Moving from my home state of Minnesota to central Nebraska, I’ve learned to never take moisture for granted. I grew up talking about rain in units of a quarter of an inch. 

“Hey, Cal, did you get a half or three-quarters at your place?”  

I was in my 20s before I realized there’s a large chunk of the United States who measures their precipitation by counting each precious hundredth. Now that I fall in that latter group, I try not to curse the rain. But sometimes I crack — like when a recent pop-up rain shower hit our house and proceeded to dump three inches in a matter of an hour. I was over it as we discovered water in our basement, which created a midnight cleanup during a week when we had no margin for such a task.

Last year we’d have begged for those same clouds to park themselves over our little piece of earth. 

As I vacuumed up water and laid soppy doll clothes out to dry, I thought, “I don’t wish away the moisture, but it might be nice if it came at a more even flow.” 

A measured approach 

Trying to complete an overwhelming marketing to-do list prior to sale day, do you ever feel the same? Sometimes it’s a little more like triage (asking what deadline you have to meet today) rather than a steady workload. In other words: when it rains, it pours. 

However, unlike Mother Nature’s whims, you can get some control on your marketing calendar. 

To start, build a plan in the offseason. After the sale or rebreeding, schedule time to evaluate what you did last year and look ahead. Set an appointment with yourself to reflect and brainstorm, or involve your “team” of consultants to help go over the following checklist. 

Decide on a budget. Everybody is different, but factors that influence your spend include your longevity in the business and how wide you want to cast the net for new customers. Most breeders look at their budget as a percentage of their gross sales. 

Complete a marketing checkup. Look at your materials across digital, print, promotional items, etc. Do your customer touch points match in every instance? Do you have consistent brand colors, fonts and logos throughout? Do they feel like “you”?

Write your marketing messages. This can sometimes be the hardest part. We get it — bragging about your strengths might not be one of your strengths. Consider questions like: What do you want to be known for? Why would somebody recommend you to a friend? What do your genetics do for your customers? Then, turn those answers into messages. 

Explore new options. It can be too much to try out an idea when you’re in the thick of it. If you’re considering adding a new social media platform or new marketing channel, use the downtime to experiment.

Set a timetable. Working backward from sale day, deadlines may be closer than you think. Establish dates for everything from pulling DNA samples to picture day. Check out Angus Media’s Sale Day Calculator (see web link below), to help determine your deadlines. You can enter your sale date and the select services relevant to your operation to create a personalized calendar. 

If you’ve already got the “brain work” done when you get to the expected “crunch time,” then all that’s left is implementation. It won’t take the amount of work away, but it could keep the flood of tasks from drowning you during the season when it’s imperative you stay afloat.

PLAN YOUR PATHWAY TO SALE DAY

www.angus.org/angus-media/sellers/pathway-to-sale-day