A marketing calendar can help you coordinate your efforts, plan your budget, and keep you on track. One of the problems that many small business owners face is that they market when things slow down and stop marketing when they get too busy. However, that type of marketing is ineffective. You need to have a continuous marketing effort no matter how much work you’re doing, especially if you want to avoid the slow times. Hit and miss marketing is more costly than planned marketing, especially in opportunity costs.

You should make sure that you assess how your different marketing techniques perform. Those that do well, you should repeat the next year; those that didn’t work need to be revised or eliminated. In order for you to know what works and what doesn’t, you’ll need to make sure that you have a way to measure the outcomes in place. Always ask people how they heard of you.

An annual calendar will allow you to keep the sales level while also providing you with possible sales strategies. If your business can benefit from a well-timed holiday, you can make sure your marketing includes that as a time to get the word out. The calendar should be continuously updated and used. It doesn’t make sense to put all the work into a calendar and leave it hanging on the wall.

You need to do at least one marketing thing every day, but more is better – as long as you’re doing the right marketing things, which are those things that make you more money than you spend on the process.

(You can get a free downloadable calendar (or $4.99 off any calendar) until Dec. 31, 2019 on this website using the code SHM2019499. Just got to Calendars and choose the $4.99 calendar with the code and it’s yours free! (First 100 people only!))

Adapted from “Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days (affiliate link).”