As I write this post, we are a few weeks away from the start of a new year, and I can honestly say I feel organized and ready for an AWESOME 2018. Why do I feel this way? Because I have been able to plan out all of my marketing effort for the entire year in a relatively short amount of time.
In a previous post, I shared 4 Simple Planning Tools You Can Use to Make the Rest of the Year the Best of the Year. In this post I share how to use those tools to plan one year of marketing activity in one day.
How to Plan One Year of Marketing Activity in One Day. #Marketing #MarketingPlanning Click To TweetWrite a Simple Marketing Plan
Before you start scheduling out your activity for the year, it is important that you have a written plan for your marketing strategy for the new year. A marketing plan does not have to be a complicated or even a long document, it can be fairly short and very simple. For tips on how to create a simple marketing plan, check out the post 9 Steps to Create a Simple Marketing Plan
Decide on Your Key Marketing Activities
Once you have completed your marketing plan, your plan should include the activities you will be doing to reach your target audience. Decide on what activities you will be doing consistently and how often you will be doing that marketing activity. For example, I have decided to use, blogging, email marketing, webinars, workshops and networking as a part of my marketing mix. I plan to blog twice a month, send at least two emails a month to my email list, have a least one webinar per quarter, and one workshop per quarter, and attend two networking events a month geared towards my target audience.
Schedule Your Marketing Activity on a Marketing Calendar
Once you have decided what your key marketing activity will be for the year, then one of the best things you can do for your business is to create a calendar specifically just for your marketing activity. In addition to the marketing calendars I discussed in the simple planning tools article, I am a huge fan of CoSchedule. I use CoSchedule to schedule out all of my marketing activity including all the activities I listed above. CoSchedule works really well if you have a team or if you want to access your calendar from various places. You can access your marketing calendar through the CoSchedule website or if you have a WordPress website, you can also access it through the CoSchedule Plug-in in WordPress. Below is a pic of what my calendar looks like for December:
If you follow the three steps listed above, you will be able to create a years’ worth of marketing activity in one day! How far in advance do you plan your marketing? How long does it take you to plan your marketing? Be sure to share in the comments below.
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
Nadine Mullings is known as The B.E.S.T. Marketing Strategist™. She is passionate about assisting small business owners to market and promote their businesses both online and offline using the four core marketing strategies in the B.E.S.T. Marketing System™.
With over 15 years of experience in marketing and an MBA with an Ecommerce specialization, Nadine uses her experience and education to assist entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and independent business owners to attract new clients, get repeat business, and build a strong social network.
