What’s On Your Calendar?

What’s up next?

What should we be doing now?

Everything is on fire!

One of our clients is always reacting to whatever is happening. Whether it’s a current event or a customer activity, the resulting activities are always urgent and become a number 1 priority.

In marketing, there are often situations that come up last minute.  But that should be the exception and not the rule.

• Reacting to situations means you’re not being strategic – you’re not working toward larger objectives and you can get off track really quickly
• You’re not always doing your best work if everything is done quickly. Mistakes are common or you might not be able to partner with your preferred external supplier who can’t drop everything for you.
• People can’t enthusiastically go to work every day when they never know what will be on fire or when it will start. That’s a war zone.

One of the most important tools that we create with clients is a 12-month calendar of activities. It helps us plan ahead and anticipate what is going on with their customers and their market. Once we know what their customers or potential customers are doing, we can plan tactics that will make a real impact on their buying decisions when they need that information. This also allows us to factor in time to plan the tactics so we execute well and make sure everyone who needs to be involved knows when they’re needed. This doesn’t have to be fancy – a spreadsheet, a graphic or even a handwritten diagram will do.

Here are a few tips to help you create your own marketing calendars. NOTE – you may have to make a calendar for each market or offering as the marketing and sales activities may be different.

1. Focus on the Market – In the end, we have to connect with customers when they are thinking about what we are selling. It’s important not just to note when they are buying but when they are thinking about buying or looking for options. Agriculture, construction, tourism, and many other industries have times of the year when customers are so busy they can’t pay attention but other times when things are quieter. Get to know what customers are doing and when they can give you attention.
2. Potential Customers Needs – Once you know what the market is doing and when, you can identify those times when they’ll need to know what you have to offer. Accountants shouldn’t wait until the tax filing deadline to promote their services. This is a great exercise to anticipate what information people will need to help them move through their buying cycle.
3. Marketing Support – After you’ve determined what the market needs and what you’ll provide to potential customers to help them decide, it’s time to focus on when you should be preparing marketing support tools or generating leads. If you need information for a major show in the spring, start planning those pieces in the fall before the show so they’re ready to send with the sales team. Give yourself the time you need to do a great job and get all of the approvals you need and include the production time, too (which could be completely messed up after a global pandemic!).

These calendars have been invaluable to us working with clients to keep everyone on track. Let’s face it, marketers are paid to come up with great ideas but that creative genius can be a huge distraction from strategic tactical execution. We often ask marketers and their managers to post these calendars over their computer so that they’re a daily reminder of what’s important. The urgent things will always come up but minimizing them helps people stay in the job longer and makes them more productive. Give it a try!