Get Ahead of the Curve: How to Plan Your Marketing

Last time, we looked at why you should plan your marketing in advance to ward off chaos, reduce your stress and get ahead of the competition. All compelling reasons if you ask me.

This time, we will dive into “How.” How do you plan your marketing in advance?

Let’s start with a topical example. M&S have recently decided to pull a Christmas advert for political reasons, as it was seen to be a comment on recent events in Israel and Gaza. Their stated defence was that it was filmed in August, well before the events in the Middle East occurred. We will ignore the rights and wrongs and just look at the logistics and planning.

If filming took place in August, when did planning start? With studios to be booked, actors and directors to be hired, storylines to be created etc etc, then planning must have taken place months ago. Probably January, as soon as last Christmas had finished.

Your average business owner might say that they can’t think of Christmas eleven months in advance, and it’s all very well if you have a dedicated marketing team, but if you want to be growing your business, that’s what you need to strive for. If not eleven months, then how about six months? Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Now, you might be thinking that Christmas marketing isn’t applicable to you. You are in a sector where Christmas is the quiet time, and Spring/ Summer is your peak selling time! Good, then Christmas is when you plan for Spring/ Summer.

Most businesses have a time that is quieter than others, even web and digital marketing has become seasonal over the last few years (weird, it never was pre-2020).

Take time out, ideally away from the business completely if it’s just you or in discussion with your marketing team or partners and think about your objectives for the year.

What do you want to achieve in terms of results?

What is the strategy you will deploy to reach your audience?

What is the budget you will need to invest?

What will the tactics be? (i.e., How will you implement the strategy?)

Now, I’m making a few assumptions here (dangerous, I know!) First, is that you know your target audience and their buyer motivations. If not, you need to start with that (free tools to help you are on our Resources page).

The next assumption is that you are realistic about budget. I’ve blogged on this before, but use the “reasonable person test.” That is if you want to bring in £350,000 of annual recurring revenue and you have set a budget of £1,200 for the year, are you being reasonable? Is a 20,066% year-one return on investment realistic? I would suggest not. Oh, and yes, that is a real-life example from a business we spoke to!

A budget of 5-15% of turnover is generally regarded as a benchmark; however, it can be lower if you are a mature business with high levels of repeat business, equally, it may need to be much higher if you are in start-up or growth mode.

Those assumptions dealt with, let’s dive in.

At Daneswood, we like to work with what we call our Rocks. Taken from the old story about how you fit rocks, pebbles, gravel, sand, and water in a container – you start by putting the big rocks in, then the smaller stuff fills in around.

So, what are your Marketing Rocks? What are the big events in the year? Is it Christmas, or Summer, is it a trade show? Is it hitting quarterly targets? Get those rocks down on your plan.

Then, like M&S in our opening example, you can work backwards. If the campaign launches on 1^st November:

• When do you need the physical and digital assets by?
• When will creatives need to be produced?
• When will the photoshoot be done?
• When will the photographer, models studio, etc. need to be booked?
• When will the storyboard/script be produced?
• When will the theme and promotion be decided?

Now, it’s likely your marketing won’t be as complex as the M&S Christmas promotions, but you get the idea. If you are booked at a trade show and two weeks prior you realise you have no stand graphics or posters, then either your stand will be bare, or you will pay extra for a rush job. Neither are good outcomes!

Once you have your Rocks in place, the next step is to work on your tactics. How will you capitalise on the big events? Will you use digital marketing, and if so, what channels? Print, telemarketing, networking, direct mail, radio, TV, sponsorships etc. The list is endless.

Then, you drill down to the assets you will need. Photography, text, fliers, advertising copy, and not forgetting people. Who will actually do this stuff? Can you do it all, and if not, who will help you?

There’s a lot to think about, but the sooner you start, the easier it becomes. Or indeed, you realise that maybe you need to scale back the grand scheme for something less ambitious and more realistic, which is achievable.

A great starting point is to download our annual marketing calendar, which has all the major holidays (UK) and lots of the small national and international “days” that you can use to add colour to your social media. It’s available for free on our Resources page.

Of course, if you need help working out what are your best options, please do get in contact, and we would be delighted to help.