This is a live blog post from an #AMDays session presented by Karen Garcia of GTO Management.
It doesn't matter what size company you work at, a simple marketing calendar can be your digital helpers and reminder for planning and executing a consistent marketing strategy for your company or client.
A Solid Calendar reduces stress, provides visibility, gives you more freedom, diminishes crises, allows for proactive creativity.
"Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even through they rarely stick to their plan" - Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
Your Current Marketing Plan
Best is proactive plan done well in advance, campaigns meet or exceed expectations regularly, track and reviews detailed KPIs regularly and tests new things consistently.
Neutral plans are attempted but not well executed, perform alright, track basic KPIs and revied only accosionally and sometimes test changes.
The worst plans are all reactive or non existent, no KPIs are tracked, nothing is tested. So just do your best to do your best proactive plan.
Where do you start? Make a list.
You - make a list of everything you do on a day to day basis. If you're not sure what you do, write down in a journal for three days every task you do, and you will be able to identify your task list.
Then make an exhaustive list of all the things you want to do, whether you're currently doing them or not.
Internal - obtain available marketing plans from other internal channels. Review last year's affiliate activities. Look through reports, emails and newsletters. Review last year's activities in other channels (social, blogs, customer newsletters, etc)
Your competition - review competition's affiliate activities, affiliate newsletters are often publicly available. Review competitions customer newsletters. Not signed up? Do that now. Also, set up Google Alerts, review competitions social media and blog for additional ideas.
Look at holidays that are NOT traditional.
- Super Bowl Sunday
- March Madness
- International Tabletop Day
- No Pants Day
- Kentucky Derby
- Talk Like a Pirate Day
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Traditional Holidays you should also be ready for:
- New Years Day
- Valentine's Day
- Easter
- Mother's Day
- Father's Day
- Back to School
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- Black Friday / Cyber Monday
- Hanukkah
- Christmas
Here's a sample campaign - Father's Day
- Get affiliates to promote products for Father's Day
- Increase sales from last June by 20%
- Consumer Message: Fun for Dad, Father's Day in June 17th
- Affiliate message: Father's day gift Guides and Banners
- Ned new banners, create gift goes, blog post, newsletter
- Update data feed with new products
- Father's Day holiday shipping deadlines
- New Top Sellers list
- Consumer email dates.
- Twitter Campaigns
Contest Strategy Calendar
- If you publish daily, complete content 2-5 days in advance
- If you pushes 2 times a week, complete content 2 weeks ahead
- Content Title
- Author
- Publication Date
- Publication Status
- Destination (blog, print, facebook, twitter, newsletter, etc)
- Notes
- Any other process you require like legal reviews, images, approvals, etc
- Metrics.