Have you started planning your marketing activities for 2023?

I am always asked if it is important to have a marketing plan and the simple answer is YES!

A plan doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to be war and peace. The biggest marketing plan I have seen spanned 40+ pages and whilst it was a masterpiece, it never saw the light of day. It gathered dust in a desk drawer only to be brought out for an annual review.

A 1-page plan is just as good if you are going to use it. Are you planning just for planning sake? No – if you make a plan that is SMART you are going to put in the time and effort to make it a reality.

Some questions your plan can help you answer:

How many customers do you need?
What channels of marketing are right for you?
How are you going to build your audience?
What social media channels generate the best engagement for your business?

A plan will allow you to answer some of these questions and break down marketing activity, resources, time and effort to ensure you are spending effecting in the right places. Keep it simple… Keep your marketing plans simple, make them visible and review them monthly.

Can your plan be displayed on the wall in your office or on a dedicated Trello board that everyone has access to? By making it visible, you’re more likely to act on the steps of your plan.

If you’ve not started yet it is not too late to start. Download our End of Year Review Template

We have produced a Year in Review template to help you get clear of your activities last year. Even understanding what you enjoyed and where you spend your time can help you plan for this year.

Looking back on the year, reflecting is a powerful tool to help you plan for 2023

Download your FREE template here

Ready to start planning. Download our FREE Planning Template Here

We have produced a Marketing Planning template to walk you through the planning process looking at your goals, ideas, content strategy, budgets and resources

Download your FREE template here

If you’ve already started, don’t worry there are still a few tips we might be able to help you with. Remember, your plan is not set in stone and may change and flex throughout the year but by getting clear on what you really want to achieve in 2023 you can stop trying to reach the impossible.

We are going to give a few handy tips on planning for the new year.

Step 1: Review The Past Year

• Ask yourself what marketing activity worked in your business and what didn’t. Why was it successful and why was it not as successful as you thought? Don’t carry on doing the same old tasks if they aren’t working.
• Was your marketing budget effective – did it allow you to try new things or was it restrictive?
• Go through your analytics for your marketing, did your engagement increase? Did this help you reach your goal? If not try a new approach this year, if it did work well ask yourself how you could increase it more.
• Brainstorm your business as a whole, how could you make the process flow smoother? My top tips to help you stay on track are to prioritise your activity and regularly monitor your results.

Step 2: Set Clear Goals

Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals. You should have multiple goals for the business as a whole for the end of the year, for each quarter, for the end of each month and weekly goals.

By breaking up your marketing plans, you can avoid the overwhelm, be more strategic and be more consistent with your marketing.

Step 3: Create a Calendar

One of the top tips we can share is to break down your marketing activities per month and prioritise each task. We use Trello for this and then colour code tasks to ensure we stay on track Make sure you add all activities and give each task a due date – this will hold you to account.

Another big tip is to print out and stick the calendar on the wall where it is visible and a constant reminder of what you want to achieve – this works really well and is something we do. If your plan sits in your desk drawer, it will gather dust.

Step 4: Review Monthly At the end of each month review how your marketing activity has gone. Create a Score Card for monitoring results as well as also record your feelings about how the month has progressed.

Check monthly analytics, this is really important to see success.  Check your stats!

Monitor data such as:

• Website Traffic – increase/decrease
  Social Media Engagement
• Email open rates
• Number of testimonials received
• Response to Facebook ads
• Enquiries generated into the business

By knowing your numbers you can start to make specific marketing decisions that can help 2023 be a successful year for you.

If you have any questions, please contact me on 0115 8376 260 or email info@creationzmarketing.co.uk