A beloved mentor of mine used to say the phrase “Plan your work. Work your plan.” As a new business owner starting out, this was crucial and much-appreciated advice. I remember the months leading up to starting Carlson Integrated. Meeting with my mentor, identifying areas where I saw needs in the market that I believed I could add value as an individual and as a business. Defining a list of services. Blissfully ignorant of the challenges that go into it, but also optimistic that this just *might* work.
That was literally five years ago.
What I have learned in the day, weeks, months and years since is that creating a marketing plan is harder than it looks. Thankfully, with my amazing team surrounding me, we have been able to distill the plan elements into what we believe are incredibly useful and practical roadmaps that help our clients grow their businesses and achieve their goals.
We always spend a couple of hours meeting with clients to understand their overall business goals and objectives. Because only rarely do we really know them going in. And sometimes we find that the message going out to the industry at large is not congruent with the pillars of the company. Creating a key messaging strategy keeps everyone on target for a consistent narrative that factors in the purposes of the business itself.
Every organization has the opportunity to be active on every marketing channel known to humankind! The decision has to be made which ones are obvious – and less obvious – that align with a strategy. In every area – whether social media, web presence, public relations and thought leadership, paid online or print advertising – the regularity and frequency of reaching an audience is important. Some of us want to be YouTube stars – but understanding how monetization works and developing the path to get there should be taken into consideration. On social platforms, engagement is crucial. Websites are ranked higher based on mobile-first design and frequency of updates. Most of us don’t want to do everything, but we want to do something! Delineating those “somethings” is an important step.
“All marketing starts with a calendar.”
This is my own statement – one that has served me well throughout my career. Breaking down the channel’s outreach to understand daily, weekly, and monthly output ensures you have the bandwidth to produce the various elements. Moreover, the scheduling of prep time and production time keeps you proactive rather than reactive – allowing space for emergencies and additions of course! We also find that quarterly goals make a lot of sense. Some we have seen clients focus on in recent months include mailing list development and segmentation, adding thought leadership, modernizing materials, and adding another social media platform. Whatever your tasks and goals, a calendar is downright magical for helping you achieve them.
We have been truly delighted to see plans come together for our clients and position their companies for growth. Sometimes we get to help execute the plans. Sometimes we get to create plans for wonderful and talented in-house staff to aid in their processes. Whichever scenario, we know that “Plan your Work, Work your Plan” …actually works!