Tuesday, December 1, 2009

2010 Marketing Strategy Planning Part 1

Many dealerships, I'm sure not yours, but many never really sit down and strategize regarding their annual marketing. Budgets, ideas, campaigns, medias, markets and everything else change month to month depending on whims, gut feels and how the current month is shaping up. This leads to inconsistent messages to your market and gaping holes in your marketing, along with last minute planning and execution.

WHY!? We're talking about tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of mismanaged funds being spent willy nilly. So how do we change that? Here's a very simple list of getting started-it may seem very basic to the marketing masters out there but it is just a quick plan to get started for those looking to do more strategy based planning this year

1. Set a meeting of the minds date. Put it on your calendar and make it mandatory. Pull in your management team and any other decision makers-it's probably not a bad idea to also invite a person or two outside the inner circle. Maybe the text crazed college student that helps detail cars on the weekend, or the owner's daughter that promotes the local UFC fights. Bringing someone with a fresh perspective in helps to challenge current ideas and bring new ones to the table.

2. Determine an estimated budget for the year. This doesn't have to be exact. Marketing goes in waves, many dealerships slow down in January and February for weather reasons and ramp up in the spring, others have 4-6 large events a year. The monthly budgets don't have to be the same--just get an idea of the annual figure.

Keep tuning into the Diva Blog this week to see the rest of the steps!

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