6 Reasons Planning Ahead Will Save You Time
Happy Summer!!!
Have you finalized your Fall promotion schedule? Do you know what products you will be focused on for Winter?
You should!
I know, some people don’t even have July planned out. That’s forgivable as long as you learn what doesn’t work, and implement new methods to prevent these mistakes from repeating.
Planning 3-6 months ahead for promotion has SO MANY BENEFITS, but let’s focus on why it saves you time.
It’s easier to create graphics, content, and write marketing proposals. This saves time because your brain will not be frantically trying to do all the things the week of, or day of for some of you, when the sale/holiday/event is taking place.
Knowing which bloggers, influencers, and media outlets will be promoting or showcasing your products gives you added relief, and allows you to plan on reusing their content on your own social media and website instead of requiring you to spend more time creating unique content yourself.
Decisions will be easier to make when you have benchmarks already in place as to who, what, and when certain tasks need to happen, giving you more time to hone-in on your messaging for that event.
Automation for certain activities is able to be used when you have a plan, and we all know automation saves us time once it’s setup for success!
You’ll be ready to adjust, instead of start from scratch, if something sidelines your plan. This can save SO MUCH TIME because you have the groundwork already done, and making a change here and there across the board is a lot easier than it is to scrape a plan together at the final hour.
A successful plan becomes your template, and we all know templates SAVE US TIME when we can change a graphic here and some wording there and upload to the cloud for final approval.
Need a little guidance? Let’s go over what happens each season so you can draft a plan!
Fall: Back to School, Labor Day, Leaves change color, Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Snow
Winter: Winter break, Christmas, New Years, back to school, New Years Resolutions, Presidents Day, Valentines Day
Spring: Spring Break, April Fools Day, Mardi Gras, Easter, Mothers Day, flowers begin to bloom, Memorial Day, end of school
Summer: Graduation, Fathers Day, Flag Day, Family gatherings, vacations, 4th of July, pool parties
What kind of things to include in your plan?
ALL. OF. IT.
What product are you focused on, what will the price point/s be, will there be a sale/discount/special, what graphics will you use, what blogs will you write to requesting to be included on, will you request to appear on TV or in magazines, are there podcasts you’d like to be interviewed on, which member of your team will be doing what activity, how many meetings will you have with your team & suppliers, do you have payment terms you’d like to discuss with suppliers or wholesale accounts, are you needing to hire part-time or full-time help, will there be a celebration once this plan has come to completion, what social media content will be posted where, what kind of stories will you include on all of the platforms, do you need a new graphic banner or temporary profile pic, is there going to be a giveaway or contest, will your store hours be changing…
ALL. OF. IT.
