I manged today to do one of my goals for 2011!
Read the emails that Etsy sends everyday...
So I read one of the emails and found very important information.
I want to share it with you. It's talking about how to start the New Year with marketing calendar. I think it's helpful information if you are selling online.
Here are some popular ones:
Valentine’s Day:
At the latest you should begin your marketing by mid-January. If you are hoping for some print press remember that monthly publications work months in advance and you can start pitching them as early as November. Weekly, online and daily publications need less lead time, but you still want to get on their radar by early January.
If you plan to do a coupon, giveaway, or other promotion, you’ll want to start drumming up interest with your customers by mid to late January.
Graduation
People start shopping for grad gifts as early as April, so if you have products that make good graduation gifts, come up with a plan to market them by early March and start pitching those products to monthly media outlets. Weeklies, dailies and online outlets can be pitched throughout April and into early May.
By late April you’ll want to make sure your website is updated with graduation gift suggestions. This includes optimizing for keywords related to searches for graduation gifts and updating online ad campaigns to encourage graduation gift purchases.
Weddings
Although people get married all year, a lot of weddings happen in June. If you have products that are suitable for bridesmaid gifts, groomsmen gifts or wedding gifts, prepare to market them this way as early as April. Pitch print outlets first and remember monthly outlets work 2 months in advance. Select appropriate online media outlets to pitch and plan to update your website with a wedding gift guide area.
Having your website up to date for wedding shoppers by early May is ideal, since people start shopping for wedding gifts early.
Back to School
Back to school is a major shopping occasion and it starts as early as August. To take advantage, start getting ready by late June. Again, you’ll want to pitch monthly print press early and then move on to weeklies, dailies and online media.
Have your website updated with back to school related keywords and shopping guides by mid-August at the latest. If you plan to do promotions with customers, you’ll want to get that started around mid-August also.
Halloween
Even before the back to school rush dies down, it’s time to plan for Halloween. Get product placement pitches out in early August to print outlets and start updating your website in late September.
Christmas
Since Christmas is the #1 largest shopping occasion, you’ll want to give this the most lead time. Plan your Christmas marketing campaigns before the end of October. Remember to have your website merchandised by mid-November because people do online shopping early.
Other Events
You can incorporate a ton of other events into your marketing plan throughout the year. Think about charitable fund raising promotions (i.e. you can do promotions tied to breast cancer in October or help raise funds to an AIDS related charity in early December — World AIDS Day is December 1). You can even celebrate something fun or silly like Talk Like a Pirate Day. The key is to know what events you want to make part of your marketing plan and be prepared for them early.
Think about other businesses or organizations you can partner with, products you can promote, ways you can attract media attention, things you can do to merchandise your website and optimize your keywords and ad campaigns.
It’s even a good idea to chart out a calendar now, for the next 12 months, with all the different marketing tasks you’ll need to set in motion on certain dates, in order to make the most of upcoming occasions.
Resources
http://smallerbox.net/blog/
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6733396&page=1
Etsy Success Reading List - January 3
Etsy - Forums - Business topics
