by
Molly Clubb
| Nov 08, 2012
Now that the Fall horn measuring events, shows and sales are behind us things tend to quiet down a bit in the "Longhorn World." We become busy with the Holidays and family and everything that November and December hold.
But, now is also a great time to think about your plans for 2013 in terms of what sales you'll consign animals to (and which bloodlines/animals you'll consign), how you'll promote those consignments, what advertising you'll do and why, what materials you'll need for promotion of your ranch at the events and more.
We're here to help you with your annual planning and marketing strategy and help keep you on top of your game.
Molly is currently accepting phone appointments to brainstorm a strategy that's best for your ranch and help you develop a plan. Depending on how far in advance you like to plan we can come up with everything for 2013 or take it in sections.
I encourage you to take the time to plan your marketing/advertising, message strategy, sale consignments and other items ahead of time and take some of the stress off scrambling for these items at the last minute.
Below is the first section of an article that first appeared in the 2008 December Texas Longhorn Journal. We'll be posting a new section every few days. I encourage you to read each post as it appears and try to start your advertising planning early this year. You'll be thankful you did!
Developing An Advertising Plan That Will Work for You
Are you a list person? I am.
Right now, on my desk (on color coated sticky notes), I have lists for things to do (broken down by deadlines and order of importance), things to buy, and groceries (in order of the aisles at our super store).
On my phone/PDA I have lists of clients to call (this particular list is in alphabetical order) and clients to email. And on a wipe-off calendar that hangs behind my desk are lists of prospects to follow up with (also ranked in order of importance), more important deadlines (that coincide with the colored sticky notes mentioned above), my families’ activities for the month and a few more items that I won’t go into great detail over.
So many of us use lists and calendars for so many things in our day-to-day lives, but how many of you have a plan or calendar for your advertising? If you just made a note on your “to do” list that says “Develop Advertising Plan”, allow me to help.
In the paragraphs that follow, complete with boxes to check “complete”, is practically everything that you need to know to develop an advertising plan that will work for you and your breeding program. Once complete, your plan shouldn’t sit on a shelf but should be re-evaluated constantly to ensure that you’re seeing measurable results. Remember, advertising is any paid communication and an advertising plan is an outline, a "to do" list, a call to action.
Developing a Plan
The first three questions that you should ask yourself when developing and advertising plan are:
1. What do we want to accomplish? (Objectives and goals)
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2. How will we reach those goals? What will we do, and what will it cost, to achieve our objectives?
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3. How do we measure results? How do we determine whether we have accomplished our objectives?
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Here are some additional categories you may want to considering including in your advertising plan. You can select from this list to create an outline that works best for you and your breeding program.
Background/Overview: What is the history of advertising for my program leading up to this plan? What are the main challenges for this plan or advertising campaign? What are the biggest opportunities in my market?
Duration of the plan and review dates: Is this a launch-campaign that will last six months? Is this an annual plan, with a “review and recommendation” every three months?
Competitive Analysis: What is my competition up to? Are there a trends toward specific services such as internet marketing, on-line sales, AI services, or cloning? How does my competitors program and Longhorns compare?
Advertising Goal: Your advertising goal can be as simple as one clearly defined objective:
“Convince Longhorn Breeders, specifically those in the southern states, that XYZ Longhorns is the best place to purchase high quality Longhorn cattle and that now is the time to buy.”
Or you may wish to broaden your list to include several objectives, as well as marketing objectives:
“Achieve 50% brand recognition with target audience as defined by the ability to 1) recognize our logo/brand 2) name at least one of our current foundation herd, and 3) associate “huge horned cattle” when prompted for brand characteristics.
“Achieve a 2% response rate and sales of 2 head per 100 direct mail pieces sent, within 30 days of delivery date.”