I used to just “wing it”, or, find that I would be late on trying to market certain things in my business when a certain holiday or time period came around.
You know how when you walk into Target in October, and they already have Christmas decorations out? This is strategic planning and prepping for what’s to come. I thought to myself, “I need to be like Target”. Ahead of the game.
So I really worked on putting my head down, and figured out how to actually create a strategic marketing plan for the entire year ahead of time.
And this blog post is coming at a great time. In October. Because October is a great time to start planning and thinking about your goals for the next year. Because once November hits, you know it's a sh*t show through December until the new year (in your personal life and business!)
In this blog post, I’m breaking down my 5-step process on how I planned my marketing for a year.
Step 1: Reflect and Deep Dive
This may sound like a silly step. However, it’s important to take a step back and take some time to really reflect and analyze what just happened in your business. You want to think about things that you think went really well, did not go well and how you could improve it, things that you love doing and things that you absolutely hated doing.
Next, you will want to look at and analyze the data you’ve collected throughout the year. Which service brought in the most revenue? Which was the most profitable? When did you get the most inquiries?
If you haven’t tracked any data, or don’t know where to even begin, or what you should track, check out my suite of business trackers that I have. These are all things that I use in my own business, and are completely customizable for your own.
Step 2: The Big Picture
Next, you will start to make a list of all of your offerings, paid or unpaid. If you have a free lead magnet you use to grow an email list, list it here. If you have multiple, list them. List out all of the different services you provide, break it down by type of service if that pertains to you. This doesn’t have to be in any particular order, just start writing everything down.
Step 3: Break It Down
Go month by month and write down what holidays or events are going on throughout that month. Write out major holidays, and then other events like: back to school, summer break, winter/snow plowing season, fall clean ups, if you’re in the landscaping industry, and so on.
Now, take your list of offerings, and sort each offering into the month that it would make sense to promote. Note, the offering may fall under multiple months.
Step 4: Make A Strategic Plan
Now that you know which offerings you’ll be promoting or talking about each month, the next thing you will want to do is try to plan out, the best you can, which weeks or days that you will promote that specific offering. For instance, if you have a resource that can be used around a holiday, how far in advance do you want to start promoting it? Weeks? A month before?
Once you know the WHEN, next you will have to plan out the WHAT. You will want to create a list of everything that needs to be done in order to promote your offering. Do you need to create social media posts? Do you need to create and print off any print ads or marketing brochures or mailers? Now is the time to just make a list of the tasks that you need to do.
5. Brainstorm
Now that you know which content and offers you’ll be focusing on during each month, you will then need to come up with content to promote your offerings.
Content could be things like:
Captions in a social media post, graphics to share, ways to engage your audience on social media, creating print-ads, brochures, and other printed materials. Writing blog posts or other articles for newspapers. Writing letters to past clients asking for referrals, promoting a new referral program. Whatever it may be.
Jot down descriptions or ideas of what your content will be during those times so you have a plan in place. This doesn’t have to be done all at once, You can always add ideas when something inspires you or you have a random thought.
While it’s just 5 steps, there is definitely a lot of time and effort that goes into planning. Make sure to block time off in your calendar at the end of every year, and even every quarter, to review and tweak anything throughout the year, and create your new plan for the next year after.
I hope you’ve gained some insights and feel confident in planning your next year or quarter and really making sure that your company is visible to your ideal clients!
If you're looking for more in-depth instruction on how to do this exact process, become a member of The Efficiency Lounge today and get instant access to an instructional video and workbook (as well as many other templates and resources to help run your business!)
Talk soon, girlfriend!
Amy
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