Business Strategy and Marketing Solutions

52-Week Marketing Activities Calendar

  

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A 52-Week Marketing Schedule for Overworked CEOs

If business owners have one thing in common it is the discipline of a regular and thorough review of operating performance, with one possible exception-marketing. Marketing is often taken for granted and reviewed more for its tactics than for the disciplines that make it effective. For example, a large scale emailing will be analyzed for the number of calls it generates, yet opportunities for A/B testing or optimization of landing pages linked to the email may be ignored.

Small business CEOs can get an effective handle on their marketing activities-and improve the ROI of their marketing investment-by applying the same thoroughness used in other critical business areas. Here's a way to start the marketing activities calendar.

Organization of the Calendar
This calendar is based on the 4-4-5 week quarterly calendar. This results in 3 sets of 4 weeks plus an additional week every quarter. Each set of 4 weeks has an identical weekly discipline. Here is that discipline; the extra 13th week of each quarter will be discussed later.

The 4-Week Marketing Calendar
Week 1

• Focus on the big picture.
• Review the marketing calendar and familiarize yourself with those upcoming events that require special planning and communication.
• Review the ROI of the most recent marketing event, and pay special attention to traditional marketing activities such as print and direct mail.
• Analyze marketing performance versus budget, year-ago, trend, competition, and prior test results (if any).

Week 2

• Focus on online, inbound (non-traditional) marketing.
• Evaluate keyword performance and current relevance.
• Review how your website is attracting visitors, promoting your services or products, and converting leads. Optimize and analyze.
• Review the creation, use, and re-purposing of content.

Week 3

• Focus on problems and opportunities, primarily through the testing of new solutions and customer offerings.
• Identify test alternatives, and rely on competitive intelligence.
• Decide on the test design and expectations.
• (Tests may be conducted on virtually anything that warrants an improvement, ranging from alternative ads to new products.)

Week 4

• Focus on listening to your customer.
• Listen online to what is being said about your company and your competitors.
• Visit your customers and vendors.
• Listen to your employees.

The 13th Week
There are 4 weeks that we call 13th weeks. Assume that they fall at the end of your business quarter. Here's how you can incorporate them into your 52-Week Marketing Activities Calendar.

• First 13th Week: Simply get out of your office. Make visits to rarely visited customers, attend an off-site seminar, or visit a place (library, museum, retail store, etc.) that can stimulate your mind to think differently.
• Second 13th Week: Repeat the first 13th week activity.
• Third 13th Week: Prepare for your annual marketing review.
• Fourth 13th Week: Conduct your annual marketing review.

Summary:

Getting the most out of your marketing investment involves the regular disciplines described above. Modify this schedule to fit your particular business needs.

For more ideas, see Business Strategy.