This week the stores are bustling with everything for back to school. Next week they’ll be decking the aisles for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the December holidays.

Are you ready?  It probably won’t surprise you to know that everyone is thinking like you: they want to make this holiday sales season their best yet.

So have you thought about YOUR sales campaigns for the season? Waiting until October or November isn’t an option. Designing and implementing a successful strategy takes planning. [Just ask the big guys … they’ve been planning their launch for almost a year!]

To help kickstart your fall marketing plan, the MCA Academy has launched a new class on Social Media Marketing. This is a training opportunity open to Mom’s Choice Awards® Honorees, Distinguished Judges, and any small businesses, independent creators, and entrepreneurs.

Marketing 301: Prepping Your Holiday Sales Campaigns

There are five class dates available in September … purposely selected so that you’ll be ready to launch your campaign(s) in October! Terry Doherty will be hosting two versions of the class

Training Opportunity 1: Marketing 301 as a Traditional Webinar

This traditional online class format is better suited to students who are time-crunched, have run other types of marketing campaigns, or already have some ideas about their holiday campaign for this year.

Class size: up to 20 students
Cost: $35.00 (MCA Honorees 25% discount**)

• September 4, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
• September 5, 2013 @ 4:00 pm
• September 18, 2013 @ 11:30 AM

Training Opportunity 2: Marketing 301 as a Two-class Workshop

By breaking the class into two sessions, students have the opportunity to work on their ideas after the first class and then come together to map out their campaigns. This format offers more personalized, product-specific instruction

Class size: up to six students
Cost: $40.00 (MCA Honorees 25% discount**)

• September 9 and September 11, 2013 @ 1:30 pm
• September 19 and September 23, 2013 @ 4:00 pm

All students will receive all of the same information, as well as receive copies of the Social Media Action Plan that Terry has designed for students. The two images above give you a sample of what the tools include / look like. The Action Plan is really three tools in one.

• Objective Planner – A customizable worksheet that allows you to match your marketing goal with the social media platform that best facilitates its success. It works well for individuals or teams, ensuring that everyone stays on message and on task.
• Calendar Planner – Where the Objective Planner is focused on the “big picture,” the Calendar Planner is designed for laying out your marketing message. You can see how much your posting – and what you’re saying – for every platform you use.
• Metrics & Measurement – Running the campaign isn’t enough. You want need to know how effective your work was and whether or not something needs to be tweaked the next time around. This worksheet helps you through the data collection and analysis process.

This Marketing 301 class is open to Mom’s Choice Awards® Honorees and Distinguished Judges, as well as small business owners, independent creators, and entrepreneurs (i.e., the pubic).

Take advantage of this training opportunity today to get your first choice in dates. Classes – particularly the workshops – will fill quickly.

** To be eligible for the Honoree discount, you must be a Mom’s Choice Awards® winner. Send an email to academy [at] momschoiceawards [dot] com to get your coupon code PRIOR to registration.