A New Year – A New Marketing Plan

The beginning of the year is the time we all traditionally start to think about change. Whether it’s making personal resolutions for improvement or looking forward to a new year of opportunity, we are all ready to shake off the ups and downs of the previous year and look forward to new opportunities in the year ahead.

Are you looking for opportunities with your business marketing in 2019? 

All change starts at the same point – putting together an actionable and measurable plan.  This doesn’t mean locking the sales team away for a week and writing a 75 page epic manifesto that few will actually put into action. Instead, market planning can be simple. Take an inventory on what marketing you have been doing successfully and unsuccessfully; list out ideas for where and how you want to reach the most prospects – online or offline – then build a roadmap of action toward the marketing channels identified. A few things to remember while you are planning:

1. It is not just promotion and campaigning. Include activity needed, sales funnels, types of clients and how you plan to reach them.
2. Marketing planning allows you to design a strategy that matches your teams’ skill sets and abilities to take on new marketing technologies. While an idea may be fun, just make sure you and your team can pull it off or begin looking at outsource agencies who can help you maximize success.
3. If you are thinking about investing in technology or outsource providers, make sure the tools and programs are in alignment with your marketing goals.
4. In today’s exploding cyber marketing space, a written plan of action will help your firm focus time and resources on opportunities that offer the greatest chance for success. Write it down. Keep it front of you and everyone on the team.
5. As you are bombarded with new marketing ideas and opportunities throughout the year, a plan will help you stay focused. Reviewing and revisiting your written marketing plan’s goals and ideas ensures your marketing team does not stray too far off course as new innovations are released. Instead, when you discover new ideas and innovation, match them to your goals and objectives already in place.
6. A properly written plan will help you measure and recognize the results of your efforts over the year. Online social networking is a rage and has a place in the new world of marketing. Just do not throw out all that you know has worked offline, like traditional advertising and networking as these techniques still work (and in some cases, are working better than ever!) 
7. Define your market. So often we jump into marketing thinking a promotion will be fun rather then if it will actually appeal to our customer. We have a handy download to help identify your ideal client if you need to take a deeper look into who really buys from you.

Plan Your Year and Work Your Plan

New Year Plans should be nothing more than a starting point. You must develop a habit or ritual of revisiting your marketing plan.  This is where a marketing calendar becomes a valuable tool. It will remind you of upcoming campaigns, tie your marketing to the seasonality of your product/service and capitalize on annual holidays and events.

Solutions to Fit Your Plan

More than likely, you are in the business of running your business and don’t necessarily have that MBA marketing director on staff to put together a formal marketing strategy, a competitive analysis, or a channel blend with ROI measurement analytics. And that’s what we’re here! Plumb Marketing is not only experienced in direct mail and print campaigns, but we’ve developed the expertise in product fulfillment, online advertising to enhance direct mail programs, centralized marketing assets to ensure brand quality and so much more. Take advantage of our over two decades of experience in marketing by scheduling a market discovery session with us. No obligation, just great insight.

Not quite ready to talk? We’ve got you covered anyway! Just download our 19 Proven Strategies to Increase Your Sales!