Calendar Marketing

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Do you have your Daytimer, calendar, BlackBerry or iPhone filled with important dates like birthdays, anniversaries and the like? Well, why don't you also plan your marketing tactics and put them on your schedule, as well? Too many times we just see the broad picture insofar as our marketing efforts. We just look at quarterly items that need to be accomplished rather than getting down to the detail. If you really plan your blogging, social media, eNewsletters, etc. you will be more efficient and will be able to get more accomplished. Here are a few tips that will help you get organized.

• Make a plan. Commit to blogging, for example, twice a week. If you don't have the time to blog twice a week, take one day a month, collect topics you think your audience may be interested in, and write 8-10 blog articles at once. You can save the posts and than publish them at the appropriate timeframe.

• Same with your eNewsletters. I find that most of my prospects are happy to hear from me every 4 to 6 weeks. I tend to send my eNewsletters out on the first of every month. That way, my subscribers know exactly when they should expect the next newsletter. In my industry, if my prospects or customers get more than 1 eNewsletter per month, they feel like I am bugging them. So, I try to provide them relevant content and interesting articles that they can use as reference tools. Plus I add each newsletter to an archive page so that my customers can go back at their leisure and read the articles at their own pace.

• Engage your audience. I know everyone talks about engaging your audience and communicating and that is great. But, all of that engaging takes time out of your day to do your "real" work. So, I know why many companies haven't embraced the social aspects of marketing yet. They feel they need to hire an arsenal of employees to engage. And most companies just don't have the revenue to add headcount right now. Yes, it is time-consuming, but then again, maybe, you need to give up other items in your day-to-day activities that aren't giving you the bang for your buck. Are you on Twitter or Facebook? If not, maybe you should be. But, I hear the arguments, that it is a waste of my employee's time. If you make a plan to to spend at least 20 minutes a day, either at the beginning or end of the day to engage, then it becomes less burdensome. Engaging can become addictive and you may have a tendency to check your Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn account every hour or so. But, disciplining yourself to checking it once or twice a day, will help you to focus on other marketing activities that also need to be accomplished.

So, no matter what type of marketing you are currently engaged in, it's always a good idea to schedule it. Now, with many new online tools that are available to handle the task and to automate your tweeting and posting activities, you shouldn't feel like you need to spend an inordinate amount of time on social media.