EPISODE
31
2026 Marketing Planning, Part One: Building the Framework
EPISODE LINKS.
SHOW NOTES.
In this episode of McFarland Minutes, hosted by Natalie McFarland and Scout Foster, they dive into the intricacies of marketing planning for 2026. This first part focuses on laying out the structural foundation for an effective marketing strategy. They discuss the importance of early planning, especially for product-based businesses, and introduce a Google Sheets template designed to help map out a yearly marketing plan by weeks. They also cover key holidays, industry events, and potential content ideas, emphasizing the significance of consistent and coherent marketing across all platforms. Additionally, they highlight their approach to batch content creation, newsletter scheduling, and blog planning. This episode serves as a practical guide to staying organized and ahead of marketing tasks for the year.
00:00 Introduction to McFarland Minutes
00:35 Episode 31: Planning for 2026 Marketing
01:19 Creating a Marketing Strategy Template
02:28 Detailed Walkthrough of the Template
03:59 Customizing the Template for Different Clients
05:03 Team Collaboration and Consistency
08:15 Important Dates and Events for Marketing
09:31 Special Considerations and Holidays
11:06 Review and Recap of Key Dates
20:18 Introduction to Social Media Planning
20:56 Adjusting the Calendar for New Year’s
21:46 Planning for Holidays and Events
28:02 Color Coding and Visual Organization
29:22 Finalizing Monthly and Weekly Content
36:41 Newsletter and Blog Scheduling
41:29 Conclusion and Next Steps
ABOUT THIS EPISODE.
Welcome to our behind-the-scenes look into McFarland Productions’ strategic planning process for 2026. At McFarland Productions, we are dedicated to forward-thinking and comprehensive planning to ensure our marketing strategies are robust and ready for the future. Here’s a peek into how Natalie McFarland, Founder and President, and Scout Foster, our Outreach Marketing Manager, approach building a marketing roadmap.
In our weekly podcast “McFarland Minutes,” we offer our listeners a variety of insights—from in-depth campaign reviews to lessons on leadership and business. As we approach 2026, we are reminded of the importance of strategic planning in ensuring that nothing sneaks up on us.
As we dive into marketing planning, our focus is setting up a strategy to guide us through 2026 without missing key opportunities. Here’s how we do it:
1. Framework Setup: We begin with a yearly plan, compiling it into a Google Sheets template, which is available for you to download and customize. This template helps visualize weekly and monthly tasks, events, and critical dates.
2. Incorporating Key Events: We take into account industry-specific events, holidays, and other important dates. For example, for our sector, we’ll ensure National Finals Rodeo and industry-specific events like NCBA are highlighted. We also incorporate traditional holidays like Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, and emerging days of significance, such as National Day of the Cowboy.
3. Team Engagement: Integral to our strategy is involving various team members in planning. This includes social media, content producers, and campaign directors. Their insights help us create consistent content across platforms.
4. Unique Strategies for Clients: Each client has unique needs. For McFarland Productions, our plans for companies like Painted Hills Natural Beef are tailored to their specific requirements, such as prioritizing in-person demos and events.
We’re especially excited about 2026, as it marks America’s 250th birthday. This provides a unique opportunity for us to plan more elaborate 4th of July campaigns and ensure that our marketing strategies resonate with national celebrations and sentiments.
This planning session is the first of a two-part series, where we not only focus on the structural elements of planning but also the storytelling and strategic aspects. We hope you’ll join us for the next episode, where we’ll elaborate further on the strategy behind our planning and how these elements collectively drive our vision of success for 2026.
Stay tuned for part two, where we dive deeper into the strategy that underpins our comprehensive 2026 marketing plan. Thank you for tuning in to McFarland Minutes. We hope this gives you a clearer understanding of our meticulous planning process.
Join us next week as we continue to explore these strategies, ensuring McFarland Productions is well-prepared to tackle 2026 with creativity and strategic foresight.
ABOUT YOUR HOSTS.
NATALIE MCFARLAND
PRESIDENT, FOUNDER
MCFARLAND PRODUCTIONS
After freelancing her way through college, Natalie established McFarland Productions in 2014, which has continued to grow rapidly over the last few years. Her passion and focus have always remained the same; capturing, understanding, preserving and promoting Ranching, Farming, Western Lifestyle and AgriBusiness. She has always had a love for the western culture and even at a young age it was unmistakably clear she would someday find a career serving the industry.
Natalie grew up on a small ranch, rodeoed, showed horses in a variety of disciplines, showed livestock, and participated in 4H and Oregon High School Equestrian Teams. She has trained herding dogs and started colts, worked with sheep and cattle and has had the experience of racing to finish up a hayfield before a rainstorm hit. She understands the joys, sorrows, wins, losses and hard work of ranchers and farmers. That’s why McFarland Productions can produce authentic marketing campaigns for the businesses, organizations, events, and brands of the western and agriculture industry – it’s who she is.
With a passion for building community surrounding brands, Natalie focuses on building real connections between companies/brands and the people that make up their community. Telling the stories of your customers and making them apart of the brand’s story is her main focus. Creating real, human, meaningful connections and strengthening community within the western and agriculture industry through strategic marketing services.
SCOUT FOSTER
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC STORYTELLING
MCFARLAND PRODUCTIONS
Scout’s faithfulness to the agriculture and western sports industry is rooted in tradition. Growing up in Central Florida, she stood by her family as they supported different sectors of the industry, including raising beef cattle, bucking bulls for local rodeos, and spending weekends with her grandparents who lived on Disney’s Wilderness Preserve.
Moving away from The Mouse, Scout graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Nation’s top agricultural communications college at Texas Tech University in 2022.
Now residing in Crockett, she and her husband, Lane, keep busy raising beef cattle and bucking bulls with her family. Scout also loves gardening, raising chickens, reading, and her two dogs: Rue and Dill.
