I had the supreme pleasure of getting to speak to local business owners on how to create a marketing and content calendar that drives your business forward. Read on to see my slides, tips, and resources for integrating this information into your own business.

Thank you to the Ladies Business Network of Spokane for having me as a speaker!

Six Steps to Creating a Marketing Plan

1. Define your marketing goals: Use SMART Goals to define you overall goals for the marketing of your business. For example, instead of saying that you marketing goal is to “sell more product” say, “I’m going to get five sales that track from Facebook by July 2019.”
2. Define your Audience Personas: Typically most businesses are marketing to three areas both in potential leads and current relationships. Those areas are Customer, Referral Partner, and Employee. Businesses owned and operated by one person will not need to create an audience persona for employees. When creating an audience persona think about things that make up the ideal audience such as age, gender, interests, income, location, and pain points. Defining the persona will help you in crafting and publishing content that will reach that persona.
3. Assess Your Quarterly and Yearly Events: Most businesses have events that help define their marketing strategy each year. Review your business events or events that may impact your business such as holidays or regular sales.
4. Define a Budget: Your resources are limited. That includes time and money. Create a budget for your marketing needs and stick to it. Remember, it does take an investment (time, money, or both) to get the desired results.
5. Create an Event/Content Strategy: Now that you are aware of your quarterly and yearly events start to drill down your efforts into a specific content strategy. Personally, I believe that each month should include a marketing strategy to hit each of your specifically defined personas.
   A strategy should include: Your marketing effort (event/attendance/specific content), advertising, supporting content plans, goals, and budget.
6. Reassess Your Goals: Checking in on your goals and plans frequently allow you to track ROI. I believe in keeping a “Rolling” marketing plan in which you check into your plans each month assessing the month before, refining the current month, setting out details for the month ahead, and getting a rough sketch of your plans for three months out.

Marketing Plan Resources

• Example Marketing Calendar Template – To use this Google Sheets free template click the above link > select “File”> select “Save as Copy”
• Example Content Marketing Calendar Template – To use this Google Sheets free template click the above link> select “File”> select “Save as Copy”
• Special Days and Observances from Search Engine Journal
• Marketing Plan Samples & Templates from Co-Schedule Blog
• Best Times to Post on Social Media from Co-Schedule Blog
• Customizable Blog Planner from A Well Crafted Blog (This lists it as the 2018 version, but has a variety of resources without dates on them.)