As the year winds to an end and most of your marketing projects are done (or close to it), it’s tempting to give a sigh of relief and take a holiday break from marketing.
But knowing that’s the temptation, you have a unique opportunity to get a jump on the competition. Don’t slack off too much. Take the time to lay out your 2013 strategy while everyone else is snoozing.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated or time-consuming effort. Start by setting your top goals for the coming year.
Decide on the objectives you’d like to achieve
Start with your business objectives. Specifically, what would you like to achieve? Make sure you list actionable items. Nothing vague or wishy-washy. For example:
- Grow my email list.
- Update the website and incorporate better SEO tactics.
- Promote product XYZ.
- Create a backend product line for product ABC.
- Create a new income stream from strategy EFG.
These should be business-building objectives that will help you reach your goals of profitability, customer trust, and name recognition.
To ensure you have a well-rounded plan, base your goals on the 4 Cs of marketing, focusing on strategies that allow you to communicate, connect, convert and capture the market.
Decide on specific promotions and strategies
Based on the list you just made, what promotions or strategies will you prioritize in the coming year? Perhaps:
- Write a new report for email sign-up.
- Start guest blogging on a regular basis.
- Run a promotion for product XYZ in the spring and fall.
- Have a new backend product line for product ABC completed by summer, ready to promote by fall.
- Put a task group on strategy EFG. Study feasibility and how to create this new income stream.
- Run a Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign.
Notice that you aren’t planning any of your promotions. You’re simply deciding what you want to do to build your business, which include promotions, product development and strategies.
Your goal at this point is to develop a high-level view of your marketing year.
What types of promotions should you consider?
- New products: pre-launch and post-launch promotions.
- Old products: freshen your promotions or create product updates
- Front-end promotion of low-cost product.
- Back-end promotions and upgrade offers to customers.
- List building promotions.
- Lead generation promotions.
As a side note, don’t select a strategy just because the gurus say you should. Don’t be afraid to test new ideas and follow the trends as you see them.
Trust your knowledge of your target audience and implement strategies that you believe will work — even if no one else is doing them.
Fit them into your calendar
Once you know what you want to promote and when, your next step is to figure out how feasible your plan is.
- How long can each promotion run?
- Can you repeat a promotion throughout the year or reuse a previous promotion?
- How long will it take to create new promotional materials?
- Will you have the time to develop new products or strategies, or will you need to hire outside help?
- Do you have the resources and budget to do it all?
- Will it all fit into your calendar without overwhelming you or your customers?
A few tips:
Your plan needs to have breathing space. Don’t try to run too many big promotions or to feature too many different products.
Consider grouping similar products into a package and running the package as a special promotion.
Or promote a few front-end product to your entire list and more frequent back-end promotions to customers only.
Remember, you may not be able to do everything on your list. By choosing one idea, you may eliminate another as a possibility. That’s okay. You can build one area of your business this year and another next year. Set your priorities and stick with them.
Jot down ideas as they come to you
Believe it or not, you don’t need to do much more than this to have a good start on your marketing plan.
Next week, I’ll tell you how to stay on track with your plan, so your ideas will be more than good intentions — they’ll actually happen.
For now, all you need is a bird’s eye view of your business objectives and the promotions you want to run. Pencil them into your calendar, and jot down ideas as they come to you.
You’re simply organizing your year, which is the first step to getting it all done.
“Organizing is what you do before you do something,
so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” – A. A. Milne
