Want a Simple Marketing Calendar?

One of the biggest problems I see with small businesses is that they have no marketing calendar. There are several reasons for this, often procrastination and fear of commitment. There’ll always be something more important to do, and there’s always the chance you’ll miss your target. There are no rewards without risks.

A marketing plan is great, if you’ve taken the time to write one. But for pure simplicity, opt for a marketing calendar instead. The marketing calendar becomes your de facto plan. Using one will improve your business, without a doubt.

Start simple to avoid getting overwhelmed:

• Use a spreadsheet (you can track results on here too)
• Limit your plan to 3 months out (quarterly)
• Only list items that you can really accomplish

Now you might say, “Isn’t that sort of like cheating? Only listing the things I can really accomplish? Shouldn’t I try to push myself by listing all the things I would like to do?”

That would be a big mistake, leading you to procrastination. When you plant yourself in front of a 30-foot wall, you’re putting unnecessary obstacles in your way. Start with a 3-foot fence and work your way up. The idea is to accomplish tasks not just dream them up.

Consider the following marketing calendar. Assume it’s for a very small business like a web design or copywriting business, though it would apply to many, many others as well.

On the calendar, you’ll see I’ve created columns for 12 weeks. Also, I’ve added an expected results column and an actuals column. The first time you fill out the calendar, jot down in the expected results column what kind of response you realistically expect to get from each marketing tool/campaign.

Next, fill in the cells, as shown below, based on when you honestly expect to run each campaign.

{spreadsheet id=1 display=interactive}

Here’s what this exercise does for you:

• Let’s you see how many things you’ve got planned for any given block of time. You may need to reschedule some things or even postpone them.
• Gives you a heads-up on campaigns that may require prep (seminar) or follow-up (email campaign).
• Illustrates tasks that you might actually be able to outsource (blog posts).
• When campaigns are complete, allows you to see which marketing tools work better for your business in your market (ad and seminar in this example).

You can get much more sophisticated than this in a spreadsheet, dicing it down to days instead of weeks, adding tracking mechanisms, and calculating ratios. I repeat, if you’re not doing anything formal yet, start small and keep it simple. Otherwise, you’ll just find yourself in front of that very big wall. And if you’re afraid that marketing sounds just too much like selling, read my post on the truth about sales.

Any of you use other successful methods or tools for planning your small business marketing? We’d love to hear about them!

Tagged as: Marketing, marketing calendar, marketing management, Niche Marketing, planning, Project Management