12 Month Plan to Better Marketing

By Susan Payton, President, Egg Marketing and Communications

 

With the beginning of a new year comes planning for the future with goals, plans, and resolutions. So let’s look at a 12 month plan to better marketing that you can start any time of the year to improve performance and return on marketing.

 

January: Embrace New Acquaintances

Make customers you worked so hard to get over the holidays long-term clients. Invite them to your VIP club that gives them special perks, send loyalty offers, and consider non-discounted perks to keep customers returning all year.

 

February: Rekindle Lost Relationships

It happens; you get busy and forget to follow up with a hot lead, or an M.I.A. frequent shopper. Reignite the passion with a personalized “we miss you” email, a special offer to “try us again,” or even a survey to help you improve in the future. Be personal, be specific, and follow up at least once.

 

March: Follow Up Like Lion

After shoring up new customers from the holidays and reaching out to old flames, this month look to automate following up with apps like IFTTT, your ESP or CRM so you don’t lose touch again.

 

April: Shower Your Customers

In world where most products have been commoditized, customers increasingly buy an experience. So make the experience better by improving your store’s use of light and color and make mobile shopping easier than ever.

 

May: Go To Summer School

Commit to learning more over the summer by identifying three webinars, conferences, or books to read over the summer. Then use what you learned to feed your content marketing and social media monsters.

 

June: Experiment

With the year half-gone, improve your marketing by experimenting with a new technology, platform or campaign strategy. Have a junior associate manage it to improve their development and scale your time.

 

July: Embrace Local Marketing

Help local customers find you by improving your local search and help them choose you by encouraging more reviews on sites like Yelp, Google, and Tripadvisor.

 

August: Go On Holiday

Q4 often has the biggest impact on your business performance so flesh out your holiday marketing strategy and calendar now. Don’t forget to plan a consistent message and evolving story throughout the holiday season.

 

September: Go Back To Subscribers

Build an audience for your holiday marketing plan by increasing your subscribers. Add a light box (a popup) to your website can increase email subscribers substantially. If appropriate, easily add a light box to YouTube to increase your audience there too.

 

October: Harvest Results

It’s been four months since you started experimenting back in June, so what has happened? Analyze the results, share it with your larger audience and refine it in time for the holiday campaigns.

 

November: Be Thankful You Planned

With all your planning, all you have to do is hit the button and your holiday marketing should be in full swing, giving you time to serve the customers coming to you.

 

December: Wrap It Up

As your annual and holiday plan comes to an end, take time to analyze the results. What were your specific goals at the beginning of the year? What did you do to reach them? How have you measured these tactics’ performance? What can we learn and implement in the upcoming year?

 

Image: PhotoSpin

By Andrew Patricio

January 14, 2015

BizLaunch