With the holiday season in full force, it can be easy to focus all of our attention on the stretch run, looking forward to some time off spent with family. Some companies even have an annual “shutdown” for the last week or two of the year, taking advantage of the holidays to take a break and save operations costs.
Regardless whether you plan to take time off or not, the middle of December is no time to check out completely. 2015 will be here before you know it. Are you ready for the new year yet?
A great plan is only as good as the time and effort you put into it. If you want to get it right, it’s a bit late to start building it right after the year has already started. At that point, you’ll already be under the microscope to get the plan moving. How do you know what to measure with out a plan? How do you know if you are pushing out the right initiatives in the first place? And how long will the executives give you to get your act together?
Start now, and the list of items below will help you stay focused as you work on your inbound marketing strategy for the new year.
Get Your Budget in Order: Figure Out How Much You Need
Budget can be a real chicken-or-egg situation – do you build a plan first and request budget accordingly, or should you know generally how much money you need / will have, then build a plan to match it?
Every organization works differently, especially across the wide range of company types and sizes. A small consulting company many have more money to spend on marketing than a large, low margin manufacturer or retailer.
Regardless of your company size, business model, industry, or approach to spending in general, I always recommend going in with an idea of what you need financially first. You don’t need to have a final budget in place to plan according to expected spend. If you know you will have something in the range of $1M or $10K (+/- n%), you can build out a strategy that will land somewhere in that ballpark. Later, when it comes time to discuss exact amounts, you will have a better idea of what that money will buy, and how it might benefit the business.
So no matter which approach your organization takes to planning budget and spending, have a range in mind. Even if it’s worst case (the least money available) contrasted with best possible case (the highest you can imagine having), that will give you a range within which to start planning out activities proactively. You can make tradeoffs later when you know what your actual number is, or you can lobby for more if you have additional, more costly ideas that will really move the needle.
