The holidays are a time for family, friends, and fun. But for business owners, it can also be a time of stress and anxiety. Trying to keep up with the season’s demands while also running your business can be overwhelming. All the while knowing there’s likely a slow season on the horizon when the new year hits and people are exhausted, have overspent, and just want to stay home.
Without a plan in place to maximize the busy season and minimize the negative impact of the January slow season, it’s likely to take a personal toll on you. Now is the time to map out a strategic marketing plan so you can sail through the coming two months.
Start With Strategic Marketing Planning
Strategic marketing planning has four phases: goal setting, review & Research, marketing strategy development, and implementation.
1) Goal setting:
This phase involves setting realistic yet challenging goals for your business. It is important to be realistic to ensure that you can actually achieve your goals, but you also want to push yourself to reach new heights.
This means SPECIFIC goals. A set percentage sales increase over last year, increasing your customer list size, and defined response rates for the marketing campaigns you implement. Whatever it is, it needs to be a measurable, quantifiable goal. Otherwise, you have no idea if you’ve hit your target.
2) Review & Research:
Look back; what worked well at this time last year, and what didn’t? Did you see a marketing strategy used by another business you want to emulate? Consider all the angles you could take with your marketing. Are there special events you want to create marketing around? A community event or a seasonal tie-in. Narrow your list to focus on the ideas that will bring the most results.
Two warnings: Don’t get lured by the “latest shiny object” unless you research it enough to think it might bring in larger revenues. It is easy to get distracted by ideas that look appealing but often don’t work for your target audience or your business type.
Don’t overdo it: you are more likely to get higher results when you do less than more. Choose strategies you can execute well and focus your energy on maximizing them rather than trying to do more ideas and watering down results.
3) Creating and Implementing Marketing strategies:
Once you have gathered all the relevant information, it is time to develop a strategic plan for reaching your goals. This plan should include detailing your specific marketing strategies and setting timelines for achieving your objectives.
Once you have written a list of your overall goals and the WHAT of goal setting, it’s time to work out the HOW.
How will you accomplish them? Write down all the things that need to be done to achieve the goal. Make this as detailed as possible to include every aspect of the campaign. Who will train the staff, who will write the marketing, who will print it, who will create in-house signage, who will track results, and how will those results be tracked?
You also want to set a rough timeline; there’s the WHEN. Add dates to various aspects of your “how list” to know when a target is due. When you make specific plans like this, it’s easy to see progress.
4) Implementation:
Once the plan is finalized, it is time to implement it! Here’s the important part – it doesn’t all have to be done by you!
Here’s where you focus on the WHO. Your lists likely have items that will not need to be accomplished by you. WHO can accomplish various steps towards the goals?
Your goals may seem overwhelming and daunting or maybe even unachievable at first. When you break them into smaller chunks with action items and deadlines, each smaller item is doable, much easier to delegate, and moves you toward reaching your ultimate goal. No business owner should be trying to do everything themselves. It’s a recipe for burnout.
List all the things that need to be managed and the tasks required to complete each one. Then delegate everything you don’t like doing or are repetitive, easily trainable tasks. I guarantee that there are people in your organization that is waiting for the opportunity for more responsibility. Automate tasks wherever possible; there is so much technology available now; figure out how to automate repetitive tasks, and then they only need to be monitored. Delegate tasks to employees or outsourced professionals and follow up on them regularly.
The key here is that you aren’t relinquishing the responsibility, only the workload. Give timelines and specific results expectations, and then check in to hold people accountable. Your job is to make sure things get done, not to do them.
Track your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.
Set Up Systems For Success
Without systems in place, business owners often find themselves overwhelmed with tasks and unable to move forward.
Having systems in place for every aspect of your business is important because they help to automate and organize tasks. You likely have systems in place for accounting, inventory, production and manufacturing systems, payroll, point of sale, or shop management systems – but marketing, staffing, and online review systems are often forgotten. All of them lead to less stress, better results, and more time away from the business.
Systems also allow you to track your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way. It also helps with future planning so you have a strategic plan in place for upcoming seasons and holidays that can be deployed quickly and easily.
Most Importantly – Take Time Away From Your Business
The holidays are an important time for business owners to have a strategic marketing plan in place. You don’t want to end up spinning your wheels trying to figure out what works in the thick of the season.
Stick to your marketing plans, and focus on your goals and established systems to maximize your results. Although creating and implementing systems may seem tedious, there is a lot of relief in knowing that everything has been thought through and the team knows what needs to be done to reach your goals.
Staying organized during the holidays using tested systems will help you sail through December instead of drowning in the chaos. Delegate, automate and follow up to achieve your goals so you can have a successful season this year! Enjoy the holidays with your family and friends and relax knowing that others can be responsible in your absence.
FREE Offer
If you’re looking for a strategic plan to grow your business in 2023, I have a FREE Gift for you. Register for one of our Business Growth Strategy Sessions, and we will:
- Analyze what you are doing now.
- Research your competition.
- Rate your business across multiple review sites and rank you in your local market.
- Find untapped sources of new customers.
- Develop a plan to explode your business in 2023.
Sound good? Did I mention it’s FREE because you’re on our list? (Thank you, btw.) First come, first served.
Michael Thibault
Known as “The Done For You Marketing Guy for Restaurants.” International Speaker on Restaurant Marketing. Published contributing author of 4 Marketing Books. Industry expert on Google Searches and Review Sites. Recovering Independent Restaurant Owner and Caterer of over 21 years. And, all-around good guy.
