Do you have a marketing plan or do you tend to wing it month to month? Whether you’ve been creating crazy-good offers for years or have just a handful of products or services in your suite, it’s important to know how to choose and create a monthly marketing plan to sell said offers.
Below, you’ll find 13 smart steps that will help you decide which digital products, group programs, and services to offer every month in order to maximize your revenue (and minimize your stress along the way).
Oh and quick side note: When we talk about planning your monthly offers, what we’re really talking about is choosing what you’re going to offer this month, when and how. That’s it!
Here’s how to choose the offers for your marketing plan for each month:
1) Write out (or pull up) a list of everything you could offer. Do you already have an offers list in place? If not, grab my idea list here and should create one! List out everything you have for sale (or could have for sale) in your business. This will give you a fantastic starting point for the month. (You might not need to create anything new after all!)
2) Next, look at what trends, holidays or other current events are happening during the month. What’s happening in the world that might interest your audience? What ‘fun,’ funny or meaningful holidays are happening? What problem or issue is going on in the world that an offer of yours might help solve? If you’ve been in business a minute, you can also look back at what you’ve offered during this particular month in the past.
3) Then, decide on your evergreen offers. What are your tried-and-true products and services? Is there something you always have for sale that you could actively promote this month? Is there something you’ll have for sale in the background–maybe via your website, social media links or other funnels?
4) Next up, it’s time to plan your time-sensitive offers. Once you know what you’ll have for sale all month, it’s time to think about what other promotions might make sense for your marketing plan. Do you have any offers that would make sense to offer within a specific time frame, like a one-off workshop on a timely topic? Is there anything you’d like to bring back to your audience’s attention (like a course, product or offer you haven’t sold in a while)? Of course, you’ll eventually tie this into the content you create for the month, too.
5) And then, plan out any new offers or launches. Is there anything you’ve been itching to create? Anything your audience has been practically begging you for? Consider trying out a new offering at least once a quarter, if you feel inspired to, if sales are stalled or if your audience is clamoring for it. You can even pre-sell your new offers or BETA test them at an introductory price.
6) Don’t forget affiliate launches or products. Don’t forget that you don’t just have to sell your own stuff! Is there an affiliate launch you’d like to be a part of, or pour extra energy into? Is there a product you’re an affiliate for that you might want to try out on your audience?
As you’re going through these steps, your marketing plan also needs take your own personal & professional capacity for the month into account.
For example, ask yourself:
7) How much would each offer ‘cost’ you to deliver–in terms of time, energy or money?
8) Do you have a maximum capacity for a specific offer? (This might apply to done-for-you services or coaching)
9) What new content would you have to create to support each offer? (For example, will you need a new landing page, or a new app, or something tweaked in your current email marketing system?)
Once you know what you’re offering, you’ll also want to consider these things for your overall marketing plan:
10) Choose dates for your promotions. What will you promote when? Get it in writing and see if it makes sense.
11) Map out key messages. What do you want people to know about each offer? What problem does it solve? What result does it provide?
12) Decide on deals, discount codes or other promotions, if applicable. You’ll also want to make sure you have your discount codes, promotions, etc. straight before you start promoting them.
13) Start listing out the marketing content you’ll need to support these offers. What topics can you cover? Where will you post or talk about them? How many pieces of content will you need for each offer? Write down all your ideas, and then go back and select the most relevant, impactful and important.
And then?
Once you know all of the above, you can start mapping out a social media or content calendar to help you stay on track. And that’s it! If you follow the steps above, you’ll be able to create a clear marketing plan for what to offer each month, plus you’ll know exactly when, why and how you’re offering it. Isn’t it nice to have a systematized way to look at your monthly offers?
Bonus tip: Don’t forget to use your monthly offers to capture leads, too. Just because someone didn’t buy your offer this time around doesn’t mean they won’t next time (or even months or years down the line!)
