Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Small Business Quarterly Planning – A Look at My Agenda
Last week, I shared part one of my CEO Day routine and went into detail about exactly how I create a marketing plan that strategically aligns with my business goals. In today’s episode, I’m picking up where we left off last week, and sharing the last 3 steps in my small business quarterly planning agenda. So, if you didn’t listen to the last episode make sure you go do that first because you will be very confused if you try and listen here first.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Learn more about working with me 1:1 on your own strategic marketing plan!
- Head back and listen to the first episode in this series, if you haven’t already.
- This week’s action step: If you enjoyed these two episodes, please share about them on your Instagram stories! And if you want help creating your own strategic marketing plan, let’s chat because I’ve just opened up my 1:1 spots for my annual content marketing planning clients and they fill up quickly!
- This week’s book recommendation: Act Your Age Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
Did you love this episode?
Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.
Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at hello@amandawarfield.com!
Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate.
Last week. I shared part one of my CEO day routine, and I went into detail about exactly how I create a marketing plan that strategically aligns with my business goals. In today’s episode, I’m picking up where we left off last week. So if you didn’t listen to the last episode, make sure you. First because you will be very confused if you try and listen here first with that being said, I’m not going to make you wait any longer for the rest of this process.
So let’s dive on in, you’re listening to Chasing Simple Episode Number 82. And I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. Let’s do it.
All right. So picking up where we left off last week, just a reminder of the example that I was using. The yearly goal was 40,000 in revenue. This person had made 20,000 so far. They were halfway through the year. They had two quarters left to make another 20,000. They had one-to-one clients bringing in a steady thousand dollars a month and they were looking to have one big launch in the next quarter.
We worked out that they needed about 27 sales of their course during that lunch. And again, for that full process of how we came to figure all of that out and what we did with all that information, please go back and listen to episode 81, because it’s way too much to recap here, but that’s the main recap.
If you did not listen to episode 81, go pause this and go to that. Now you need to listen to that one first, before you listened to today’s episode. And if you did listen, but maybe you want to refresh because it’s been a little while go re-listen and then come back. Okay, so got the recap. Here’s what I do on day two of my CEO days.
Remember this is a two day process. I set aside two days every single quarter to do this episode. 81 was all about the first day today. There are just three steps in this one, but it’s a little bit more mentally draining because it’s more creative energy versus yesterday was more database and analytical based on what was already there.
So. That’s why I broke it up the way I did step number six or step one for day two is to work backwards, to create a launch content strategy. So we know we’re going to have a. When is that launch going to be put that date in the calendar and then work backwards from there to determine what your prelaunch is going to be and how much content do you need during that pre-launch period.
So I personally recommend about eight to 12 weeks of pre-launch content, especially if you are biweekly or monthly in your content. If you’re not weekly, especially, especially you’re gonna want to do eight to 12 weeks, if possible for your pre. Now a quick note. Pre-launch is not the same as launching.
I’m not saying that you’re going to be in launch mode for eight to 12 weeks. I’m saying that you’re going to be in pre-launch mode for eight to 12 weeks. What is pre-launch is a time period where you are serving, serving, serving. You’re not asking you are giving. I made this freebie for you. You’re talking about your topic.
You’re talking about the free content you’ve provided and you’ve created. You’re not talking about your course in the scenario. You’re only serving your audience. Eight to 12 weeks of that, talking about that topic, talking about what they need to know in order to buy your course, et cetera. You’re not selling the course yet.
So you fill that in. You say, okay, here’s my launch date, eight to 12 weeks before that this is my pre-launch began. So, you know, that’s all launch content, you know, the topic of what all that content is going to be. Even if you don’t know what that content is going to be at. If you’re doing.
Smaller promos. You don’t need as much pre-launch content and maybe you want a week or two or three, depending on what the promo is for the other quarter. But we’re just gonna talk about this main one right now. So eight to 12 weeks got that set up. If at all possible step number seven is to fill in the blanks with non launch content.
So, you know, when your prelaunch is going to be, let’s say that you’re going to be doing your launch in August. And so you’re doing June. You already started your pre-launch content June. So July is going to be pre-launch content all the way through your launch in the middle of August. Well, that still leaves you half of the quarter. What do you do with that? Well, you fill in non launch content, especially if you know, you’re not going to do another big launch in the next quarter, so you don’t need to do another big pre-launch phase.
Right? You fill them with non launch content. What does that mean? This is a great time to throw spaghetti at the walls and try new things with your content. Is there an idea in the back of your mind for a future product or service? Great. Use these time periods to test it out. Does it get a response? If yes.
Keep talking about it, change it up. See how people respond? No, maybe still keep talking about it still no? Move on this. Isn’t something that your audience wants from you. Okay? This non launch content is a great time for you to really, we should always showcase your personality, but really showcase who you are, showcase other things in your business, besides this one topic showcase ideas that you have showcase things that you’ve gotten asked about that you’re like, oh, that’d be fun to talk about.
Even though it’s not my typical thing. This is a great time to really just give yourself the freedom to experiment. Throw spaghetti at the wall with non launch content. So step six, work backwards, decide when your pre-launch is going to begin. Know that that’s all going to be around a certain topic and then look at, okay.
This is when I’m going to have non launch content and know what, so let’s say.
And obviously, you know, when you’re posting, when, because you have a marketing plan already, right. You already know that you post your blog post the, every other Tuesday. So, you know, okay. Every other Tuesday, this is the first Tuesday in my prelaunch timeline. All of that. Blog posts are going to be about this topic.
All of these are not, you have that down already. So, you know, this is launch content. This is non launch content. Okay. Step eight, the final step, you’re going to move into monthly planning. So this is when you get really serious about what that content is going to be with step six and seven, you outline what kind of content is going, where. In this one you want to say, okay, this is going to be the.
What is my topic going to be for each of these blog posts for each of these podcast episodes or each of these YouTube videos? What is the topic? I know what the overall plan is. I know that it’s launched content or it’s not, but what am I actually going to talk about? You don’t have to have your exact title right now, but maybe, you know, oh, I want to talk about For example, when I created this, when I got to this part in my planning with my last CEO day, for this episode, I just wrote down CEO Day Part Two. That’s not what this title is going to be in the end, but I know what I’m talking about for this episode.
So in this step, you’re moving in and say, okay, I’m gonna talk about this during this episode, this, during this episode, this, during this episode, this is the main idea that I’m covering. So you go in and you finalize what those main topics are going to be for the next quarter, based on whether they are launch content or non launch content.
Then
I look at the next month specifically. So we’ve got the whole quarter planned out whether or not it’s launched content or not launch content and what the main focus is going to be for each episode. Of my long form content, whatever your long form content is. You’ve got the main topic for that. Now we’re not going to worry about the whole quarter.
We’re just going to worry about this upcoming month. So you’ve got three months of long form content written out, as far as what you’re going to talk about. Now, we’re just going to look at the next month and say, okay. These are my episodes for the next month. I’m going to outline them. You outline all of them. Then you look at your social media content.
What promos and reminders do you need to post about? Do you have any set days, for example, on Wednesdays, I try and post about that week’s podcast episode. Do you have any days like that, write those in next, sprinkle in some personality, do an intro post or post about one of your, your quote unquote buckets that I don’t love.
The way, this is taught by a lot of people, but those things that you talk about over and over again, and that you infuse your personality with, for example, my buckets would be Disney, the cats and reading. Those are, those are these personality quirks that I’ve built into my brand and my business post about some.
Then hop into that content bank that I know you have, because we’ve talked about this so many times hopping to that content bank that you have and pull out ideas that you’ve been collecting and pop those in based on whether they’re on topic for your pre-launch period or whether you’re experimenting and throwing spaghetti at the wall.
And that’s it. Those eight steps spread out over two days are exactly how I create a strategic marketing plan. That’s aligned to my business goals. So let me recap, day two first. You’re going to determine when your launch is going to be what the prelaunch dates are going to be, and when you’re going to be in a pre-launch period, How many pieces of launch content do you need? That’s what your determining. Step seven. You determine when you’re not going to be on a launch period. How many pieces of a non launch content do you need? Then you move into step eight, which is the detailed, monthly planning. First you pop in all of the topics for all of your launch period.
Then you’re going to pop in all the topics for all of your non launch period. All of this is for the long form content that you do, whether blog, podcast, or YouTube. After you’ve got those main topics, then you focus solely on the next month. And you worry about what about outline for these next, however many pieces of long form content for the next month and then move into.
Okay. What am I going to talk about on social media? Once you’re in social media? Okay. What are your set days sprinkle as a personality and then use your content bank, where you keep track of content ideas and pop those in as well. I’ve ran through all of these three steps really quickly, but they are very mentally draining because they require a lot of creative energy.
So even though I went through these in less than 10 minutes, don’t think that this is something you can get done in just a couple hours. There is a reason why I set aside two full days for the CEO days because they are exhausting and they use a lot of mental energy.
But if you can get these done and you can take these steps. You can make such big moves by making sure that your marketing content is strategically aligned to those yearly goals. And if you enjoyed these two episodes, please share about them on your Instagram stories. And if you want help creating your own strategic marketing plan, if you listen to this and you’re like, wow, this is amazing.
I want this, but I don’t want to do it by myself. Let’s chat because I’m getting ready to open up my one-to-one spots for my annual marketing planning clients. And they fill up really quickly each year. So send me a DM, send me an email, whatever the case may be. If this is something that you want help with, if you want strategic help, you want a partner that’s going to help you align your marketing plan to your yearly goals.
Let’s chat because spots are opening up for 2022 really, really soon. And this week’s book recommendation is Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert. And this is number three of the brown sisters book series. I think I’ve talked about the other two before, because they’re also good, but I love the way that she writes about non-stereotypical characters.
Her characters are not the typical popular princess blonde hair, blue eyed, beautiful girl. It’s just, they’re different. And they’re so relatable because they’re different. And if you’re someone who’s really quirky like me and you’ve got. a lot of different personality traits that aren’t maybe so mainstream.
I think you’d really like this. It is definitely a young adult fiction book. So no, that, I don’t know. It’s got some adult themes too though, but it feels very, it’s a quick read. I’ll say it that way. It’s a great book though. The whole series is phenomenal and I’ve really, really enjoyed it. So even though I think I’ve shared about the other two.
Now that ever the third one, I wanted to come back in and share that one again, because it is very much worth the read. All right, friend. I hope that you found this episode helpful. I hope that you found this series helpful with these last two episodes all about the CEO days and how I use those CEO days to align my marketing plan to my yearly goals and truly steer the ship with my business and move the needle forward.
If you’ve got any questions or you want some help doing this on your own, please reach out. I am always here for you. And until next time, hope that you’ll go out and Uncomplicate your life and biz.
+ view comments . . .