Is your marketing reactive or proactive? The better question is, do you plan your marketing or do you fly by the seat of your pants? Many businesses plan ahead. They have planned for the promotions for the year and the trade shows they will attend the next year. The businesses that plan their marketing ahead are a lot less frantic than those who do not plan ahead. I bet you are not one of those businesses.
Set some time aside – ideally at the start of the year, but you can do it now – and prepare a basic outline of the promotions you want to run and when you want to advertise. Share the plan with your media reps and put the onus on them to remind you when it has to be done.
Create a calendar for the next twelve months and include things like seasonal promotions, holidays, anniversary, special events. Create a plan for each one and share it with your staff for input. Don’t think of marketing and advertising as the ad or post you will run next week; but rather, think about the marketing or post you will run for the next six months, the next year, or even longer.
Planning this far ahead may seem like an impossible task, but you get surprising results just for trying. Once you start to look at marketing as a long-term plan you will see how it can help your business. Plus, if something does come up that you need to react quickly, you and your staff will have the time to do it.