For many business owners, Christmas and New Year is a time for a little bit of business self-reflection. That moment when we sit and think about the previous year and what we could have done differently. Maybe it’s no surprise that the tax return deadline falls around this time too. It gives the opportunity to consider whether that training course was a good investment, which clients are the best customers, and where you would like your business to go in the coming months. To put it into the words of Derek Trotter (and after all, Only Fools and Horses is always repeated at Christmas) “This time next year we’ll be millionaires”.
As a business owner, you’ve probably already looked at your business plan and revamped it, considering which steps you will take over the next 12 months to improve your processes and your profits. Staff training, new equipment, maybe even new premises, but have you thought about how you will let your existing and potential customers know about your plans and achievements? It’s the one business resolution that always gets overlooked. You need to update your marketing plan!
Hang on… what’s a marketing plan?
Every business, no matter whether it is a sole trader or a huge multinational, should have a marketing plan. So, if you don’t have one, you should probably resolve to create one as soon as possible.
A good marketing plan will identify your target audience or audiences and will then consider the best routes to get your message out to them. As integrated marketing specialists, Not Another Marketing Agency considers all avenues, from targeted social media campaigns through sports sponsorship to print media and sponsored roundabouts.
The key point of having a plan is to avoid implementing a scattergun approach. It allows you to see exactly where your time and marketing budget are having the biggest impact and where you can improve. It also helps to keep track of best-selling and popular products and services and provides statistical feedback on which aspects of your business work and which don’t. In short, they are vital to future success.
What stats are important?
Any goal or resolution is usually based on results. Whether that is deciding to learn a new language, save money, or get more business, there always needs to be a point where you assess how successful you’ve been. For many businesses running their own marketing, one of the simplest indicators is social media statistics (of which there are many!).
While it’s unarguable that stats are important, it’s also worth taking a moment to think about which ones will be the most important to your company. So, for example, if you make your money as a social media influencer, then followers from all around the world could be very beneficial, but if you are a business tied to a specific geographical location, followers on the other side of the world are a less useful measure of success. In fact, you could argue that something in your marketing plan is going severely wrong.
Similarly, visits to particular pages on your website might look fantastic, but if the visitors are then bouncing back off without exploring, there could be an issue.
These stats are called vanity metrics; you can read more about them here.
Do you have all the resources available to you?
Ok, you have a marketing plan, it’s all singing and dancing, it covers multiple platforms and will hit your target market with imaginative and inspirational content. Perfect. Now, how do you implement it?
Implementing a marketing plan
In much the same way that people sign up to do marathons with the best intentions and then realise a month before that they should probably do some training, many businesses fall short when it comes to implementing their marketing themselves. This can be for a variety of reasons, from not understanding how hashtags work to not having the best lighting equipment to take amazing Instagram post pictures. I have worked with many clients who want to use Google AdWords and understand their importance but don’t fully understand how they work. This invariably leads to extra unnecessary expense, frustration and in some cases a lack of belief in the power of digital marketing.
In all cases, it’s best to speak to an expert, even if it’s just a couple of hours of consultation, to ensure that you are on the right track and that you have the right skills on your team to achieve your end goal. Just like a potential marathon runner might speak to a strength and conditioning coach, so a business owner looking to run their own marketing will also probably need advice or training.
We are happy to work with internal marketing teams to help and support the implementation of marketing strategies, or if you do not have anyone with the correct skills in-house, we can, of course, implement it for you. So, if you’ve suddenly realised that your marketing plan definitely doesn’t have a 20/20 vision and would like to chat about it, get in touch.
