Leading an Unexamined Marketing Life? That’s So LAST Decade

It’s a new year, and if you haven’t updated your marketing efforts in a while, now is a great time to take a look at your marketing with fresh eyes. Make your 2020 marketing plan so that you stay ahead of the game, rather than playing catch up throughout the year. Remember that data should drive every one of your marketing decisions — just because a technique, strategy, or tool is shiny and new doesn’t mean that it’s the right fit for you. Start running reports and digging into the analytics before you make any big moves, and then use these tips to get your 2020 marketing plan going.

Find Out What Worked and What Didn’t

As you start looking at your reports, try to understand what worked and what didn’t work. Pull Google Analytics reports for your most successful and least successful blog posts and try to determine what it was that caused your customers to respond the way that they did — was it the topic? Was your SEO not up to par? Take a look at any Facebook advertising campaigns to determine their ROI and which ones got the most traction amongst your audience. Now is the time to take a deep dive into all of your numbers from your 2019 marketing and see what floats to the surface.

Rethink Your Marketing Strategy

Now that you have a better idea about what worked and what didn’t work in the past, you can move forward with creating or updating your strategy for the new year. If social ruled the day, what resources can you redirect to developing it even further? Decide whether you want to invest in areas that are working and continue in that direction or if you want to try something new like investing in 2020 design strategies for digital advertising. Decide what changes you need to make in your budget and your staffing to help support this strategy.

Take a Look at Your Marketing Budget

There are plenty of things to consider when planning your marketing budget for the year. First off, what are your goals for the year? If you haven’t set your goals, start there. Then, make sure that you have a clear picture of your general operational costs. From there you can determine how much of an investment you want to make in your marketing budget — remember that having a good marketing plan is just as crucial to your business’ success as any other tool that you need to operate.

Learn Some New Things

Whether your marketing department is a full-fledged team or just a team of one, increasing your company’s knowledge and skills is always a helpful strategy. Tools and techniques are constantly changing, updating, and improving, and it’s important to stay up-to-date with what’s going on. This will help you decide if the tool or strategy in question is still right for your marketing efforts. Make some time to take an online course or two or attend a seminar or conference. If you can’t create that sort of time, sign up for an email newsletter that bundles what you need together — and actually read it when it hits your inbox. Also, be sure you’re keeping up-to-date with any major changes in the industry, like Google changing algorithms or one social media company being bought out by another.

Remove Ongoing Campaigns from Auto-Pilot

Check to ensure that all of your apps, plugins, IFTTT settings, and more are all still functioning, first off. Make sure that the developer hasn’t taken the tool down or allowed it to fall into disrepair, check that all of your settings are still good and that actions are still functioning properly. While you’re in there, make sure that the employees who have access to these functions are still the correct people and add or remove, as necessary.

Rethink Your Call to Action

Is your call to action hitting all of the points needed to drive customers to actually perform that action? Make sure that your action verb is strong and that you are appealing to emotion in some way to create an irresistible call that makes your potential customer excited to learn more about your business. Double-check that everything that is a part of your call to action is correct and up-to-date and that any links, phone numbers, etc. work and go to the appropriate page or contact person.

Take a Look at Your Website

Does your website look fresh and current, or is it starting to look outdated? If it needs some work, can you find a good time to schedule that and make room in the budget for it? If your website doesn’t need a total overhaul, take the time to ensure that all of the information is correct, that links are working, that staff directories are up to date, etc, especially on your landing pages. And don’t forget about the back end! If you haven’t activated analytics tools, now is the time to do it so that you don’t go into the new year losing any more valuable data.

Make New Customers, But Keep the Old

As you’re creating new strategies and allocating new resources to attract new customers, don’t forget about the ones that you already have. How do you continue to provide value to them after they have made a purchase? You’ll want them to continue to be a customer and to encourage others to check you out, so don’t forget about them as you try to bring in new prospects. Try creating content around subjects that current customers can use, profile some of your favorite clients or jobs that you’ve done for them, maybe even host a small customer appreciation event at some point (and make sure they bring their friends).

Sure, this to-do list may seem a bit overwhelming at first, what with all of the other things taking up room on your list. Be sure that you have the time to allocate to doing it right or making sure that your marketing team can do it for you. If you find yourself without the time or tools needed to make sure that your 2020 marketing strategies can help you meet your goals, MindEcology can help. We can help you create profiles of your customers using our MatchPoint™ tool, as well as provide a full range of marketing services that include social media, strategy, and more. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.