Media Plan 2008 Pending?

With fewer than 60 days left in the year, I find that my clients are at least open to thinking about 2008. Creating a media plan for 2008 may seem like an onerous task in part because it’s difficult to find the time, you don’t know what next year will bring, and you don’t see any reason to go through yet another planning session. The solution could be reframing the task.

• What does a successful 2008 look like for you or your company? (Define your goals?)
• How might you improve the results you got in 2007? (Rate the events from 2007 on a scale of 1 to 10.)
• If you could achieve only one thing per month, what would it be? (Once you establish the specific target you can then begin to list action steps required to achieve it.)

With these questions in mind, I set out this week to learn how other experts plan. Most of that time has been spent with Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound. She offers a complete guide to media planning with templates, outlines, and guidance from experts in her newest “grad” course for publicity. It’s good, solid content. It’s up-to-date, presented with pizzazz, and it offers real life solutions. Not surprising, in my opinion. Check out the Publicity Hound’s Tip of the Week, an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com and receive by email the handy list “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”

If you do nothing more, consider thinking differently about 2008. After all, the definition of crazy is doing the same things and expecting different results. I find that putting ideas on paper crystallizes thinking and forces a focus uncommon to most sole proprietors. What steps are you taking to succeed next year?