Creating a Guerrilla Marketing Calendar

A marketing calendar is an integral part of a successful marketing plan, and a savvy retailer won't wait until after the holidays to create a marketing calendar for the new year. Pre-holiday rush is a good time to start formulating new plans as well as to assess which of the past year's marketing efforts worked and bear repeating.

In this article, which originally appeared in the book Guerrilla Retailing -- Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits From Your Retail Business (Guerrilla Group, Inc.) by Jay Conrad Levinson, Elly Valas, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP, the authors note that it takes about three years to develop a perfect marketing calendar, but once done it will be one of a store's most precious assets.

You'll have more than a hundred ways to market your business and most of them are free, so it's important to know just when you'll be doing that marketing. There are several important reasons to write a marketing calendar:

• So you can plan ahead and be ready to fire
  
• So you don't overlook opportunities
  
• So you can get suppliers to participate
  
• So your team knows what will be happening and when
  
• So that you can schedule enough staff for peak times
  
• So you can kick off holiday promotions
  
• So you can promote an anniversary sale
  
• So you can take advantage of special events
  
• So you can participate in manufacturer promotions
  
• So you can schedule warehouse or truckload sales
  
• So you can qualify for additional co-op and promotional funds
  

A Guerrilla Marketing Calendar is the essence of simplicity. You can set one up in Excel in a matter of minutes. It has four columns and either 12 rows (one for each month) or 52 rows (one for each week of the year). Depending on your business, a monthly marketing plan may be adequate, but if you sell seasonal items like clothing, lawnmowers, or air-conditioning, you should plan at least week-to-week. Grocers plan different marketing initiatives three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Weekend.

The first column is called "Week" and lists the week number.

The second column is titled "Thrust," and identifies the thrust of your marketing that week. Is it a sale, a new product, or a seasonal theme? This is where you list it.

The third column, "Media," lists the media you'll be using that month.

The fourth column is where you transform yourself into a college professor and give a letter grade to that week, depending on profits. Did it earn an A, or did it get a measly D?

At the end of the year, review your marketing calendar before making a new one and eliminate the things you did that earned anything other than an A or a B. It takes about three years to develop a perfect marketing calendar, one that's loaded with A's. Once you have it, keep it under lock and key, because it will be one of your most precious business assets.

Armed with a marketing plan and a marketing calendar, you're almost ready to move forward into taking action. You know what you must do, what you want your plan to accomplish for you, and when you must do it. That means you're primed to attack, succeed, and profit. So far this has cost you no money, only your time and imagination.

Guerrilla Marketing Calendar for Retail Florist

Month	Thrust	Media	Results
January	Store Anniversary Sale	Window signs, newspaper	A
February	Valentines Day	Roses and gifts promotion	A
March	Garden and bedding plants	Val-Pak coupons	B
April	Easter	Egg hunt party	A
May	Mother's Day	Newspaper ad	A
June	Father's Day, Graduation, Weddings	Campus newspaper Bridal shop	B
July	Independence Day	Store dressing	C
August	Back-to-school, gift baskets	Flyers under dorm doors, campus "Welcome" packet	B
September	Football themed arrangement	Coupon dist. at football game	B
October	Halloween	Costumed employee with sign	A
November	Thanksgiving	Turkey Shoot drawing	A
December	Christmas ornaments, New Year party decorating	Store dressing extended hours	A

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Reprinted by permission from Guerrilla Retailing -- How to Make Big Profits from Your Small Retail Business, published by The Guerrilla Group, Inc. For more information, call (800) 247-9145 or visit gmarketing.com.