Create a marketing plan for 2022

As the old saying goes, not planning is planning to fail. Marketing is essential in terms of growing the business and it is a necessary effort, but also remains one of the most overlooked, especially if there is no plan. Creating this plan can seem overwhelming or maybe you are unfamiliar with the options that exist in terms of different avenues of marketing.

This is why Megan Williams thinks it is imperative to sit down and take a look at the year to create a 12 month marketing game plan, indicating how you are going to allocate the money and what. you are going to do with this budget. The Managing Partner of 3P Marketing Solutions explains how.

As told to FenderBender staff

Find the right person to work with on marketing.

If you aren’t outsourcing your marketing, identify someone who works within your store who will be more than happy to do some of that planning with you. We had an estimator who was super active and took pictures and posted them to our social media account whenever we were marketing and she loved it. Just ask around, you will be surprised who is jumping.

Consider what your business needs.

The first thing that you need to look at is knowing your business. Very occasionally do you come across the owner of a store who is so packed they couldn’t handle another vehicle, but for the average store owner you have to know what you are up against in terms of competition, your demographics, as well as the competition are promising drivers. Do they give them a free gift with a repair or do they promise super fast turnaround times? Are they really active in the community and simply well known in this sense? It’s actually more important to have this in mind before you even set a budget.

If you’re one of those store owners that already has a cycle time greater than what you’d like it to be, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be marketing. This means that your marketing goals must be different; this could mean a focus on hiring or a certain service, but not on the traditional acquisition of new customers.

A lot of people ask what a marketing budget should be and it’s very personal. As a rule of thumb, we recommend 5-8% of annual sales; but if you can only spend 2%, make sure you have specific goals so that the 2% goes far.

Set goals for the year.

When developing a marketing plan, the most important factor is that whatever the store owner’s proposition is, it must be achievable.

If you don’t have the actual manpower on the shop floor or the financial backing to do these things, sometimes they will just fall by the wayside. I would rather see someone start small and work their way up to spending more.

Here are some solid marketing goals that could turn into effective marketing calendars:

• Take part in three community events.
• Increase the number of cars by 5 percent.
• Earn 100 more Facebook likes in three months.
• Increase the catch rate by X%.

Describe the strategies you will use to achieve the goals.

Lots of people will do this month to month, but personally I prefer to split the goals by quarter because the four quarters coincided with the four seasons. So we would have deer season, winter season, car maintenance in the spring, road trips in the summer, and back to school.

So look at the four quarters of the year and choose which four topics will be for each section. Then find some type of large-scale public event or activity or a way to give back to the community in each of these neighborhoods to keep a high priority awareness.

It’s also easier to take that annual budget and break it down into quarters rather than monthly. That way, you don’t feel like you have to get it all this month, but give yourself a few months to hit the marketing goals you set the tasks you want to eliminate.

Adjust if necessary, but don’t stray too far.

I think it’s kinda nice to have a few months of data or a few months to look at, to see where you are at.

Of course we would like to go over and maybe add pockets or re-record a new TV commercial or radio spot suitable for whatever is going on right now, but with everything else you can always leave it where it is. . Carry on with whatever you intended to do as long as it isn’t a financial burden to add to the awareness of the current event or to the marketing efforts.

Consistency is going to be a huge asset in any marketing endeavor. But you don’t want to be deaf to what’s going on right now. Personally, I recommend that you only schedule one to two months of social media content at a time, so that it doesn’t get too disconnected from what’s going on or you forget what’s scheduled. This way, you also leave wiggle room in your social media content to react in the moment.