Making your marketing strategy a success in the New Year
Now is the perfect time to plan your marketing strategy for the year ahead.
It’s the New Year and there’s simply no better time to cast a strategic eye over your digital marketing strategy and ask yourself: How is my current digital marketing strategy moving my business forward?
Getting started
This can be the hardest part. So, let’s be clear – you do not need to get rid of your current marketing plan in order to create a refreshed digital strategy. The first step is reviewing the past 12 months. These questions might help you start your evaluation process:
- Which marketing activities were effective?
- Which were not?
- Did your target market change during the year?
- Did you spend too much/too little?
- Is there something new you want to include this year?
- What would you do differently?
Break it down
Words like ‘Plan’ and ‘Strategy’ can make things sound bigger and more daunting than they actually are. Every big plan is made up of small, achievable actions. Let’s work with what you’ve already got and look at how small tweaks can create big outcomes. Here are our top three tips for high value quick fixes:
- Revamp your homepage: This can be as easy as swapping some images, or updating small blocks of content. Are you offering any new or improved products and/or services? Get them upfront where your customers can see them.
- Identify the essentials: Do you need to be updating content across seven different social media channels? Which ones gave you the highest level of engagement last year? If you’re starting a social media strategy from scratch, choose one or two channels and add more as you go. Be realistic and focus on those elements of your marketing strategy that you know you can dedicate time and budget to.
- Revitalise your content: We’ve said it before, content is king. New content is critical for good SEO and your customers are genuinely interested in what you’re doing, particularly if it affects them. Identify one of your services or products to focus on and start from there. Remember, video content is going to be bigger than ever in 2017 and the best part is, you can create video content using your existing still images.
Look closely at your budget
Finally, think about how you’re currently spending your marketing budget. Have you looked at how your offline marketing spend could translate to your online channels? How do the costs of printing newsletters and flyers compare with using email newsletters and Google Ads? How do you measure ROI for your current activities? Social media such as Facebook offers highly targeted, easily measurable advertising options that could have a greater chance of reaching the customers you really need. You won’t know until you try.
If it’s all too overwhelming, let iFactory help you. At iFactory, we help a wide range of companies grow their business by translating corporate objectives into a digital strategy that delivers tangible results. From social media and application development to website design and digital marketing, our award-winning team provide outstanding digital solutions based on your business needs. When was the last time you looked at your digital marketing goals for the year ahead? Contact us now to get started whilst the New Year is young.
