With the end of the year in sight, you’re probably doing some business planning for 2023 – or at least you should be. By looking at the year ahead now, you allow yourself the time you need to plan properly, get all important dates on your radar, and create placeholders for items that will pop up but aren’t quite nailed down yet.
For purposes of this article, “content” encompasses all marketing materials, graphics, and social media and website content that you’ll need for sharing and promoting milestones in 2023.
While every business’s content plan for the new year will look different, you can start planning now for things such as:
- Business milestones and anniversaries
- Client and employee birthdays
- Changes such as new employees, new locations, and new branding
- New product or service launches
- Marketing campaigns
So where do you start? We have a few simple tips to help you plan with ease before the new year sneaks up on you.
Organize your calendar
Once you assess what items need to be on your radar in the new year, get the important dates and details on your calendar. This might be in a physical planner, on a shared digital calendar, or somewhere else. Your system doesn’t matter as long as it works for you.
Consider others in your organization and how you need to share information with them as well. If you have a design team that needs to create content and marketing to support items on your calendar, be sure to give them visibility so that they can plan for the project management of each item, too.
There are many free digital planners on the market, which will increase your team’s productivity and help to make project communication easier.
Create a campaign strategy
This doesn’t have to be as complicated as it might sound. Planning a campaign strategy basically boils down to the details around each milestone, event, or item on your list. What are you celebrating, and how do you want to communicate that to your audience?
Your strategy should include everything you need to do from start to finish to accomplish your goal. For example, if you’re launching a new product, your strategy would probably include communication, graphics, a new page on your website, and social media ads. If you’re simply celebrating a client’s birthday, a handwritten card sent in the mail before their birthday may be the only ‘campaign’ item needed.
Outline necessary content
Depending on how you plan to celebrate your milestones, you will probably need to create content for each item. Some of this content might include:
- Event graphic themes, invitations, handouts and signage
- Social media graphics
- A mailer or postcard
- Website graphics and landing pages
- Birthday postcards and envelopes
- And more!
Depending on how you’re tracking plans for these items, you’ll want to create a central location in which to organize everything and keep notes. A project management tool, online folder system, or other method for managing files would work great.
Determine next steps and team duties
As you work on a project, from the high-level scope down to the individual action items, be sure to consider how you plan on executing the work. Much like planning your content, you’ll want to keep details, drafts, designs and more for each item in one simple place.
Seek professional assistance as needed
As you plan for milestones in your business next year, consider engaging with a professional who can support your vision if any aspect of your planning feels too complicated or difficult to take on in-house. When you choose to work with a professional team like the one at Sharper Creative, you can guarantee that your content and plans will feel elevated and on brand for your organization.
It’s one thing to create a plan – it’s another to execute on it.
Looking for support in planning your 2023 milestones and business celebrations? Sharper Creative is here to help. For those needing graphic design, branding, or print or digital communication, we offer a variety of services to meet those needs.
Learn more about how we can support your business with a free intro call.
