Planning for the Next Quarter
Planning ahead is critical to a remarkable marketing approach. Planning may take you minutes, hours, or months depending on the depth of the campaign. So, take a look at these tips to help you plan your next quarter!
Start Early
You may say “it is too early to plan for that” but you never can be too early to at least get some details down. What you try your best to avoid is planning when you already should have started the campaign. We all know this cannot always happen or plans may change/adjust. But if you try hard enough on your planning then the curve balls will be small and manageable rather than the end of the world.
Decide on Your Goal(s)
What is the goal of your next quarter? Are you looking to gain more followers/interaction on social media? Are you looking to up your businesses revenue? Are you looking to hire more employees? Are you looking to get your name out there? Whatever your goal is, determine that first. This will create the path for your planning process.
Determine Your Implementation
Depending on what your goal is, determine how you will implement this. Take into consideration all the channels that you have when talking about your audience. Not only that, but consider how much they cost verses their impact. Do you need social media? Do you need a billboard? What about printable mailers or door hangers? Keep in mind that on average someone needs to be told about your product or service at least 3 times before they remember you!
How Long Will it Take?
After you decide on how you are going to implement your goal, decide how long each of these items are going to take a set a start date goal based on that. For example: I want to use mailers. I will need a Graphic Designer to create them, send them to a printer, and give them time to print, address, and mail these out. *Do not be afraid to call places (printer) and people (Graphic Designer) to find out how long they think your item will take. This may give you a better idea to base this information on.*
Set Up a Calendar
Set up a calendar with deadlines. Strive to meet every single one of them. For large campaigns I have design, print, and digital deadlines. I have a calendar for blogs, social media posts, and email blasts that all coordinate together and with the handouts, mailers, and events.
Coordinate your Elements
Take time to really think about how to order and coordinate your elements. For example: I would create an event on Facebook/Instagram, share it to my page the same day, 3 days later send an email inviting people to it, a few days after that mail out physical invites for the event, by the end of the next week post a blog about how amazing the event was last year, then send out another email blast reminding people about the event the same day. It is all about timing. Think about how to keep your audience engaged in different ways throughout the entire time you have the campaign running.
Simply put, planning for your next quarter: determine your goal, how you will implement, and then plan out every detail. But be ready for it to change, adjust, and have extra elements thrown in. Be flexible with your plan in the moment.