Great marketing and great comedy have at least one thing in common: Great timing!
Of course, the opposite is also true. A comedian with bad timing isn’t very funny and poorly timed marketing isn’t very effective.
With this in mind, here are SIX timing-related marketing tips, to help you improve your results.
Marketing your events
If you are thinking of hosting any kind of event, Google the date you have in mind and check if anything that’s likely to cause a problem is happening on that day. I spoke with a UK based business owner once, who unknowingly picked (and advertised everywhere) the same date for his company’s open evening, as England’s opening game in the football World Cup Finals.
The end result? He was the only person there.
Planning your marketing
The time to start planning your marketing strategy for 2010 is NOT the first day of January – it’s NOW!
Just as you wouldn’t wait until the day you set off on a round the world trip, to start booking accommodation and flights, the same applies when planning your marketing for the year ahead. Leave yourself enough time to plan ahead properly.
Mail shots & follow-up phone calls
If you are sending out a mail shot, which you intend to follow-up with a phone call, send the mailing so that it arrives on a Tuesday. This way, you can make your follow up calls on Wednesday and Thursday. If your letter arrives on a Friday there will be a weekend between your prospective customers reading your letter and you making those first follow-up calls.
That’s a long time for your prospective client to remember your letter. Equally, you don’t want to be making follow-up calls on Monday mornings; when your prospects are often at their busiest.
Industry specific timing
There are times of the year where it’s pointless marketing to certain industries and professions. In the UK, for example, the accountancy profession is extremely busy in January. As a result, you are far less likely to be able to meet with or even speak on the phone with accountants in January, than you would be in February, March etc. Of course, US based accountants are busiest on the lead-up to the 15th April rush.
Companies selling training courses and seminars usually find it harder to fill venues during the summer holiday months, than the rest of the year. That’s because organisations are much less likely to send employees away for a day, when they are already short of people because of holiday cover.
The key thing here is that whatever industries or professions you target with your marketing, make sure you are aware of their busiest months and focus your efforts accordingly.
Email marketing
Whenever possible, I strongly recommend you avoid sending out your email-based marketing on a Friday afternoon. If your email isn’t picked up that afternoon, it will be stuck in the bottom of their inbox, under a whole weekend’s worth of junk mail, when they check their email again on Monday morning. This makes it unnecessarily hard for YOUR email message to get noticed.
You have an entire working week to send out your email marketing, so even if it ‘just’ helps your response rate by 10%, it’s got to be worth avoiding Friday afternoons.
Investing your marketing time correctly
My final time-related marketing tip is simple: Don’t waste major chunks of your marketing time, on minor things. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many of those, which you can invest in your marketing.
For example, I see people waste weeks researching what type of email software to use – and then use it to send hastily written marketing emails. That’s all wrong. I see people wait months before they start blogging, doing hundreds of hours of ‘research’, and they still end up repeating the exact same mistakes that most new bloggers make.
Don’t let this happen to you. Use your marketing time as effectively as you can.
Okay – now it’s your turn
What do you think? What time-related marketing tips do you have? Share your feedback!
Photo credit: Wwarby
I have found that email-based marketing (e-newsletters etc) get the best response when timed to arrive on Tuesday mornings.
You’re right about Friday afternoon – it’s pointless.
What do you think about xmas – is there a latest date after which people are just interested in partying?
In my experience Ash, it depends on the industry / profession and the country they are in. Some businesses have their Christmas heads on really early and others work through diligently until 24th December.
Depending on the culture of the business, many businesses work on Christmas day too.
Good question, sorry I couldn’t give a more specific response.
That answer is fair enough, Jim. I agree that it depends on the cultureof the organisation and the individual too. For example, I tend to work right up to Christmas day – unless my wife tells me not to!
That was some great information Jim. As for number 7, I recommend to my clients that they have a round-table discussion with their employees. Employees usually have the most contact with your customers and can provide the greatest amount of insight. It it a great strategy for understanding customer trends and feedback. Also, when employees feel that they are making a contribution, it increases moral, productivity and loyalty.
If you don’t understand your customers and why they are buying from you, you are going to lose them.
-Dennis
Thanks for the feedback Dennis – much appreciated, some good ideas there sir.
My tip would be not to wait when you have a great idea. Start developing right away. With my newest (and most successful) project, I saw an opportunity and almost decided not to go for it. I would have been hundreds of dollars poorer. Planning is important, but don’t plan for too long. Sometimes what you want is LESS time.
Oh, and know your timezones. You can’t market to people if they’re asleep. =)
Hi Corey – thanks for the feedback. You are 100% correct regarding waiting around too long. I see that one all the time. Once the research is done, it’s time to go and hake some trees and make things happen.
I also love your final point about timezones. I may write a post about that one!
Hi Jim,
The thing that I noticed was the Friday-Weekend problem with my articles. I get the most of my traffic during the days of the week. Starting from Friday it’s like talking to myself.
Thanks
That’s interesting Toma. I find traffic here on a Saturday very quiet, but Sunday – Friday is about the same.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hi, was just going to comment about timezones but I see Corey has brought that up already.
Depending on what countries your target, timing is crucial. I find the best time of day for worldwide marketing is in the evenings, when you still have America and Australia online.