Using a marketing calendar
Many business owners may not necessarily be doing their marketing planning this way or may choose to be doing this in a similar way. Either way, using a marketing calendar can be hugely successful strategy to grow your business through effective marketing.What is a marketing calendar?
A marketing calendar is a way to organize your marketing activity to specific dates or deadlines relevant to the target markets of your business;For example a florist could target mother’s day marketing and promotion. It may be a more general month target of for instance targeting Christmas shoppers in November. It can also be used to schedule information or promotion to clients who have been engaged to services for a specific period, such as an insurance company may wish to do certain marketing activities prior to renewal dates for instance.A marketing calendar can be a way of aiming at different key target markets throughout the year and aligning all the marketing efforts for greater impact in gaining your target markets.You may also notice trends at certain times of the year, which you may choose to attempt to exploit more fully in your marketing calendar planning. For instance a financial planner may see a spike in new year resolutions leading to more interest in wealth creation early in the new year.How to do a marketing calendar?
Your marketing calendar is a working document you can revise and update throughout the plan year. A marketing calendar should be simple. I recommend a simple spreadsheet matrix with months or dates with your key target market type described along with the key marketing efforts directed at that target market.Go back and review your target markets.
A good business should know exactly who or what kind of client or customers it would like. Remind yourself the types of target markets that you may be winning more, make more money from, have more competitive strengths in, more specialized in or even just downright enjoy more. The key is don’t be too broad or have too many. The more specific your target market is, the easier your marketing becomes and chance of marketing success.Review all of your marketing activity
If you haven’t already done so, go on and write down all your marketing efforts in detail and check on just how effective each marketing tool is for you. To state the obvious you should then consider putting more focus on the ones that work and eliminating the ones that don’t work. You could also try to match certain ones to the different target markets.Some examples of your marketing efforts maybe be:
• Signage• Social media• Websites• Referral partners• Business networking• Paid online marketing• Asking for referrals• Web blogging or SEO• newslettersWhat if this doesn’t apply to your type of business?
Perhaps your business is not at all dependent on the date or time of the year. If so, consider just having after care schedules to perhaps ask for referrals or cross sell you at a certain point after a sale.Where do I find the time to do this?Well often business owners do not get out of the business long enough to develop some systems to improve their businesses. If this is the case they are unlikely to get different results.So they need to look at ways to free up their time to devote in this area. This can be achieved by delegating or training staff to be more capable and giving the business owner more time to develop their business.Otherwise they may simply outsource their marketing and grow their business that way.Some other examples
• One business owner says he arranges a highly discounted sale of stock or wrongly sized materials. As well as clearing out stock, staying tidy, it brought in new people into his showroom and lead to sale of his real product too.• Use a regular say monthly newsletter of useful information or stock listing to your customer list. It will be a great way to keep you in mind of the customers. You may also be inviting them to buy or use your services at the perfect time they may be considering that very purchase at that time.• Curiously at times of elections spending can slump in economies. So you could factor this into your marketing calendar too.Here are some reasons why a marketing calendar will help your business grow
1. having a plan gets you to a destination. You will be efficient in knowing what to do at certain times of the year and can repeat these year in year out.2. Focusing on less gets you a better result. Improving your efficiency from your marketing tools will get you better results.3. More clients and customers come with more marketing activity. Thinking in this way and implementing a system to gain new clients will be effective in improving your sales.4. Improve your branding and reputation. Honestly, being consistent and having good marketing activity will make you appear to be an even more successful business therefore attracting more clients and customers.5. Become more productive. By working on your business you will learn how to outsource and delegate. This will also get your more profit or results with your time.6. Making more success in your business always improves your personal life balance. So having more profits may in turn means more holidays or more staff to help you better enjoy your non working life.
Business Growth Secret Revealed – Using a Marketing Calendar
Where to Shop on Sanibel Island
If your favorite hobby is shopping, you won’t be disappointed while shopping on Sanibel Island. There are many shops tucked away all over the island. The stores feature gifts, t-shirts and souvenirs or you can go upscale with designer fashions and jewelry. Sanibel has a little bit of everything for every taste and style.
One of my favorite places to shop is the Seahorse Shopping Plaza on Periwinkle Way. There are two stores that are quite special and fun to shop or browse. One store is the Sporty Seahorse, which has gift items and a large clothing area for men and women. If you are looking for great beach sandals or summer shoes you will not be disappointed. The other shop is Tuttle’s. It’s a small shop but fun, featuring jewelry, unique gifts and t-shirts. The owner has been living on Sanibel Island for over 37 years and is a lot of fun to speak with while shopping in his store.
The Tahitian Gardens is another shopping complex located on Periwinkle Place. There are many unique shops to visit while walking undercover from shop to shop. There are
two restaurants in this complex which allows for the convenience of shopping and eating!
You can’t go to Sanibel Island without visiting Jerry’s. There is a tropical garden on the first level of this complex with exotic birds in large cages. Quite a site to see! There is a grocery store but also many retail shops. Jerry’s is a great place to do your grocery shopping and find a gift to take home, t-shirts or other items for the beach.
One of my favorite places to “bum” is Winds on Periwinkle Way. The shop has a huge selection of beach towels, t-shirts, custom t-shirts, beach shoes, umbrellas and gift items. It is a great place to spend time before or after eating dinner.
The largest shopping plaza on Sanibel Island is Periwinkle Place. There is a large parking area and multiple restaurants to get a meal or snack while shopping. Periwinkle Place is located on Periwinkle Way. It has covered walkways (which is great if the weather is not cooperating!) throughout the entire shopping area. It has a park-like environment which is very pleasant. The shops are numerous and you can find just about anything here. There are many upscale gift and clothing stores. Plus, I have found quite a few great t-shirts here too!
The newest place to shop and browse on the island is Mango Bay, which is also on Periwinkle. It features an extensive selection of beach wear, shoes, sunglasses and gift items. It’s a fun and open store to shop and walk around. They have a large children’s section too, including clothing and toys.
You will not be disappointed shopping on Sanibel Island. Just stay on Periwinkle Way and discover all the unique shops and stores that Sanibel has to offer!
About US Auto Insurance and the Quotes
US has a strict car insurance policy which is made mandatory in almost all states. According to their law, every person who owns a car needs to have insurance coverage. Not only that, the family members who are of age to obtain a drivers license must be covered by the insurance plan. Therefore, being a US citizen one can not but look for auto insurance quotes which suit their requirement the best.About US Auto InsuranceIn US, many types of insurance policies are available. One can go for a liability insurance plan which covers the insurance holder along with those in his family who have attained the age of holding a drivers license. However, if a member is not having his own automobile and is operating the vehicle of some one else, the coverage plan is not valid. One can also get insurance coverage from the party’s policy which covers a person when he is driving an automobile owned by that party. If someone does not have his own car, he can have non-owners policies, which are especially useful to those whose drivers’ license has been suspended.Some car insurance companies give full coverage to rented cars which are established in advance. Other car insurance policies offered in the US states cover for the automobile’s bodily injury, property injury and other damages caused by an accident. Other forms of insurance policies available in US are loan/lease payoff coverage, car towing coverage or Roadside Assistance, auto policy and behavior based insurance coverage. With so many policies, one can also get a variety of auto insurance quotes to choose from.How to get the best auto insurance quoteGetting the auto insurance quotes of various insurance companies is not a tough matter. Nowadays, automobile insurance quotes are easily available in websites on internet. All one need to do is click on the website and choose his state (only applicable to US citizens). He would be required to fill an online questionnaire which is nothing but a set of simple answers relating your requirements. This questionnaire will be sent to the respective companies of the state. They would receive it and send the auto insurance quotes available for those companies. A person can evaluate these automobile insurance quotes and compare them at the same time. If he is interested in any particular quote that satisfies his requirements then he can make a purchase. The steps are simple and hassle-free.There are ample such websites which will offer you auto insurance quotes that range from very expensive to cheap rates. It is a common tendency of people to go for the cheapest auto insurance quotes available without considering the other factors. One should avoid this and go for that quote which is both affordable and ideally satisfies his requirements. These are common pitfalls that one should not fall in.Auto insurance quotes depend on many factors which influence their rates. The factors include the driver’s history, make and model of the automobile and the location. It has been found that the auto insurance quotes offered in different states of US are different. Therefore, before settling down with a policy one must carefully do a research in the market and find out the latest trend.