Year-end is often a time for reflection on the past year, along with planning for the new year. So why not marketing? How were results measured? What are specific plans for the year ahead? How can you “shake up” your marketing with a focus on results? Your friends at Modern Marketing Partners have some perspective we’d like to share.
Intuitively, before you can “shake up” your marketing, you should objectively evaluate and analyze your prior marketing. So how can this process be objective? For starters, there are many tools that can measure online aspects of marketing including Woo website and SEO rankings, along with SEMrush, Similar Web traffic analysis, Google Analytics, and complete social media analytics. Email service providers, paid search and e-commerce software offer analysis tools. Importantly, your own sales revenue and profit statements should be a part of this assessment. Ideally, traditional financial measures including Return on Investment (ROI or Marketing Return on Investment), can be used.
Traditional marketing including advertising, branding, and publicity can be measured by lead generation, sales, brand mentions, and all types of market research, including brand awareness or brand equity studies (read our Market Research Types and Tips blog). Don’t have the budget for market research? May I suggest interviewing key customers about your marketing, and their preferences for marketing communications?
In addition to all this internal analysis and assessment, we recommend giving some attention to your competitors. Use some of the same tools as above, and carefully evaluate all publicly available marketing. Try to identify and interview some of your competitors customers. The insights will likely be elucidating.
With objective information about your marketing and competitors, start brainstorming new approaches to marketing. New channels of communication. Ask team members for their ideas, and begin to formulate a plan.
No question, you have core and proven marketing programs that should continue. Is there room for marketing experimentation? Can you test a new initiative in a small way, and see if it gets any traction? Can you go back to those friendly customers, and request their feedback on new marketing strategies? Do you know any marketing experts that can be interviewed? (You are cordially invited to ask Modern Marketing Partners for some new marketing ideas)
With ideas fleshed out, develop a marketing plan with schedules and budgets. Put time and resources behind test initiatives. If you have marketing staff resources, assign tasks with deadlines. Implement and measure all possible results.
Sounds easy, right? Just like anything else, you get back what you put into it, and maybe more with a little luck.
So what are some marketing idea starters to shake up your marketing in 2019 and beyond? This to take some of the luck out of it, and go with some tried and true marketing. Please consider our Top 10 Marketing Ideas list, and use the comments tool to share some of your ideas.
Top 10 Marketing Ideas
- Is your brand identity relevant and contemporary? If not, make it relevant and contemporary.
- Perfect your website and search engine optimization (SEO) in 2019 (because you can)
- Corresponding to above, focus on doubling your website traffic in 2019.
- Enter a new market with an existing product or service (ex. market segment, geographic market)
- Double your email list, then double it again (with many new tools available)
- Now do something with that email list including subject line optimization, resend to non-opens,click-through optimization, and email automation (read this email guide)
- If you haven’t implemented social media advertising, do so, fast!
- Have you implemented Remarketing? If not, doe so, fast! (the proverbial no-brainer)
- If B2B, test branded thought leadership, sponsored your brand (but read this guide first)
- If B2C, test Cause Marketing (but read this guide first)
There you have it. Shake Up You Marketing in 2019, and thereafter. Because marketing complacency is surely not effective.
Now, let us know your ideas for Shaking Up Marketing!
