Make a Marketing Timeline
A marketing timeline shows when each part of a marketing plan happens: the campaigns, product launches, content, ads and events, laid out across the weeks or months they run. It lets the whole team see what is live at any moment, spot two big pushes landing in the same week, and check that the work leading up to a launch starts early enough.
What to put on it
Start with the dates the plan is built around, such as a product launch, a seasonal sale or a trade show, then add the work around them. Most marketing timelines cover a quarter or a year and include:
- Campaigns: each campaign from its first ad or email to its last, with its main phases if it has them.
- Launches: the launch date itself, plus the preparation before it (messaging, the landing page, press outreach) and the follow-up after it.
- Content: the larger pieces, such as a report, a video series or a webinar, rather than every individual post.
- Channels: paid ads, email, social and PR pushes, so you can see when each channel is busy.
- Events and deadlines: conferences, sponsorships and the dates the budget or the plan is reviewed.
Keep it to the pieces that matter at the level of the plan. A timeline that lists every post and task stops being readable at a glance; that level of detail belongs in a content calendar or a task list. Timeline vs Schedule explains the difference.
Building one in Preceden
Create a timeline, then add a layer for each channel or workstream, such as "Campaigns", "Content", "Email" and "Paid Ads", with the Add Layer button above the timeline. On a timeline made with the Simple layout, the empty starting layer, "Events", is removed when you add your first one. The other layouts start with two or three layers called "Layer", which you can rename to your first channels by clicking their names in the list below the timeline. Grouping the work this way turns the timeline into a swimlane timeline, so each channel can be followed on its own.
Add each campaign or piece of work as an event and choose its channel from the Layer menu. Give it an end date when it runs over a period, such as a spring campaign from March 1, 2027 to April 15, 2027, and Preceden draws it as a bar. You can also type a duration such as 6 weeks as the end date. Supported Date Formats lists everything Preceden reads.
A few settings are especially useful on a marketing timeline:
- Check Make this event a milestone on a launch day or another date the whole plan hinges on. Preceden draws a milestone as a full-height vertical line, so every campaign can be read against it. Keep them to a few.
- Check Dependent to start a step when another one ends, such as the ad campaign starting when the landing page is finished. If the landing page slips, the campaign moves with it. Dependent Events explains how it works.
- Give each layer its own color with the Color field when you add or edit it, then click Appearance, open Colors and check Override event color with the layer color, so every event is colored by its channel.
- Click Appearance, open Axis and check Display a line on today's date to draw a red line at today's date, which shows at a glance what should be live now and what is coming up next.
Sharing it with the team
Our Pro plan lets you invite collaborators who can add and update campaigns alongside you. To show the plan to stakeholders without letting them edit it, share a link, save it as a PDF, or export it to PowerPoint for a planning meeting.
When the year is over, duplicate the timeline and move the dates forward to plan the next one instead of starting from scratch.
The free plan allows up to 10 events on each timeline, which is enough for a high-level plan. A full year of campaigns usually needs more, and our paid plans lift the event limit.