Timing is a fairly easy concept to understand but a very difficult one to master. Timing by definition is the choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done, but what you need to understand is that in order to make that choice, you have to study all the conditions, context and tools needed to create the best scenario for you. It’s not always going to be the same conditions for every opportunity so you always have to be one step ahead in your research, that way you are never caught off guard.
This, as with any other skill, takes practice and patience to get it done right. Lets see it in an example:
Let us say that the target audience for your product/service is a very specific demographic like college students, you cannot always count on the same tools to convey your message to them. This is because during spring or summer break, the media outlets they access to will not be the same they use when they are on regular classes or even during finals. It may seem difficult to keep changing them but if you do your research, it is quite simple. You can use sites like http://www.similarweb.com to find out more info about where to dedicate your focus. You may also enter the website for a college or the college newspaper online address and it will give you information like how they rank in traffic, if they show and increment or not in their visits, the kind of advertisement students and visitors are receiving, where are this visits coming from, where are they being redirected to, and similar sites.
With all this information you know where it’s best to place your ads or when it might not even have to be on the site you are researching. It could be the one where they have been more redirected to and you can contact the Business Manager of those sites during summer or spring break to make sure that when classes resume, and students go back to their regular routine so you already have your space there. The same can be done for the breaks, contact the sites you researched during classes so you have everything set up for them. Always keep record of the times you do it, so you can analyze the data and see where you can improve, what actually works and where can you try something new.
Creating this database and building your statistics will help you mold the situation. It will give you a sort of template that you can use to analyze a situation in the future that you or your company might not expect. This way you will create your opportunities and you will know how to schedule your resources to never lose your timing and always being one step ahead.
