Now’s the time to start thinking about your 2019 marketing strategy. The year is almost over, and once the holidays are through, you’ll want to hit the ground running with a new marketing plan for the new year. What you have now may be working, but could it be even more effective? The end of the year is a great time to evaluate what’s great and what could use some improvement. Here are five things to consider when planning your marketing for next year.
Evaluate the effectiveness of your current marketing
Is your marketing working? Are you getting the return you expected? Now is the time to measure ROI and cut what’s not working. Of course, that assumes you have systems in place to measure your results, but if you don’t then make a plan to set them up. You can’t see what’s working without ways to track your marketing efforts.
Improve conversion tracking
Determine the metrics you will use to figure out if your marketing is working for you. Put a system in place to measure success. For example, set up goals in Google Analytics to track contact form submissions or clicks from mobile phones. Consider using a call tracking solution to capture data about all the phone calls you receive because Google Analytics can’t track calls made from landlines. In general, you should know how much it takes for you to generate a lead, how much you can afford to generate a lead from your marketing, and the tools you need to track when you are hitting this threshold.
Budget for price increases
Have you been in touch with your vendors to find out if there are any rate increases planned for 2019? You don’t want to get caught off guard with increases that will put you over budget when it’s easy to do your homework up front. Plan for increases now and adjust your marketing if needed, depending on how it’s working for you.
Reevaluate your messaging
Recruit someone who’s got a little distance from your business to look at your website and give you some honest feedback. Is it obvious to an uninformed buyer what you do or what you offer? Do you have the right amount of text? You should have the right amount of text for SEO rankings but not so much that people lose focus and attention. Does your branding look dated? Have someone that’s removed from your business review everything and let you know where you could improve.
Look at new vendors and technologies
Marketing is evolving and where you should be spending your money can shift from year to year. Take some time to learn about new tools available to you or tools that have improved over time. For example, should you be using a Chatbot? If you use paid search advertising, is it time to look at Bing ads? Is it worth investing in a more expensive CRM that integrates data from your website, like Agile CRM? Also, take a look at how your current marketing vendor is performing. If you’re outsourcing your marketing to a third party, but don’t feel like you’re getting your money’s worth, start researching new agencies. Just as not all technologies are created equal, not all agencies are either.
If you’re looking for new ways to boost your brand, or on the hunt for a new digital marketing agency, we’re always here!
