2016 is upon us and it’s pertinent that you have a roadmap in place for planning your marketing efforts for the year. While it’s easy to procrastinate building out an annual marketing calendar, the process of brainstorming your outreach typically uncovers needs and opportunities you never knew you had. Ready to dig in? Use the following tips to create a marketing calendar that will keep you on track through the new year.
How to begin
Begin your marketing calendar by outlining major events and trends that impact your business. This includes holidays, trends in your product cycle, events and tradeshows, and any sales or campaigns you plan to run.
Objectives
With your major milestones determined, you can then begin setting objectives and strategies for promoting each one. This could be as small as a facebook post or as large as a new tradeshow booth for an upcoming event. Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering your objectives:
- What am I trying to achieve this year?
- Which programs do I need to achieve my goals?
- Which resources do I need to accomplish my tasks?
- How can I determine which programs have worked in the past?
Tactics
When determining tactics to reach your goals, the methods you choose should revolve around three key objectives:
- How do I attract key players?
- Once attracted, how do I engage them?
- Once engaged, how do I close the sale?
The number of tactics available for reaching these objectives are essentially limitless, but here are a few to get your wheels turning:
- Infographics
- Email Marketing
- Display/Web ads
- Website landing pages
- Social Media Outreach
- Tradeshow Booths
- Print Collateral
- Webinars
- Slide Decks
- eBooks
- Billboards
Execute
Creating a plan like this ensures there are little to no surprises as you approach the months to come. No matter your goals for 2016, you and your marketing team will be grateful to have a set roadmap with deadlines and expectations for executing tactics over the next 12 months.
