Marketing planning is like a vegetable plot

My husband is a keen gardener, and spends much of the winter collecting packets of seeds and planning what he’s going to plant when. It struck me that this is not dissimilar to marketing planning. In order to generate results you need to plant some seeds. But much like gardening, you need to spread your activity out over a number of months to ensure a sustained outcome. 

The first year of the vegetable plot saw us eating carrots twice a day for about 3 weeks… and then no more carrots for the rest of that year. Learning from that experience, we now have regular “batches” throughout the year. And so it should be with marketing. A massive influx of business one minute and a quiet period for months is not healthy for you or your bank balance. And given that most business comes from the marketing efforts you apply, it would make sense to spread these activities over a period of time.

So how do you do it?

First think about the results you need, and when. For example, you may know that the early autumn was quiet for you last year, so need to generate some business for that period. You may also think that you’d like to be less busy in the summer holidays so you can take some time off.  Think about how long it takes to generate business once you’ve done some marketing.  Is it instant, like selling ice-cream? Or is there a long lead time before an enquiry converts into actual work for you? Plan your activity to create a steady stream of enquiries and interest throughout the year so that you can manage the workload and direct it to fill (or avoid) those periods you’ve identified.

In this way you should be able to enjoy the fruits (vegetables?) of your labour all year round!