I had a phone call the other morning from a business owner asking if we could develop a direct marketing piece. The catch, she needed it mailed and in peoples hands before Election Day. Talk about waiting until the last minute. Forget designing the piece, this type of rush job already missed the printing deadline. While this case is extreme I find that many business owners don’t plan ahead of their routine business cycles. At the risk of sounding textbook I going to tell you that to be on top you need to focus on marketing development quarterly. Ideally, start planning larger and more crucial marketing plans at least 6 months out with smaller projects in 3 month cycles.
Here is how to get more organized before even having a marketing idea together.
Take a sheet of paper and up to jot down all the months of the year in order, starting with Jan and separate each month into its own column. Now on this chart plot your busiest times of the year. If it’s Nov & December put the word busy in each of those columns. Next jot down all your slow periods with the word slow in those columns. You should also include side notes, like busy after Halloween, slow after new years, slow during Easter/Passover. Even make note of slow weeks such as, slow during July 4th week. Now you have a very good picture of your routine business cycle. It’s important to plot out those isolated slow weeks too because they will show you where you can allocate time for one week projects like, cleaning up the office, marketing down inventory or upgrading your computer systems.
From here you can begin to plan for marketing development projects. Let’s say you’re a retail client and your busiest time is the holiday season – Nov/Dec. Because it’s your busiest, this would also make its successful outcome crucial so, you’ll need to allocate 6 months planning. Count 6 moths back and that is when you need to begin your marketing plans – May with a November launch date.
Sound like too long? Consider – if you are planning on mailing or printing anything you can figure on:
At least one week for proofing material from the printer, one week for printing, one week for mailing. Now you’re down almost one month give or take a week.
One month for solid idea generation.
2 months for planning and design (actual inventory preparation, mark down, mark up planning, advertising investigation, store planning, mailing list acquisition, planning website changes and approving creative artwork).
2 – 2.5 months for implementation, – actually putting your plans into action. (creating your mailing lists, resetting the store, placing orders, securing ad space, proofing ads and artwork). It goes by fast. Create a plan, set deadlines and stick with it.
Planning for Downtime.
Most companies seem to know when their down time is yet spend little or no time at all planning to offset slow periods. You should plan for slow periods 6 months out and implement after three. Let’s say your slow period is the holiday season. You need to start planning in Mayl. Create an aggressive marketing plan with a launch date of August first and book more business during August, September and October to offset your slow period. If you’re slow every year the same time this than this should be the time of year you put a plan into action every year.
Planning for Missed Opportunities.
Seeing your business cycle on paper will help you plan for cycles that seem to always fall by the wayside. Let’s say your firm participates in a major event every year that has excellent business development potential. However, this event is right after Labor Day when most of your staff, including yourself has been enjoying long summer weekends and two week vacations with the family. Every year the event comes and goes and every year you think to yourself that you should have planned a bit more to capture more business. This is where the chart works its magic. If the event is Labor Day and the summer schedules of you key staff is a bit spotty, plan your start date for March with a concept and design deadline of May. Then you have June, July and August to proof and print and come Labor Day you’re ready to ready to make an impact at this year’s event.
Planning For A Slow Week.
These slow isolated weeks are some of the most important times of the year. Again, may business tend to spend these weeks passing the time rather than preparing their next course of action. I like to think of slow weeks as a break in a tennis match. Ever notice how after a break one player usually comes back stronger? You want to be that player. You can stop and have a sip of water, but you better be evaluating your game play as you sip because chances are, your opponent is. Plot these slow weeks on your chart and plan for them. Slow weeks are a great time to double you marketing efforts. Take a look at what your competitors are doing, come up with some creative marketing ideas, reorganize your showroom, formulate a new customer service policy or analyze your client’s purchasing behavior. These little one week endeavors lead to smarter marketing efforts.
