As we wind down the year and prepare for the upcoming holidays, our thoughts are turning to 2015 and the goals and objectives we have for the year ahead. Whether you only have a list of top-level things you want to accomplish, a calendar of events and opportunities for each month, or a full-scale strategic and tactical plan through December 2015, chances are you’ve already been planning for the year ahead in some fashion. But how do you take those ideas to the next level and create a plan that will drive your business throughout the next year? Here are some ideas to take your thoughts and build them into a cohesive, strategic marketing calendar for 2015.
Assess your current situation
Take a look at your company: where are you right now? What is the field you work in, and where do you fit into it? Who are your main competitors? What do they have that you don’t, and what is your point of difference against them? What major gains did you achieve in 2014, and where did you fall short? This information will be crucial in figuring out how you should market yourself, and who you should target in the next year.
Start at the top
It’s tempting to jump straight into tactics when creating a plan, but resist the temptation to do so! Your first step should be defining your high-level strategy for the year. What are the overarching goals you want to accomplish? It may be that you want to position your brand as a thought leader in your field, or you want to open up lines of communication with potential clients and build a following in a certain geographic area. Keep these simple, and limit your goals to no more than three–this will help keep your tactics aligned to your objectives. Then, for a full-year plan, split these goals into smaller objectives–one for each quarter of the year, and then split those into smaller monthly objectives. This will provide you with a strategic, actionable framework that is necessary for success.
Assess your target audience
Always keep in mind that you are marketing to someone–not just shooting information out into the ether. Who are you targeting? Come up with three or four personas for your most important stakeholders. What are they like? What are their values, and what influences their purchasing decisions? What time do they get up? What are their days like? To successfully reach your audience, you need to know about their day-to-day activities and personality in order to provide them with targeted, relevant content.
Use data to look back and plan ahead.
The data that you collected in 2014 will be a valuable tool as you plan for 2015. What did you do that went well last year, and how can you recreate it? Where did you fall short, and can you leverage that data to make a more successful attempt sometime next year? By figuring out your strengths and weaknesses, you will learn what you need to focus on in your plan.
Once you have your strategy, target audience information, and data, begin creating a tactical plan.
It’s finally time to begin working on tactics. Think what you can offer in multiple different sectors: social media, events, speaking opportunities, deliverables like webinars and whitepapers, and tradeshows are all excellent things to keep in mind. Plan each month to include a social media strategy (5 Twitter posts a day and 2 Facebook posts, and a longform LinkedIn comment per week?) and something in another of the above categories every month. Align each with your monthly, quarterly, and yearly objectives. If you’ve done all the above, this final step should be easy–it’s basically filling in the blanks!
A thorough marketing calendar for an entire year can seem a daunting task. However, if you take the care to do your homework and frame the whole thing according to an overarching strategy, it comes together easily. But if you’re still having trouble creating your plan, we have you covered: here’s a free 2015 marketing calendar template for you to use! Consider it an early holiday gift from Prosper Strategies.
Photo Credit: sepy via Dollar Photo Club
