Creating a 2012 Marketing Calendar For Your Business

Mothers are really good at creating calendars to keep track of kid’s schedules, family appointments, the comings and goings of the husband’s business trips, and scheduling family vacations. Men relate to calendars so they know when their favorite sports teams are playing and how to plan their appointments.

So creating a calendar to plan your marketing strategy should be easy, and yet few business owners do it. This ends up creating chaos and lots of last minute, not well thought out marketing.

There are many benefits to creating a calendar, here are a few:

1.  You communicate your clear marketing message consistently

2.  Your time is more effectively utilized when the plan is already set, you simply follow the map

3.  You are able to focus your content and beef up the value driven aspect when you know the primary theme or topic

4.  Build promotions around holidays and observances. Here’s a resource site to find those dates and create themes:  http://www.brownielocks.com/

5.  Write blog posts in advance and schedule them out to coincide with your monthly marketing campaign

Ideas on what to include on your calendar:

1.  Theme for the month – can be related to a national holiday observance, a social cause or simply topics that relate to your products and services

2.  Create blog posts – schedule out on calendar what day they will post

3.  Date newsletter or email marketing campaigns will go out – support monthly theme/topic

4.  Social media posts – jot down each day how many tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts you will create. These can be created in advance and scheduled along with blog posts

5.  Add any events you participate in or attend on the schedule

6.  Press Releases – Send out two to three weeks prior to and eve

Scheduling Social Media -

This is the number one question I get asked, so here is a guide. You must know your own audience to tweek this schedule according to when your peeps are actually on social media sites. Whether your company is a one-person business or a large organization, your commitment to social networking should be consistent, compelling and informative.

Statistically speaking…

Facebook in the workplace – One in five global companies block social networks in the office, which means at least 20 percent of professionals are engaging outside of the 9 to 5. If this is your audience, post after 5 p.m.

Research shows the end of the week and weekend are prime engagement times especially on Facebook. 

Here are a few quick tips to get going.

Twice Daily in the Morning and Afternoon

Through the Week

• Mondays: Schedule tweets through HootSuite to go out three times per day at regular intervals.
• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Join one hot trend conversation on Twitter, if appropriate, and add new content to Facebook (new items you are selling, photos, discounts and other promotions).
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: Respond to blog comments.
• Fridays: Check traffic at your blog or website.

It’s important to remember that marketing is about creating a positive relationship with your target audience so that you win the business when there are other choices. Let the choice be your business!

JoAnne Funch is owner of GIR-Graphics & Innovative Resources, providing creative marketing solutions to small business owners and non-profits who want to gain visibility off-line or on-line through strategic marketing ideas and consistent branding messages  For free marketing tips visit her website www.girpromotions.com. Or, connect with JoAnne on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn