This will be STOMP's first year in operation and I am setting in place for myself and my clients a Marketing Plan for 2014.
Marketing Plans don't have to be complicated but they do have to have a sensible direction that you feed all of your media through. It needs to be relevant, your own and not repetitive. Sometimes it is more important to have one or two methods of Social Media being used than spreading yourself so thin that you get no time to update all of them.
Having this plan in place means you can spend your time being more proactive in every day operation. It is important to also incorporate any improvements or changes in your business, namely if one crops up some stage in February and you obviously weren't previously aware of it, to make a point of recognising this change at the time and adapt your plan.
Why is it so important to have this in place? Most small businesses or Sole Traders just don't have that much time and in order to make the most of their precious time its important to make the best of what time you have. You may have timeframes in mind like a Book Launch (Michael J Synnott's second book in the Tir series is due out in March 2014) and you will need to give plenty of notice to your Twitter followers, Likers, etc of the release, with Press Releases, Facebook, Twitter and perhaps posters in the locale to the event. With a time frame in place the date won't suddenly creep up on you and there will be plenty of time to build and develop interest.
Shootmydog.ie has just finished doing a fantastic deal leading up to Christmas for vouchers on Pet Portraits. Shootmydog.ie may well choose to do more deals in the forthcoming months, but in order to promote this, another time frame needs to be created and adapted to his clientele and of course to a set realistic budget.
Budgeting and Time allowed are the two biggest factors to a Social Media Marketing Plan and when you have looked at what events you need to attend, special offers you can cater for and who and how to reach your clients it all comes together to give you either week-by-week plans or even monthly plans.
If I can assist anyone with creating their Marketing Plan or perhaps have a look to see if I can add/improve your current one, please do not hesitate to contact me on 085 286 0502 or email melanie@stomp.ie.
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
