Second Article in the Series:
Pulling It All Together
As we move toward the close of the year, many of us begin planning for the next year. If you haven’t already, set aside some time on your calendar preferably away from the office, to reflect on this year and plan for the next. This series will walk you through some of the key steps for strategizing the upcoming year.
With your Ideal Client in mind, you will want to begin your strategy by calendaring all the marketing-related events. Having identified your Ideal Client Communities and how you will Get Known to these groups, you will have a variety of activities to calendar. These will include:
- Organization and committee meetings
- Galas and events
- Sponsorships
- Articles or speaking engagements to these groups
- Publication of your newsletter or blog
- Client events that you host
- Connecting with centers of influence
You may find it helpful to have a separate calendar for all of these events. That will allow you to easily see these outreach related events and if they are sufficient for keeping your pipeline full. Alternatively, you can color-code these events to make them easy to distinguish on your full calendar.
Now you can begin working backward to calendar time for the events. If you will be writing a blog or newsletter on a regular basis, when will you do that? Schedule it on your calendar. If you are hosting a client event, when will the invitations be sent and the food ordered?
By starting with the marketing calendar in your strategy, you are ensuring that this important aspect of your business will be addressed. You are also transforming yourself by building the habits of putting your priorities first. Next week we will look at how this plays out in your days!