Hey, guys. Unlike every other episode, or blog post, or Facebook ad you’re seeing right now about planning, I am not talking about 2019. In fact, I’m talking about right now. I wanna talk a little bit about adding some planning into your digital marketing strategy. We’ve been talking about this a ton in the last couple of weeks. We launched the new Build Your 30 Day Digital Marketing Strategy free training. We’re talking about it more, and more, and more, and more in Backstage.
So I wanted to jump in and I wanted to talk a little bit about why planning really helps set you up for success with your digital marketing, and quite frankly, with everything in your business, because I have been getting some resistance around Building Your 30 Day Plan, because you want to go with the flow and you want it to feel organic, and authentic, and buzzword, buzzword, buzzword that just means flying by the seat of your pants. Here is the deal. When you plan, it doesn’t mean you take out all of the creativity or you take out all of the flow. In fact, having the space to create, for me, really comes from having a foundation I can build upon, versus having to come up with that foundation on the fly.
So I want to dig into three things that I’m really paying attention to right now. For the clients who are coming in and working with us for strategies, some of this stuff my team goes through when we build strategies. And again, this doesn’t have to be massive, all of your 2019. We are gonna talk about 2019 planning in the next couple of weeks because I want to take you behind the scenes on what I do, but that’s not for a couple weeks. Today, we’re just talking about, essentially, your next 30 days maybe, maybe the rest of October, maybe just next week if that’s what feels doable. Let’s plan a little, just a little, all right?
Number one, I want you to look ahead.
Looking ahead does not mean that you go into next spring and are like, “Okay, on March 7th we’re gonna have a Mastermind day.” Not in this context. In this context, I really am looking for you to instead be looking ahead at, “What am I talking about in these next 30 days so that I can build content that speaks to it? What are my goals for these next 30 days so that I can build content that speaks to the right audience?” That’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about looking ahead. But, I’m also talking about, “What do I need to deliver in the next 30 days? Is that a blog post, a podcast, four podcasts, a Facebook Live, a new opt-in, a challenge?” Whatever that is because when I am planning, I need to know what I need to deliver.
That brings us to number two, plan for everything.
I say this not to be like, “You have to plan every moment of every day.” But, because I want you to start scheduling time more than just your editorial calendar. In the Build your 30 Day Digital Marketing Strategy, we build an editorial calendar and we say when emails need to go out. Here’s the deal though, you also need to schedule the time to write the emails and to do the planning, so schedule every part, plan for every part. I actually have a time on my calendar that says, “Go in and do a story. Go in and do a Facebook Live. Record podcasts. Write emails.” If I’m doing opt-ins or anything like that, which we are gonna be having a new opt-in launch later this year, I have time on my calendar in November to record that opt-in, because I’m gonna be launching another new opt-in for you guys, because in moving into 2019 my business is gonna be shifting a little bit. Do you see how looking ahead allowed me to build that plan, and now I’m able to schedule those things so that I can actually execute that plan and deliver those things?
It really all hinges on the other pieces, so I want you to schedule the time to do this work, because it’s so, so, so easy to get too far removed from the production of it. Just that the, “Hey, we’re gonna do this video,” I’ll just do them that day, and I’ll do all of them, and then I’ll deliver them and post them. That’s incredibly stressful. So I don’t want you to do that. Instead, I want you to build out your plan, and then reverse engineer it and schedule time for each of the production pieces, or hire out production pieces. It doesn’t all have to be done by you, but that’s a decision you can make as you’re planning.
The last thing I wanna talk about is whenever I do this planning I focus on one thing.
There may be a few things throughout a year, but generally speaking, inside of a month, or even really a quarter, I’ll have one primary focus. Now, sometimes there’ll be some auxiliary things that I’m also promoting or also talking about, but I have one big rock I’m trying to push up the hill instead of running between three rocks. This helps in a couple of ways. A, it prevents my audience from getting burned out on being pitched 19 different things. Also, it helps me from getting burned out on pitching 19 different things.
What I find is when I market one thing consistently I sell all the things, because, at the end of the day, there is literally nothing better for visibility and email growth and customer growth, than just getting out there and talking about something, because people will go, “Ooh, I don’t need this, but I’m here, can you help me with this?” So I find a lot when I’m in a high season for promoting Backstage, I’ll get people interested in the Backstage Amplifier Mastermind, because I’ve been talking about Backstage and they’re like, “I really would like some more one on one attention, can I do BAM?” “Yes, you can. Here you go.” Or, I’ll get clients that are like, “Oh, this is amazing, can I book a VIP day?” “Yes, yes, you can.” Because they’re watching me do what they wanna do, they’re watching me get super visible on social, they’re watching me get clients engaged on Facebook Live, they’re watching me execute a weekly podcast consistently that people actually wanna listen to. Thanks for listening. All right?
For me, it comes down to pushing that one boulder. I kept this one intentionally super short because I want you to take action on this one, and you’re gonna notice that this is gonna be happening more and more often. I want you to now go and get the 30-Day Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy Training, it’s linked on the show notes pages, which is at TheStaceyHarris.com/episode418. That is your homework, that is your next step. I really want you to look at building a plan, especially as we go into, and are into, a crazy part of the year. When this goes live, it’ll just have been Thanksgiving in Canada. In November, we have Thanksgiving in the States. Then we’ve got Hanukkah, and Christmas, and just all of the craziness that December brings, and then it’s January. We’re in it, guys. We are in it. So this is a really great time to have a buffer, and a plan gives you that buffer.
Go get the completely free training, check that out, dig into that. Build your strategy for the next 30 days. I don’t care if it’s not all of October or all of November, just the next 30 days, just the next two weeks if that’s all you wanna start with. But, start mapping out that, and then reverse engineering and getting some stuff on your calendar. Again, in a couple of weeks we’ll talk more about 2019, but right now I want you to continue to focus on 2018. I want you to pay attention to the room we’re in because it’s an important room, and it’s a profitable room if you stay in it. All right? Right. Thanks for listening, I will see you soon.
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