MARKETING MATTERS
your phone number from your Google
My Business listing, tradeshow or net-
working leads, social media following,
social media engagement, and email list
size are all examples of building metrics
you may want to benchmark and re-
view.
Because your business is likely cyclical
in nature, you can’t always just com-
pare you benchmarks last month vs this
month. Consider reviewing data from
both the previous month and the same
time period from the previous year to
see how the numbers line up. Is it close
to your goal? Ask yourself why or why
not? What did you do differently?
3. Activities - Past, Present, Future
It worked for Ebenezer Scrooge and it
will work for your marketing too.
Start with the past: What market-
ing activities have you completed this
year? What is working particularly well
that you may consider doing more of
in the coming months? What have you
learned? Maybe you had a great success
or a total belly flop. Each activity you
engage in is part of your overall market-
ing experiment, it's important to note
all outcomes, especially those that don’t
go as planned so you can adjust for the
you do now to free up your time in
the future?
• Review your creative process: Are
there ways you can increase efficien-
cy through technology? A lot of our
clients have their project managers
snap photos with their cell phones
on the job to add to their website or
social media. The PM’s then upload
photos directly to Google Drive
in a shared folder. Could you im-
plement processes like this in your
marketing to save time in the long
run?
• Work ahead: If you have articles to
write or social media posts to publish
prepare for them ahead of time, and
get ahead of the game. Consider writ-
ing now and then scheduling them
to publish during the busy season, so
that you can focus on other things.
• Prioritize: What are your make or
break activities? And what, if time is
tight, are the things you can put off
until later? Prioritizing isn’t saying
that you'll never do those things, it's
clearly defining what must be done
and what can be picked up as time
allows.
• Delegate: If priority activities truly
must be done, are you able to dele-
gate them so you can focus on what's
building our trade show wish list. As
we've moved through this very busy
season of networking we noted the
items that we’d like to upgrade and
replace, as well as ideas for improve-
ment. Then when the funds come in
and our schedule allows we can move
these onto our future activity list.
4. Check In With Sales
The busy season isn’t inclusively for
your labor crew, it can also be an ex-
tremely opportune and lucrative time
for your sales team. Make sure they’re
organized and have what they need to
do their jobs. Replenish your sales ma-
terials and business cards that may have
run this during tradeshow season. Or-
ganize the leads they gathered at shows
and establish a game plan for follow
Get a jump start on your marketing by
preparing for the busy season now.
future.
Present: Where is everybody on all
the things that they're supposed to be
doing for your marketing?
Future: What activities are you plan-
ning to do during this busy season? Are
there activities you can do now to make
your marketing easier in the coming
months? As your company’s workload
increases during the warm months, you
don’t have as much time to allocate to-
wards marketing activities. So what can
www.callape.com
most important on a day to day basis?
For example, we have many clients
who delegate MayeCreate to handle
all of their website updates during
their busy season.
• Create a wish list: Where would
you like to go next, with your mar-
keting? What ideas do you have to
improve? Marketing materials to
purchase? Keep a list so you can im-
plement them as time and money
allows. In our office we are currently
[16]
ups. Also, review leads and opportu-
nities from the end of busy season last
year to pick up where you left off.
Get a jump start on your marketing
by preparing for the busy season now.
Review your goals and determine your
benchmarks. Then outline the activities
you've already done and what you have
planned for the next few months, high-
lighting your must do items. After that,
head over to sales and make sure your
prospecting is organized.
1.800.210.5923