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How To Plan Your Marketing

Using A Marketing Calendar

It’s no coincidence that Coke or Pepsi always have their sales on holiday weekends when demand is up.  It’s not just lucky that Bridal shows occur in January and late June.  State tourism departments could advertise year-round, but the majority of their spend occurs prior to the summer when families are planning trips.

A marketing calendar means planning sales, promotions, new product launches, mailers, banner ads and more around where and when your customers are most likely to respond.

For small and medium businesses, having a marketing calendar means being able to balance the time and efforts you are putting into marketing with the other demands of your business.

We can help you create a marketing calendar that addresses your businesses niches and special needs.  Our experience can get you addressing broader audiences in manageable ways.  The important next step of course is to follow your plan. 

Learn more about marketing calendars

Track Your Plan

The definition of stupidity has to be “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  As you work your plans, track the results closely.  You’ll find that some forms of getting the word out don’t work for you, while others work immediately.  You may find that certain segments respond better to different methods.  Many times, these results may not be as you would anticipate.  That’s why it is critical to write down your success and failures.

Build tracking into your marketing.  Coupons are a great way to do this.  Affiliate marketing programs can provide great data.  Track which banners, keywords, graphics and incentives show the greatest return for you.

When your year is over and you adjust your marketing calendar, these results will helps you see a great improvement.

Keeping It In Perspective

So now your have a business, a name, you know who you wants to go after, and you have a plan you are following to go after them.  Everything else is gravy, right?  Maybe not.

With all of your great work so far, you still may not see intant results.  A 2005 study by Advertising Age magazine states that the average American is bombarded by over 1,600 advertising messages a day.  For your ad to be effective, customers may need to be exposed to it as many as nine times!

It’s important to keep this in mind and remember that you are running a PROCESS and not a PROJECT.  While individual aspects of your business may be projects, like constructing a retail store, marketing is a constant process of informing more people about what you do.

The seeds you so today will be the crops you harvest later.  After four or five tries you may begin to see an increase in the return of your ads as their residual effect starts to pay off. 

Next week’s topic: Recommended Reading. 

Read books on specific areas you wish to improve.  Our Powell’s Bookshelf offers you up to 100 books on business and personal growth.