So the countdown to Christmas is well under way – there are fewer than 50 sleeps at my latest count – and naturally, the big retailers are pulling out all the stops with their Christmas campaigns.
You’ll have seen them. The glossy TV ads, the carefully coordinated social media buzz, the shop windows that look like winter wonderlands. Major retailers like John Lewis, M&S and Sainsbury’s make it look effortless.
But here’s what they don’t want you to know: that ‘effortless’ campaign? It was planned months ago. Possibly even more then a year ago.
Behind the Scenes of a Successful Christmas Campaign
Let’s think about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into planning a high-profile seasonal campaign. The process includes:
- Deciding on the theme and story for the campaign
- Selecting which products to promote
- Ensuring those products will be available when the campaign goes live
- Planning store layouts and window displays
- Writing scripts and content
- Creating storyboards or content plans
- Securing locations, talent, music rights
- Shooting and editing any video content
- Organising media previews and press coverage
- Planning the rollout across TV, radio, print, online and social media
I’ve probably left out loads of stages. And in some of the stages I’ve listed, there will be massive to-do lists and sub-lists. On and on and on!
“But I Don’t Sell Products…”
Now, you might be reading this thinking, “That’s all well and good for retailers, but I’m a service provider. I don’t have products to photograph or shop windows to dress.”
Fair point. But the principles are exactly the same.
Whether you’re an accountant promoting your tax planning service, a family historian offering a gift package, a business coach launching a new programme or a jewellery maker with a Christmas collection – you still need to plan your campaign.
Replace ‘products’ with ‘services’ or ‘packages'” Replace ‘shop windows’ with ‘website pages” or ‘social ‘media profiles’. The planning process doesn’t change.
You still need to:
- Decide what you’re promoting and why
- Ensure you have capacity to deliver when people buy
- Create content that tells your story
- Build anticipation over time
- Coordinate your marketing across multiple channels
The size of your business doesn’t matter either. Whether you’re a solopreneur or a multinational, good marketing requires the same disciplined approach.
Why Very Small Businesses Need to Think Like Very Big Businesses When Planning a Marketing Campaign
It’s easy to think that huge, already well-known companies don’t need to plan marketing activity. They’re already household names, so why bother?
But part of the reason why these companies became so huge and so well-known is that they plan their marketing with expert precision. They don’t wait until the last minute. Instead, they build anticipation. They whet our appetites by drip, drip, dripping hints and messages way in advance.
The moral of this story is that good marketing campaigns can’t happen without a plan and a buzz.
Luckily, creating a basic marketing schedule – one you can use again and again – is simple.
And what better time to start than now, when we’ve got so many calendar events coming up? OK, Halloween has gone, but we’ve got Black Friday at the end of November and we’ve still got Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter and countless other opportunities to plan for.
Marketing is a Science, Not an Art
I’ve lost count of the number of business owners who tell me they’re ‘not creative enough to do marketing’.
But good marketing is all about discipline, routine and consistency, rather than wild creativity.
According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, marketing is:
‘The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements, profitably.’
Does that sound like art to you?
Rather than trying to conjure up a host of creative ideas, start simply. You’ve got an event, offer or seasonal opportunity coming up, and you’d like people to know about it.
Now it’s time to get planning!
Use an Event Planning Checklist
A checklist not only works as an effective ‘countdown’ to your event, promotion or offer – but once you’ve created it, you can roll it out time and time again, tweaking it accordingly.
This is a trick used by large companies who run lots of tried-and-tested event campaigns every year. This is what’s known as the ‘rinse and repeat’ process.
Start with a specific goal for your event, offer or promotion, such as the number of sign-ups, ticket sales or revenue you’d like to achieve.
Then, think about all the different marketing channels you could use to let people know about your event, and what kind of messaging is most appropriate for each. For example, you may need to source different images for social media posts or record videos.
Remember that marketing isn’t just about social media. It might also be effective to create a series of auto-responder emails, write an in-depth blog post about the event’s subject or talk about it at a networking event.
Start with a Whimper; End with a BANG!
How far in advance you decide to promote your event is up to you, but the general rule of thumb is: the earlier, the better.
People need time to process and internalise the information you’re sharing, so that when they finally make the choice to buy or sign up, they feel ‘safe’ with their decision.
If it’s an event you’re promoting, they’ll need to make arrangements and clear space in their busy diaries.
There’s another – massive – upside to scheduling lots of time.
You can get all the work you need to do organised, prepared and finished well in advance, broken down into bite-sized chunks. For example, you could source images on one day, write a blog post on another and record a video on the next.
Once you’ve done that, you can plot all your marketing activity into your timeline.
My advice here is to start with a whimper and end with a BANG!
So if your event, offer or promotion is happening in six months’ time, start with one post or reminder every couple of weeks, then gather momentum by ramping up the frequency of your communications as the date draws nearer.
Who knows – your offer could end up being as hotly anticipated as the big retailers’ Christmas campaigns!
Want help creating your own marketing campaign plan? Let’s talk about how to build a promotional strategy that actually works for your solopreneur business. Book a 30-Minute Consult with me and I’ll give you a few hints and tips.
