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Author: Ken Waller

Article source: http://www.makemarketingfun.com/. Used with author's permission.

Creating a Foundation for your Marketing

A marketing calendar is the key to bringing your value proposition to life.

Intelligent marketing is marketing based on your firm's core idea—or value proposition. "What is the main benefit you offer your clients?"

Every one of your marketing weapons must be an extension of your value proposition. Advertising, stationary, direct mail, telephone marketing, signs, web site, all must support your value proposition.

To do this, you need to have a focused strategy. Your marketing calendar propels you to your goal by coordinating your marketing weapons in an orderly, logical manner.

Benefits

Among the benefits calendars offer: • Process, not event. Marketing calendars encourage on-going consistency rather than hit-or-miss marketing that never builds momentum and often results in lost opportunities.

• Freedom from budget surprises. Marketing calendars control your investment and help you avoid overspending or under-spending.

• No more "deadline madness." Marketing calendars protect you from last-minute costs, stress, and surprises. Marketing calendars make planning, buying and staffing easy.

Tracking your marketing

Guerrilla Marketers also use marketing calendars to identify their most profitable marketing tools by measuring the results of their marketing against written goals.

Tracking helps you eliminate marketing investments that miss the target and double investment in those that hit the center of the bull's eye.

Case study

A recent client, for example, who owned a furniture store, doubled the effectiveness of her marketing by creating a marketing calendar and tracking the success of her promotions.

By asking customers how they heard about the store, she was able to cut newspaper and radio ads that were not pulling their weight. This made it possible for her to invest more in the weapons that produced the most sales and profits.

Many successful Guerrilla Marketers soon feel their marketing calendar is their most precious business asset!

Calendar elements

Every firm's marketing calendar is different. Some are daily, others are weekly or monthly. But, most contain the following elements:

• Marketing weapons employed
• Starting date and length
• Title of promotion or event
• Co-op funds or fusion partners
• Total cost
• Sales and profit

Choosing the right weapons

Sample marketing weapons include:

• Follow up phone calls or letters
• Classified ads
• Public relation announcements
• Your 10-second elevator speech
• Networking and speeches
• Flyers
• Business Cards
• Newsletters
• Signage
• Web site
• Direct mail

There are over 100 Guerrilla Marketing weapons available. A marketing calendar helps you select the most appropriate, so you can reach your market as often as possible. Repetition is a proven component of a successful marketing attack.

A failure to plan, however…

Marketing calendars take the guess work out of marketing. Without a calendar, consistent action is unlikely. You're likely to miss important promotional, co-op, or fusion marketing opportunities because there won't be time to act. This results in lost sales and/or expensive last minute efforts, reducing your bottom line.

A marketing calendar permits you to see far into the future. Marketing will come into clearer focus. You'll find it easier to commit to a program, see it as the investment it is, and profit from consistency.

John Wanamaker, 19th century department store magnate, once noted, "Half of my marketing is wasted. I just don't know which half!" With a marketing calendar, this will not happen to you!

For Beginners Expert said... "If you are new to the Internet, read this before you buy anything else"!

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