You’ve likely heard the expression, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” The same is true when it comes to marketing. Good marketing doesn’t happen by accident—it’s proactive and should be done with intention and a plan.
Let me elaborate.
My new book, Masterful Marketing, written with Alan Weiss, comes out on September 6th but our marketing plan for the book has been in full production for months now. Not only has the marketing been in effect since May, but I also have an eight-page document that outlines the details and timelines for different activities related to the book launch. In other words, we are taking a proactive approach rather than a reactive one.
Why Proactive Marketing?
In order to understand the strategy behind this and the importance of proactive marketing, you must first consider two key marketing elements:
- Regular recurring marketing and brand-building activities
- Promotional marketing activities to drive a specific outcome
Both types of marketing require a plan of some sort.
1. Regular recurring marketing activities
If you want to build your brand and have more people know who you are, then you need a well-planned cadence of marketing activities. These are activities that take place every week to support this. Those marketing activities might include the creation of a blog like this, or a podcast like She Talks Business that is published on the same day each week.
From there, you need a set of daily marketing activities. These will help to keep your presence up in the online public square.
For example, daily posting of value on social media, regular videos or live streams, engaging with other people and sharing content that makes a difference to others. For Masterful Marketing, I have weekly promotional posts and weekly countdown posts that include carefully designed graphics and written copy.
If you don’t plan how often you want to show up and add value, and on which marketing channels, it will be hard for you to measure how effective this initiative is.
2. Promotional marketing activities
The second form of marketing requires even more diligence and proactive planning. Whether you have a book, program, or webinar launch coming up, you will want to take time to plan out all the activities. These will be activities that are required to support such an endeavour or the results you get will be subpar.
An example of these activities is the fireside chats Alan and I have planned for people to really understand what Masterful Marketing is all about. It isn’t just a simple webinar, it is one where people can engage with us and ask questions related to marketing and being masterful. Not only do we get to connect with our audience but we are also promoting our book in a way that benefits our buyers.
This type of planning will put you firmly and proactively in charge of your marketing instead of responding to it as though you can make it up on the fly and succeed–which you likely can’t do.
So, want to get ahead of your marketing? Reading Masterful Marketing is a good place to start. Pre-order your copy here.
