Recently, I was asked…

“With all the last-minute changes that happen within my business and my marketing, does planning ahead actually save time?”

This is a great question, and the answer is yes!

Planning ahead allows you to step away from your marketing so you can “let it breathe.” None of us do our best work when we are hustling just to get something done. Also, it can be difficult to write an email or blog post when you don’t remember what you sent last or what’s coming up next. For the best results, I recommend creating some simple Campaign Ground Rules. 

Marketing Roadmap – Setting the Rules

Getting ahead with your marketing will encourage confidence while giving you more time to dedicate to other areas of your business. To create a successful plan, you will need a few Campaign Ground Rules. These rules are just one piece of our Marketing Roadmap – a timesaving framework for business owners who market themselves online.

Rule 1 – Set a Timeframe

This will look different for each business. Typically, you’ll want to look at it by week, month, or quarter.

Rule 2 – Choose Your Theme

Choose a theme that will be of interest to your audience. This may be an event, holiday, or launch.

Rule 3 – Determine the Quantity

Decide how many blogs, emails, podcasts, Instagram posts, livestreams, etc. that you can/should effectively create ahead of time.

Here’s an example of two different campaign structures:

Business A – monthly themes with a few supporting emails/blogs

Business B –  weekly theme and more content (podcast, emails, etc.) being repurposed within each week

If you have trouble looking ahead and coming up with a time frame and theme, try looking back on a successful launch, theme, or post from the past that was successful, and use that for inspiration. By framing up your marketing this way you are essentially taking out the guesswork. You are controlling your marketing plan and quite frankly controlling your time.

Layering in Content

Once you establish ground rules you will start to layer in your content.  This consists of what we call the 3 E’s – event content, evergreen content, and engaging content. Event content is things that can be preplanned because they are based around calendar dates. Evergreen content is the opposite of Event content in that is something that can be used or shared at any time and still be relevant. Unlike event and evergreen content which can be pre-scheduled, when it comes to engaging content, you’ll have the most success engaging in real-time. These are things like Reels and Facebook Live. All of this is clearly laid out for you in our Marketing Roadmap.

Repurposing Your Content

When creating a blog or video, you will also want to consider how it can be repurposed. You can take the same piece of content and use it across multiple platforms:

• You can typically create multiple social media posts
• You can create a Reel or Instagram Story
• You can turn a video into a blog and vice-versa
• You can share your blog to LinkedIn as an article

Need more?  Download our free video or check out our marketing roadmap service with 3 options to fit your needs. Choose a package that is right for you based on the level of support you need. Then, schedule your kick-off call and receive your beautiful, color-coded Roadmap, templates, and reports that are is easy to understand and execute without a ton of marketing experience.

If you have any questions, you can always schedule a free discovery call with me here or email me at lyndsay@ellengracemarketing.com.