Let's not make small talk about how 'this year has gone so quickly' and 'it'll be Christmas before we know it'. Nope. Let's just get stuck into planning for 2024. Download the free Marketing Planner, get it printed and get stuck into filling content for the new year. Easy.
Step One
Download the free printable 2024 Marketing Planner from the online store. Free! The PDF is ready to be printed! Or if you prefer to have it on a tablet - go for it!
Step Two
If you are anything like me, you love a large printed, physical 'thing'. I love writing on, scribbling, colouring in.
If you are in Australia, I strongly suggest you get this A1 sized calendar printed at Officeworks as a plan print. It only costs $3 to print (might be additional shipping costs - but I plan on picking up from my local Officeworks so I can raid their Posca pens at the same time). They can usually print same day too. You can submit the downloaded PDF online and pop by the store when you have a spare moment. Remember - print it as a 'Plan Print' - as in house plans. It's simple line work, so it shouldn't cost a lot to print. ** NB. I just had a wonderful client message me and say that Officeworks are no longer printing this document as a planner print. Boo. Give it a go and let me know if it works. Otherwise, you might need to upgrade to a poster print which may be about $20. I will create a A4 version of the calendar ASAP for those on a budget! Will post on social media when it's available. **
Step Three
Once you have your printed planner, the next step in your planning goal is to add in annual holidays, celebrations, school terms and anything your target market might be interested in (and that is important to you and your family). This very international celebrations calendar for 2024 might help (remember, don't get overwhelmed, just choose the celebrations your target market might connect with). Then think about adding in school holidays and your personal holidays!
Step Four
Start to allocate colours (or icons if colour isn't your thing) to different social platforms and/or themes. For example, you might allocate blue to Facebook - so for every post to Facebook you will highlight it blue. You might also like to allocate out different colours to different themes. For example, you might have a 'arts education' section to your business. So for every you tube video or blog post or social post that focuses on arts education, you colour that orange (or whatever colour you choose).
Some examples of Social Platforms for content:
Your Blog, You Tube, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, E-Newsletter, Physical Newsletter, Flyer Drop, LinkedIn, Radio adverts, Podcasts - and I'm sure many more.
Step Five
Think about your business moving forward - do you have any major launches, events, sales, workshops, challenges, camps? Start to plan these dates so that your social content can ramp up to these events. Pop these events into your calendar and add in your content creation around these dates. For example, if you plan to run a painting workshop on May 1, then for the 6 weeks before this date you want to schedule facebook and instragram posts reminding your customers of the upcoming workshop. Maybe a little You Tube how to video to promote the workshop. You might send out a few e-newsletters encouraging people to book their place at the workshop. Then following the event, you might want to schedule some posts around photos from the workshop to help promote the next workshop. Pop these onto your calendar.
Step Six Start planning your content creation. Don't overwhelm yourself. Start with the first 2-3 months. Trying to plan an entire year in one sitting is exhausting. Things will come up through the year too - so this calendar will start to fill itself out as you move through the year too. If you run out of ideas for what to post, think about 'themed' posts like these:
'Ask me anything' posts / live streams
Create 'How to' videos / posts (much like this one)
Offer freebies
Competitions
Have a 'take over' from your assistant or another business/creative
Show your process / behind the scenes
Theme a few days ie. Art Tip Tuesday, Selfie Sundays, Work-in-progress Wednesdays
Create a Challenge ie. Paint 30 faces in 30 days
Celebrate those crazy days from the calendar above
Show your customers posts - maybe them using your product or hanging your artwork
Share your milestones - birthday, business birthday, awards, sales record
Share your wisdom with the world
Create a meme
Ask for advice
Share your favourite... artist, books, paint, movies...
Show you as a human. Tell us your story.
Testimonials or positive reviews
The printable Marketing Planner also has some post ideas and some 'calls to action'.
Don't forget to repurpose your content. If you write an amazing blog post that includes a rad You Tube video, make sure you pop a tile on Instagram sending people to the blog post, also post the video on Facebook, add the tile to your e-newsletter and give little snippets of the blog post in those posts.
Don't forget to add your call to action. What do you want your audience to do? Share your post, tag a friend, sign up for the newsletter, purchase an artwork. Help your audience help you!
You got this! It can be fun.
Don't forget to batch create your content too so you're not living on social media. Maybe have a 'blog writing day' where you churn out 5 blog posts. Or batch schedule 2 weeks worth of posts to your social media channels. You can do this on Facebook Business, but I prefer to use Buffer.
Make sure to tag me on your socials so I can see how you are going! @sculleydesign
If you'd like more support around your business goals and marketing, be sure to check out the Creative Business Development Workbook - now available on Amazon. This is the workbook I use to keep track of ideas, content creation and goals. It also includes this Content Planner in A4 per page format. Check it out over here.