11/27/2023
| A. Popwell
If you’re in business, you’re in business to make money and that means it’s important that your customers can find you when they need what you have to offer. It’s also important that you stand apart from your competition so that your customers pick you when given the choice. Marketing matters. How and how often you interact with your customers directs the success of your business. Marketing can often seem like learning by trial, but it’s important to develop a strategy that is intentional. A marketing calendar can help you do this and now is the time to prepare for your efforts in 2024.
A simple marketing calendar should include, at minimum, the topics and broad dates for campaigns. As little as having just a monthly topic on your calendar allows you to center and align all of your efforts for the month towards a specific promotion. For example, if you own a cafe, and in February you want to run a hot coffee promotion, bringing customers in to try your coffee becomes your focus and all efforts should funnel back into that central theme. It seems simple enough and even though you’d want to sell coffee all year long, you know there are times when you’d gain greater traction promoting ice cream. Your marketing calendar is your visual aid to set this in motion and aligns everyone on your team to the same mindset.
A more detailed calendar could include topics, dates, assets, touchpoint dates, and team members needed to accomplish each step of your campaigns. For example, if you want to launch a hot coffee promotion on February 1st, you’d need to have all assets ready before that date, you’d want to launch on social media that day and mail out postcards a few days before. You’d also want to have storefront signs ready and displayed, which means they would need to be ordered weeks in advance. You would need a graphic designer, a printer, someone to offer mailing services, and someone to be in charge of your social media accounts. These are all important tasks that can be added to a marketing calendar.
Whether simple or more complex, intentional pre-planning is the point. Allow yourself to know what is expected to promote your business in the next year but also leave room for flexibility as you learn what works and what doesn’t for acquiring new customers. AlphaGraphic Hoover | Birmingham South can help you each step of the way. We offer full service marketing and printing services, as well as mailing. Contact us at us448@alphagraphics.com, visit alphagraphicshoover.com, or call 205.979.2373. And don’t forget to follow our socials on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.