A Marketing Calendar is a Must!
Posted: Thursday, May 14, 2009
by Jody Gabourie
http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com
Okay, you've sat down and created your marketing plan. That's great but there's still one more important step you need to do.
You MUST transfer the information in your plan to a marketing calendar. You can use your PDA, a big whiteboard on the wall, a paper desktop monthly calendar, Outlook or anything else that works for you. Just make sure it's in a prominent place where you can see it every day - this will lessen the chances of missing something, feeling overwhelmed, procrastination and falling behind on your plan.
With a marketing calendar you will be able to:
- know exactly when you need to begin doing a specific marketing tactic
- clearly see the steps you need to take to implement a specific strategy
- identify gaps in your marketing schedule throughout the year
- schedule easily for any seasonal ups and downs in your industry/business
- work around holidays, vacations, out-of-town workshops you're attending, etc.
- identify and incorporate any national holidays into your marketing communications and content
You're going to have 3 general types of marketing activities that you will put on your calendar:
1. regularly occurring activities
There are going to be marketing tasks that you do on a regular basis - such as: write your ezine, submit articles to online directories, hold bi-monthly teleseminars, send out monthly assignments to your membership group, do blog posts, add articles to your website, record your podcasts, and so on.
2. one-off activities
Many marketing tasks usually occur only once during a calendar year. Some examples are: design new business card, launch a new product or service (you may do this several times a year, but it's a different product or service), set up an affiliate program, create a referral program, conduct an annual 3-day workshop, write and publish a book, do a joint venture with someone, etc.
3. marketing administrative tasks
There are many administrative activities associated with marketing that you also need to schedule into your calendar. Many people mistakenly think of these as unimportant but they're crucial to the success of your marketing.
Some examples are: check your "numbers" (visits to your website, sign-ups to your ezine, attendees to your teleseminars), take a look at your website copy and marketing materials to ensure they're still relevant, fresh, targeted and valuable to your audience, set up your tracking mechanisms for each marketing tactic, stay current (read and research) on your industry/competition/possible Joint Venture partners/workshops/resources, review upcoming quarter of your marketing calendar (is everything on track, anything need to be changed? added?), and so on.
As you can see, there are many important tasks that need to be scheduled into your marketing calendar. Don't let all the work you've done with your marketing plan go to waste because you haven't put it on your calendar!
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Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, teaches small business owners and entrepreneurs how to take action with their marketing in order to get more results and more profits. To learn all about her unique "done-for-you" ebooks called Ready Made Marketing Plans and to sign up for her FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com
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