As the year draws to a close, you might already be thinking about what\u2019s in store for 2020. It\u2019s easy to get excited about the start of a new year and jump into making plans and setting goals. Maybe you\u2019re planning to implement a long-awaited rebrand or launch a new website. But before you do, it\u2019s important to review what you achieved in the past year in order to inform your direction for the year ahead.<\/p>\n
So, amidst the Christmas parties and holiday plans, take some time to review how successful your marketing was in 2019 so you can use the data to start 2020 strong!<\/p>\n
An end of year marketing review doesn\u2019t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Here are two simple questions that will get you started.<\/p>\n
If you made goals for your marketing strategy at the beginning of the year, reviewing how successful you were in achieving them is the best place to start \u2013 especially if your goals were measurable (as all good goals should be!) For example, if you planned to produce new banners and signage for your business premises, did you do that? If you planned to create consistent branding across all your marketing materials, is the job done? Do any of your 2019 goals need more work in 2020? Remember to consider whether your target market or industry has changed over the last year as this may mean that it\u2019s time to pivot your marketing strategy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to make sure your marketing budget works hard for you. The best way to determine how cost-effective last year\u2019s strategy was is to work out how much each piece of marketing cost you, and what the return was for your investment.<\/p>\n
This might sound complicated, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. It should be easy to work out how much you spent on printed marketing materials including business cards, flyers, brochures, banners and posters and digital marketing such as your website and social media. If you designed each part of the marketing strategy bearing in mind how you would measure its success, working out the return on investment is easy \u2013 but even if you didn\u2019t, looking at your sales and talking to your staff should enable you to work out which marketing products were the most cost-effective.<\/p>\n
All this information can be used to plan your marketing strategy for next year and may also help you to build in systems that will enable you to evaluate its success more effectively when review time rolls around again.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget, we have been advising London businesses about marketing for over 30 years. If you need help with your business marketing in 2020 click here<\/a> or contact us for information.<\/p>\n