Yearly Marketing Plan

[JuliePetree]

How does everyone plan for the year?

Do you have a marketing plan that includes events and "OEM Themes" that you market around? Does anyone have a marketing plan, process map, or something similar that I can look at? I am trying to prepare for next year.

I handle all marketing, websites, seo, sem and social media for a Ford, Subaru, ROUSH store plus parts, service, body shop and fleet/commercial.

Ideas??

 

[JessicaRuth]

@Chris Leslie @Kelly Wilson @Daniel J. Mondello

You guys can help here.

@JuliePetree what have you guys done in the past? Do you have solid vendor partners you can rely on (pull stats, review, improve, make changes, etc) or are you kind of starting over?

 

[Tallcool1]

We like to plan a couple of events, but as much as I hate to say it we find ourselves in more of a "reactive" position when it comes to Marketing/Advertising.

We are independent (used only) so as our inventory fluctuates, our advertising follows. We may find ourselves in a situation where we are heavy on pickup inventory, or mid-range family cars. We will adjust accordingly.

It has become more difficult for us to adhere to a 12 month marketing and advertising strategy. Quarterly seems to suit us better.

 

[yagoparamo]

@Tallcool1

Well put, I think that applies to everyone.

 

[Chris Leslie]

hahaha Plan.. In this business I've learned the only plan that works is an intensive personal productivity plan. Here is what I mean.

It's hard to plan anything based on historical events or things OEM's have done in the past. You can plan out local holidays or other things that are not in relation to incentives.

Because I am in a similar situation as yourself @JuliePetree I keep to a schedule. I have on a calendar the days each month I would like to send out emails. The dates I would like to have Facebook ads start. The dates I want blog posts etc.

I can knockout creative pretty quickly once I have an idea of what we are going to pushing that month. It makes for a busy first couple of weeks.

One thing that I do at the start of each year is write out basic marketing plan. Outlining the platforms we will be using, why we are using them, what are the things we will be tracking and the budget I want to allocate to them. Doing this helps to keep me and the bosses on the ball when it comes to our strategy.

I made a spreadsheet that I use each month to tally up the stuff i'm tracking and feed it into my other spreadsheet that breaks it all down into various conversion rates.

Here is the monthly spreadsheet that I use

Also, another thing i've done is created a custom dashboard in Google Analytics to keep track of the things i'm looking at.

Here is a link to that too.


I hope this helps a little bit. =)

 

[flosho]

Chris, any ability to post the other spreadsheet that breaks your marketing tallies down into the conversion rates?

Also it looks like the sheet you posted is for 7 different stores?