SmallBusinessNewz

Although many people use the words "time" and "money" interchangeably, I think the majority of people would sacrifice a little bit of time for extra money. Planning takes time but it does produce benefits. In the video below, SmallBusinessNewz takes a look at how planning a marketing calendar can increase your overall revenue as well as improve your marketing campaign.

The focus of planning this calendar is to take full advantage of holidays and special events throughout the year. It will allow you to constantly be thinking ahead about profitable marketing opportunities.

There are several specific steps to this planning process starting with analyzing your inventory. Identify all the products and services your business provides and organize them according to when they could best be used in the calendar year (i.e. Christmas, spring, hot weather).

To keep track of your planning, purchase a large annual calendar to document your plan.

Thirdly, detail your plan. Make notes to begin a promotion more than a week in advance and then build upon that promotion as the event or holiday gets closer.

Next, you need to decide how you will execute your plan. Are you going to use fliers, postcards, email, or mere word-of-mouth? Whatever your method may be, decide and stick with it.

You may feel like your products or services don't fit into any holiday celebrations. If this is the case, then create your own events. You can always have anniversary sales, weekly specials, or even dedicate a specific day for a group of people such as senior citizens.

Lastly, you need to track your results. By doing this, you can discover what is working, what you need to work harder on, and what you need to stop spending time on.

Just because it's March doesn't mean you can't plan out the rest of the year. There are plenty of holidays and special events left that can boost your marketing campaign.