I know what you are thinking right now…
“Why on Earth would you write an article about how to screw up my business, Parthiv?”
Because, frankly because you are likely guilty of this most despicable of business sins.
If doing business was a religion, and I was the “Pope,” I would have any business owner who had been doing business for more than 2 or 3 years - who make this unforgivable mistake - declared apostate and force them from the hallowed halls of the faith.
If you’re brand new, then I can forgive you…
Afterall you are likely just making a mistake.
But if you’ve been in business for more than a few years, and you are screwing this up…
you’re just being lazy.
And, frankly, laziness is something i just can’t abide.
Faced with the greatest opportunity in the history of the world, namely the American economy, laziness is an unforgivable sin.
And if you are doing, or rather not doing, this…
You are just being lazy.
What am I railing on about?
A marketing calendar.
If you are entering 2020 without some sort of marketing calendar you should fire yourself as business owner and hire someone who cares more about your business.
Here’s the thing…
A calendar doesn’t have to be written in stone.
It can be, and should be flexible. New media makes itself known that should be tested and new products or services come up during the year that need to be worked out.
But if you don’t have ANYTHING, then you are screwing up…
You should have a well considered, written out, specified marketing calendar for each month in 2020.
You need to review what is working today, and how you can scale that.
You need to see what is not working and either decide to scrape it or have a plan to make it work better by a certain date.
And you need to consider new messages to test, new media to test, and new markets to test. Then make a plan about how to test them, how much money you are willing to spend on the test, what defines success, and how do you know whether to keep testing or scrape the tests at any given point.
There is always room for adding new ideas, scraping ideas you decided against, and adjusting the calendar as the need arises.
But to go into a new year with no plan at all is a deadly sin.
Look, if you don’t have a specified plan, then you DO have a default plan…
And that default plan is random acts of marketing and hope…
And random acts of marketing will NEVER get your business to the level you want it to be at…
Even if it has served you well to date.
Take a day, and sit down and put together a plan, a structure, a format for marketing starting in January of 2020. Focus on the ideas in this article, namely:
- what is working today,
- how you can scale that.
- what is not working
- either decide to scrape it or have a plan to make it work better by a certain date.
- new messages to test,
- new media to test,
- new markets to test.
- a plan about how to test them,
- how much money you are willing to spend on the test,
- what defines success, and
- how do you know whether to keep testing or scrape the tests at any given point
If you do that, and keep it somewhere you can review it weekly, you will be ahead of 99% of your competitors…
And that’s a good thing.
If you would like some help in your efforts, feel free to schedule a complimentary 30 minute call with me below.
Talk soon
Parthiv
