Marketing Tips to Kick Off Your New Year!

December 8, 2018 By

You finally made it! It’s almost 2019 – that doesn’t mean you have to stick with the same marketing plan from 2018. Now is the time for experimentation.

In order to review your current plan, here are some check-ins we suggest you do:

YOUR BUDGET. One of the most obvious check-ins you should be doing is budget. Review what you spent in 2018 and what the ROI was. You should also be checking what succeeded and what fell short. If a certain set of campaigns didn’t perform as well as others, try to determine why. Connect your budget to this content and see if there are any correlations.

WEB/EMAIL CONTENT. Take a look at any blog posts, email campaigns, social media posts, etc. and pick the most successful 5. Try to determine why that content performed better and format new content through accordingly. That doesn’t mean you should be copying the content – use them as a launch pad for new ideas.

That being said, revisit old content and amp it up. If a blog post seems out of date, update it and promote it!

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE. Take a look at your social media content, just like you did for your web and mail content. Analytics are built into apps like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Track the posts with the most engagement and determine why that is. Was there a CTA or a discount offered? Whatever the case may be, use those posts as a launch pad for new content.

Now that you have looked at your 2018 plan, here are some tips for planning your 2019 plan:

  1. UNDERSTAND TRENDS. Be sure to research industry trends so you can stay ahead of the game.
  2. WATCH THE COMPETITION. Feel free to look at competitors’ websites, web content, and social media. Just like you did for your own plan, analyze competitors’ success.
  3. REFOCUS THE BRAND. Sometimes people get tunnel vision when focusing on the details of a certain campaign or working with a specific client … reacquaint yourself with your brand. Read your mission statement. Take a step back and remember why your company exists and think of new ways to communicate that.
  4. HAVE CLEAR OBJECTIVES. The purpose of refocusing your brand is to give yourself a fresh way of thinking. With this new mindset, modify your objectives and make them clear and trackable. Whether it be a certain profit or amount of referrals or site traffic, be sure to track this throughout the year.
  5. HAVE IMPACTFUL PROJECTS. If you noticed that, this year, you spread either your time, budget, or self too thin, take steps to make the necessary changes to remedy this. Reposition yourself to focus on the most impactful projects rather than sporadically trying to reach cheap quantities. Make each project meaningful and you will see results.
  6. SHARE THE MARKETING PLAN. If you have had a hand in creating a marketing plan, others should feel included too. If others feel they have also had a hand in the plan, it is more likely to be approved and supported.
  7. DELEGATE. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Get a small team together who can support you and it is almost guaranteed the process will go quicker.
  8. GET SUPPORT FROM THE TOP. In addition, if your colleagues support your marketing plan, it is more likely to reach the top and get support from the boss.

We want you to grow as a business and the best way to do that is to experiment with your marketing plan. The first step is to understand what you did and then to understand what the possibilities are. Never be afraid to ask for support wherever you go. Happy planning!