Integrated Marketing Plan
46 Timeline
Marketing Timeline
A marketing timeline lets you view the chronology of your marketing plan over time, from objectives and strategy to completed action items. Whether you choose a Gantt chart, calendar, or handwritten document, a timeline will serve the purpose of organizing your marketing plan and providing a clear schedule to follow. A timeline also provides a reference for when milestones have been accomplished and any issues that may arise during a project. This can be a useful tool for future planning as you review the success of your marketing timeline.
A timeline is especially important for campaigns because campaigns have a specific start and end date. A timeline keeps the whole team informed and on track to complete tasks on time. It also creates a good visual of the campaign as a whole and how all the elements come together to create a successful campaign.
Benefits of a Timeline
Here are the primary benefits that marketing managers get by understanding and following their timelines:
Better Communication
A timeline enhances communication in the organization. It indicates the various activities to be done, and this means that the staffalways know what they should be doing and at what time.
Better Time Management
A timeline helps NPOs manage their time and tasks well. As mentioned earlier, the schedule shows the tasks to be accomplished against their due time. As such, it helps people to plan for their time well and to perform their activities within the set deadlines. Better time management translates to better performance.
Proper Management of Funds
A correctly implemented business timetable keeps the operating costs under control. When creating the timeline, the planner lists all the estimated costs of the projects to be undertaken. The timeline planner also writes down the actual costs that the business spends on each project, once its timeline elapses. The keen comparison of the estimates and the actual process keeps the business funds under control, thus, prevents unnecessary expenses and inconveniences.
Fewer Mistakes
A reasonable schedule/timeline helps NPOs create a sense of accountability and seriousness. As a result, all parties in the organization become more accurate in doing their duties.
Better Metrics
It’s easy to measure the performance of your IMC campaign when you have a reasonable timeline, compared to when you do not have it. This is because the timetable clearly shows you the chronological order of your business tasks, meetings, and any other profitable deals that you have done within a specific period. You can, therefore, use the timeline to know the deals which worked well and the ones which could use some improvement.
Realistic Reminders
Marketing managers handle many activities. Some tasks are more engaging, and they can make the managers to forego or to forget other essential duties. A timeline acts as a constant reminder that you have to finish this specific task and start the next one.
Watch: Planning Your Marketing Timeline
Event Marketing Timeline
Here is what an event marketing timeline may look like:
- Pre-event
- Pre-event page
- Social Media Announcement
- Blog Post
- Partner Outreach
- Event Launch
- Launch Email
- Press Release
- Blog and Social
- Partnerships
- Day-to-Day
- Regular email, social, blogging
- Thought Leadership & Guest Posts
- Early Bird Discount
- Paid Promotion
- Last Call
- Final Email Blast, Social & Blog
- Attendee Referrals
- Phone
- Influencer Outreach
Resources: Downloadable Templates
Attribution
This page contains material taken from:
Download by Graphik Designz from the Noun Project
Campbell, R. (2020, May 17). Knowing Your Business Timeline Is Important – Here’s Why. Retrieved June 01, 2020, from https://bitrebels.com/business/knowing-your-business-timeline-important/
Gantt Chart Template for Excel. (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2020, from https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/excel-gantt-chart.html
Lulu Press. Planning your marketing timeline. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnXwZRVgMhE
(n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://site.ieee.org/
