.

3. The social media calendar template

A social media content calendar focuses on creating text, images, and videos for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and similar outlets. This document lets marketing teams separate and organize work to be done for each platform, which avoids confusion and streamlines content creation. 

To maximize connection with viewers, social media content should be consistent. These calendars help teams create an engaging cadence of photos, stories, and videos.

4. The marketing campaign template

This calendar template outlines work for a single marketing campaign, like the launch of a new product or service. Here, you can define a campaign goal, like boosting sales or engagement by a certain percentage, and establish milestones and tasks to reach it before divvying up the assignments.

5. The email marketing calendar template

This type of marketing calendar tracks tasks related to email campaigns and automations. For example, you might define send dates for promotions and other scheduled releases, like newsletters. You can also set aside time for creating and maintaining automated content, like shopping cart reminders, targeted promotions, or shipping notifications.

6. The product launch calendar template

In a launch calendar template, cross-functional teams create a step-by-step plan to bring a product to market. People often use Kanban or Gantt charts for this type of complex planning, mapping progress against time. 

Roadmunk’s Product Launch Roadmap Template visualizes a launch’s high-level milestones and all tasks by department. Easily create pre-launch, launch, and post-launch work phases.  

7. The promotional calendar template

A promotional calendar template helps marketers develop messaging for different audiences and platforms. Here, you define the goals of each campaign and the multi-channel approaches for achieving them. You can then schedule and assign tasks either in this document or a separate, linked calendar for each promotion so information is less visually overwhelming. 

8. The event marketing calendar template

This marketing calendar template tracks tasks related to in-person or virtual promotional events. Marketers with a busy events schedule may want to use one calendar per function to limit the amount of information and assignments in a single template, but it’s also helpful to have all events in one place to avoid missing things. It all depends on your preference.

Common elements of an event marketing calendar include the target audience and resource allocations, as well as all of the tasks required to run a smooth event – from renting space to scheduling programming. 

9. The agile marketing plan template

These marketing calendars follow the agile project management method’s iterative tasking style. Teams take stock of the work to be done, creating a prioritized to-do list also known as a backlog. Then, the group breaks work up into sprints – short blocks of time that usually span 1–4 weeks – in which assignees finish certain tasks. 

An agile marketing calendar template helps you efficiently schedule sprints and assess progress. Agile groups often meet daily in stand-up meetings to review advances, which means these calendars have frequent checks and modifications.

10. The budget and resource planning template

A budget planning template helps project managers make sure marketing funds and other resources are available when teams need them. This project schedule sets expectations within the marketing department so everyone can appropriately plan promotions, campaigns, content, and events. 

With proper budget planning, those in charge of allocating funds – who might include project managers and the company’s accounting and finance teams – never miss a beat. Marketing plans can run snag-free and avoid setbacks, like not having payment for an event vendor or running an ad. 

Take your budget planning further with Tempo. Use timesheet calendar integrations to track hours and correctly allocate team members’ earnings. 

Streamline your marketing planning with Tempo

Tempo’s Jira-native project roadmapping tools help marketing teams plan and execute successful projects – no matter how complex or cross-functional the work. 

Stay aligned with Tempo’s Structure PPM tool, which allows you to view all project tasks hierarchically and appreciate the big picture. You can also use the Capacity Planner plugin to accurately allocate resources and predict workload for seamless project execution. Plus, boost your productivity with Templo’s Google Calendar integration. Get up-to-the-minute information in your team’s single sources of truth.

Explore Tempo’s project management tools to avoid missing due dates and build calendars that work.