YOUR MOST POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL IS $3
So many people are underutilizing the cheapest tool for a marketing strategy that guarantees the best results. Sure as spring follows winter, your business has seasons, holidays and cycles– if for no other reason than your customers and suppliers do.
How to best get in synch with your business’ seasons to drive publicity, marketing and sales? You can probably even find it at the 99 Cent Store!
A calendar. A marketing strategy calendar.
Most noteworthy, a 52-week calendar that cues you when to adjust your marketing campaign antics, themes and promotions to be in alignment with the one person that matters most – your customer. You should be focused on your marketing calendar for 2017 right now.
Not sure where to begin? First of all, put together a short list of two or three of your most logical print or online publications for advertising (whether or not you advertise). These may be “verticals” or broader publications that reach into your target demographics. If your business is B2B, these are trade or industry publications.
In addition, go online or call their advertising departments and ask for their “editorial calendar.” This lists the weekly or monthly themes that it highlights because they are proven the most actionable to their readership (your customers) and is the primary basis for their advertising sales. Copy it into your starter marketing strategy calendar.
Next, review your past year’s sales data by product and volume. Write down why those sales varied and weave that into your marketing plan so you can boost sales ahead of a cyclical low point (a Facebook promo/special sale, etc.), or increase profit margins going into a high season (‘limited availability’). As always, monitor your largest competitors with bigger budgets for researching and tracking these cycles and trends. Get on their email lists, monitor their campaigns.
Furthermore, as you develop it, this calendar becomes your marketing compass each day, and it will grow more robust each year and begin to automate your marketing strategy – with a collective intelligence — for far greater effectiveness and results.
I hope you enjoyed reading this note. It was in my calendar to send it to you.
– Benjamin Franklin
