How do I make sure I don’t miss a marketing opportunity?

I’ve just missed a good marketing opportunity around the end of the financial year. How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?

It seems that most SMEs either don’t plan ahead and see what marketing opportunities are out there or don’t know how to execute and do a good job of their promotion.

Given enough time and a good structure for getting tasks done, your marketing campaigns should be a breeze.

Identify marketing opportunities in advance

Typically two months’ notice is enough time to execute a marketing activity but if you really want to make sure that you don’t miss the boat, follow this three-step process:

1. Make a list of key dates – These may consist of events, holidays, media attention or changes in consumer habit.
2. Make a list of your stakeholders – Who has a part to play in executing each opportunity and how much time do they need? Typically you need to worry about designers, printers, your marketing agency and administration staff.
3. How much time do YOU need? Are you particularly busy or unorganised at certain times of the year?

Delegate

The reality is that if we plan ahead so that we can do it all ourselves, many of us do less than we had originally planned to. My number one tip once you’ve got a plan is to delegate.

When we do it ourselves we tend to scrap all but the most important tasks. When we delegate to an employee or colleague, we make sure that all of the little things that take an execution from good to great get done.

Keep accountable

Last year I sat down with one of my clients and worked out the key marketing events and opportunities for the year ahead.

We laid it all out and put it into a nice document that outlined what campaigns we were going to run, when they needed to be done and what roles each stakeholder played in them.

I received a phone call a month or two later with a guilty client saying that they had forgotten all about it and didn’t have time to run their first two campaigns.

We went out and bought them a big Sasco year planner to pin to the wall.

With a visual reminder of the key events and tasks that needed to be done in the lead up to the activity, their team were kept accountable and were able to execute far more easily.

How do you keep your marketing accountable? Let us know.