Now that everyone’s New Year’s Eve hangovers have subsided, the fridge has been purged of all junk food, and the workout clothes have been dug out of the bottom of the closet, it’s time to address that other 2014 resolution: Get your Marketing Plan Together! Luckily for you, I have the perfect thing to get you up and running just like your 6am jog. Whether you need to update your website or post to your social media profiles more often, this easy 3 step plan will get you on the right track.
1. Define Your Goals
95% of potential clients that I talk to have very ambiguous goals when I first speak with them: “I want to get more clients online,” or “I just know I need to get on Facebook.” While those goals are great starting points, they aren’t specific enough to really give you direction with your marketing.
Here are some questions that will help you define goals that you can measure and quantify:
A. What is the percentage increase you would like to see in leads that come from your website this year? 10%? 25%? Remember the higher the percentage, the more time or money you will need to spend, so be realistic.
B. How much would you like to see your social media following grow this year?
C. What age group or demographic would you like to reach more in 2014?
Those are just a few questions that will help you get on the right track with your marketing goals. You want to be sure that the goals you set are measurable and specific so that you can see how much progress you’re making and if you need to make changes to your strategy or your editorial calendar.
2. Create an Editorial Calendar
The easiest thing to do is to start the New Year with good intentions and a mental plan and then see it all unravel as the weeks tick by and life happens. To avoid your own marketing meltdown, start by using an Editorial Calendar to organize your blog posts, social media posts, and pages to add to your website. We have created a free Editorial Calendar Template for you to download by simply requesting one here.
As I’m sure you’ve heard before, Content is King, and filling in the blanks in your own Editorial Calendar ensures that you get that content organized and published. It’s a schedule for your content.
Tip: Adding keywords to your posts will ensure that you stay topically relevant, which will not only appeal to your target audience, but it will also start to build your authority with the search engines.
3. Assign Each Content Item to a Person
This one seems very obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people skip this step right off the bat.
This may be you, the business owner, or it may be several people in the office. The important part about this item is to make each item someone’s responsibility. This helps to hold someone accountable so that they take ownership of the task and ensure that it gets done.
Don’t let disorganization become the killer of your 2014 marketing plans! In 30 minutes, you can have a decent plan up and running. Happy New Year!
