Blog- Planning, is it your thing or would you rather not?

Do you need a simple way to plan out your marketing activities?

I know you do!

You may have guessed that planning is a thing for me. Like a part of who I am.

I often describe myself as a "planner" and proud of it!

My husband on the other hand is not!

Does a plan really make a difference?

I believe it makes a huge difference. To prove my point I will share a little story from this past weekend.

We took a quick trip, this one was rare in the fact that he was in charge of organizing it. Before leaving home I had shared a few things I would have loved to do while there. Things like go to the LaJolla Cove, walk the beach, have a date with just us, go eat some great Mexican food. None of which we did.

Don't get me wrong we had a great time. However, we spent so much time staring out at the ocean, ok that wasn't that bad, that we did very little because there was no plan.

My point is, we don't get an opportunity like this often and I was hoping to take full advantage of it. Instead, we talked a lot about what we could do until we didn't have time to do much.

Is this the way you feel when you look back at your marketing efforts for the week or month?

So which are you? Are you a planner or do you live on the wild side?

I ask mostly because I want to know where you stand on the subject but also because when it comes to marketing your business the "winging it plan" rarely works all that well.

Here are the top 3 reasons why I believe that having a plan is essential:

1. Staying consistent gets a lot easier when you have a well-thought-out plan to follow.

2. A plan reduces the squirrel effect. Guilty! When you know what you need to accomplish you will have more focus.

3. Actually see results you can celebrate. A plan makes it possible to see your return on investment. some things, like social media, can be hard to quantify but when you know what you are trying to achieve and how you will do it, you can track your progress.

Don't love to plan?

I got you! Here are some tips for all my non-planning friends to easily create a social media marketing plan.

1. Find a tool you like using. To you love software or are you a paper and pen gal? There are a lot of planning options out there. Pick one & run with it. It doesn't have to be complicated.

2. Set aside time to plan. Once a month plan out all your content ideas and assign them to certain days. Then once a week create the actual posts and schedule them.

3. Pair it with something you love to do. Sipping coffee at your favorite cafe, watching a good show, or cocktails on the patio. It will feel like a weekly treat.

Want a fun and simple planner?

I have created a lot of different planning systems over the years. This one may be my favorite for a few reasons.

First of all, Post-Its!

If you love Post-its as much as I do, you are going to want to download this PDF now!

It is S-I-M-P-L-E

Also, I am a pen and paper gal so this has me written all over it, no pun intended.

I want you to have this one, so click below and download it now.

Gimmie - Gimmie

See how easy it is?

Step One:
Lay out a sticky note on each month, for both sections.

Tip: write the month along the top of the sticky note.

Different colors are not necessary but they are fun.

Step Two:

Set your Daily & Weekly goals!

Consider what tasks you do on a daily and weekly basis, how often should you be doing them?

How many outside sales calls a week?

How many posts to Social Media?

How many prospecting calls?

Write it down.

Step Three:

Add your monthly tasks, projects and activities to the appropriate post-its.

Monthly tasks would be things you do or plan to do each month.

Projects may be a one and done or take a few months that you will break into steps, like write a book, edit the book, launch the book.

The marketing activities are things like specific promotions you plan to run. Sales Blitzes, Events you will participate in and when you may need to start planning things like that.

Happy Planning!

Whatever system you choose to plan out your marketing activities I highly recommend using it and updating it often.

If you are not already using a plan you will start to see the effects pretty quickly. If you need help making a plan I would love to help you!

If you download and try my post-it planner, take a picture and tag me on social media, I would love to see it in use!