With January approaching, it’s time to start planning your marketing tactics for next year. Creating the perfect year-end marketing plan can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t know where to start.
The purpose of the plan is to help you analyze your success over the last year, the current environment of the market you’re in, and how competitors stack up against you when it comes to customer needs. We aim to help make it easier to understand and help you create one, as it can significantly benefit your business.
Get to Know the Key Elements
The key elements of the year-end marketing plan will help you gather the vital information you need to create one that works in your favour. You’ll have to pay attention to certain aspects of your business, including:
- The product or service you provide
- How much everything costs
- Your target area
- How you plan to promote your business
- The people you’re targeting
- The process
Once you iron out these details, you can begin putting everything into the following year’s action plan.
Writing the Plan
When it’s time to sit down and put the plan together, doing things in the order that makes the most sense is essential. First, you’ll want to start with market research. Knowing the current market allows you to choose which direction to go to garner the best results.
Next, you’ll want to set tangible and reachable goals within your marketing. Where do you see yourself this time next year, and how will your marketing plan help get you there? It’s important to know where you want to go so you can plan the proper steps to get there.
You’ll also want to make sure that you identify and acknowledge your weaknesses. By doing so, you can abandon tactics that no longer work for you and replace them with ones that do. Your key performance indicators (KPIs) are also essential to the puzzle, so establishing those while you create the plan is vital. Once you’ve ironed out all these factors, you can integrate your marketing efforts through unique creative approaches and the right tech.
Types to Consider
Digital media has made choosing the right type of marketing tech more complex than ever. Why? Because there’s a sea of options. Knowing which works best for your business isn’t always cut and dry. Some of the most used types are:
- Social media
- SEO
- General marketing
- Paid advertising
- Product launches – properties to market
- Content creation
Social media is a popular one because of the reach it provides, but other forms of marketing can be just as lucrative if you know how to use them.
Depending on what makes the most sense for you and your business, you may opt for a couple or all of them in your year-end marketing plan. It’s all about getting to know the types and what they can do for you.
If you are still figuring out where to start, contact us to create your year-end marketing plan so we can get the pieces in place before the new year.