You already know how to do this. I don’t actually need to be writing this blog, but the purpose is for you to read it, nodding all the way, thinking “I know all this” and once you’re done, you’ll be motivated to actually get planning! Because, simple.
I did this recently. I bought a $2 calendar for 2016 and sat down one afternoon and started planning out my year. You don’t need to buy a hard-copy calendar. If you’re quite happy with your online calendar and prefer that, then work away online. I work with both, but when it comes to planning there’s something about writing it out that I enjoy.
So! Back to the process – if you want to be prepared for next year, here’s what you do in nine simple steps. Oh and I should mention that this process can be done at anytime of the year, just because you missed it at the beginning doesn’t mean you can’t pick it up halfway through the year and get sorted.
Revisit and edit your business and marketing plans
A lot can happen in a year or two, or however long it’s been since you last looked at your business and marketing plans. Go over them again and make sure you’re still heading in the direction you wanted to when you originally wrote your plans. If not, then edit or think about shifting your offerings or products.
Revisit your blog/newsletter/social media platform strategies
Are you sick of blogging every week? Do you want to change the frequency? Are you tired of writing a newsletter each month? Revisit your strategies for your blogs or newsletters and check that you can still commit to the frequency of them.
Brainstorm your blog topics
This can really help during the year or at those times when your brain is just not working and you can’t think of anything to write about. If you plan a heap of topics ahead of time, you can easily flick back to this list and choose a topic to write about. If you get stuck for blog topics as most of us do, I wrote about a process I follow that helps me get my topics and plan the year. You can find that blog here. The end of this year has found me falling off the wagon with my blogging so I’m making a big effort to get a lot of the blogs written ahead of time.
Grab yourself a calendar
It doesn’t matter if it’s online or a hard copy, whatever it is, this will be your go-to calendar for the year. As I mentioned, mine was a $2 job from Woolworths that will do the trick! I’m a visual person and being able to see everything in hard copy works better for my digital immigrant brain.
Populate the calendar with important dates
Start adding in any important dates for your business. School holidays? Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas etc. If you like to celebrate Daffodil Day and you’d like to do something in 2016, then add that to your calendar so you can remember.
Add your newsletter and blog dates
Make a date with yourself to blog and write your newsletter. Once you make a habit of it, it gets easier, and your readers will come to know that you blog once a week and you send your newsletter out monthly (as an example).
Add competitions or events you will be running (and remember to add the lead-time!)
Too often, we as small business owners know that we want to do something for Valentine’s Day or for White Ribbon Day, but because we haven’t planned for it, it creeps up on us and we’ve missed the opportunity. Adding in these special dates will help prompt you beforehand. Which brings me to the subject of lead-time.
I offer a service where I sit with my small business owners and plan out their marketing for the year. We lay out what competitions or events they’d like to run and then we build in the lead-time.
Lead-time is something that some people don’t include their planning. When you’re planning an event or a competition, there is always a certain amount of lead-time that needs to be built into the planning. Too often I get requests from clients for something they’d like to happen tomorrow, or next week, and it’s just unrealistic. This comes down to lack of understanding of what is involved – so by planning what you’d like to do, you can start researching what needs to be done in order to make it happen. And while we’re still on the topic of adding dates, remember to add in a date around October/November to buy next year’s calendar and get organised for next year!
Revisit and edit as needed through the year
Once you’ve done your calendar you’ve got yourself a working document that you can (and should) regularly revisit through the year. Situations change and sometimes it’s necessary to move things around.
Those are the steps I’ve taken to stay organised and on top of my workload. Now what about you – what can you add to the list?
Hardcastle Social Media is an independent social media consultancy based in Inner Brisbane. We provide strategic social media marketing to organisations of all sizes. Specialising in Facebook business page management we provide services from setting up your Facebook business page through to total management of your current page. Contact us today on 0401 505 423 or info@hardcastlesocialmedia.com.au. We offer expert social media advice and look forward to discussing your business needs.