Throughout the year, you will sit down at certain times to design your practice’s marketing plan.

I recommend the following schedule for when you should work on your marketing planner.

• At the end of each year, you plan out next year’s marketing.
• At the end of each quarter, you plan the upcoming quarter’s marketing.
• At the end of each month, you fill out the upcoming month’s editorial calendar.

This will keep you proactive, not reactive. You need to sit down with your team members and external marketing providers for all of the above planning sessions. Once the plan is in place, you need to reference it often to ensure you are staying ahead of your content creation, distribution, and campaigns.

Before we dive into the planning details, I want to leave you with this tip. I know you are a doctor. I know you are extremely busy, and becoming a marketer isn’t a priority. Don’t worry if you miss a Facebook post, a video, or a month of writing a blog. Just recognize it and get the next one accomplished.

Second, my goal is that, at some point, other people do this for you. You may not be able to afford it or have the staff capabilities yet, but if you stick with the marketing roadmap, you will be able to outsource in the near future.

The Yearly Marketing Plan

At the end of the year or the beginning of the new year, sit down and write out the year’s marketing plan. This yearly plan will consist of your overall strategies for the year but is certainly flexible.

The types of marketing topics you should consider are:

• Website Strategy
• Social Media Strategy
• Website Overhaul/Improvements
• Video Production and Marketing
• YouTube Strategy
• Blogging Strategy
• Campaigns
• Sponsorships
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing Strategy
• Events
• MD Marketing
• Attorney Marketing
• Direct Mail
• Google/SEO
• Community Outreach/Grassroots Marketing
• Specific campaigns like a golfer’s campaign in the summer or running season