Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 271

Building a Promotional Calendar
The first question many business owners ask us is when to send email. This question is a
good one because a great email campaign will engage customers like never before if it’s
sent at the right time. Conversely, if an email is sent at the wrong time, it won’t be as
effective as it could be.
The first thing you should do as a business owner or marketer after you decide to start an
email marketing strategy is come up with a promotional calendar. That way, you’ll know
when to send the messaging your customers need when they want to receive it.
Using a promotional calendar gives you the opportunity to elicit action. It
mobilizes your subscribers to do something that you want them to do — buy
something, ask for information, call you, or come to a store, for example. The right
message delivered at the right time elicits action.
Cataloging your products and services
Before you can build an accurate, all-encompassing promotional calendar, you have to
know exactly what you’re promoting. Spend some time carefully cataloging every product
and service that your business offers and taking some time to understand how to promote it
best. At DigitalMarketer, we use a promotional asset sheet (see Figure 11-2) to keep a
detailed record of our assets. Every time we release a new asset, we add an asset sheet to
our list. And every time we update our promotional calendar or run an email campaign, we
spend some time updating these asset sheets.