Though it may feel like you still have plenty of time, 2018 is less than 100 days away!

That means it’s time to be thinking about your marketing strategy and budget for the new year.

Many of us are searching for 2018 marketing trends, lists and strategies, and those articles abound. This article is to help you understand from a high level what you need to be assessing and what you need to do as you actually write your overall marketing plan, both online or off.

Creating a marketing strategy begins with evaluating your business objectives. Any campaigns you develop in the coming year must tie back to the objectives you decide upon now. Without specific goals in mind, your 2018 marketing attempts will be unfocused and scattered. This is a crucial step that many businesses either glaze over or don’t take the time to sit down and focus their team.

You may feel you’re too busy to dedicate an entire day to planning for 2018, but not doing so will cause you continual setbacks throughout the year as you scramble to create new campaigns and you realize your marketing efforts are floundering. And remember, in most cases, you have employees and their families to think about.

As you prepare your 2018 marketing strategy keep these things in mind:

Never be complacent, even if your sales numbers are high. If sales are strong, think about how you can create entry barriers, exit barriers, improve existing customer/client sales, lower customer acquisition costs, and invest to increase market share. Think about how you can pull away further from the pack. If sales are weak, evaluate where your customers are coming from, examine the profitability of each marketing channel, and the cost effective ways to immediately improve your plan. This may also be a time to get customer feedback, evaluate pricing, and look for areas of the market that are more profitable, for example. Regardless, it’s time for reflection.

During this planning time, we recommend taking the time to consider doing something new. Is it time to redo your website and make it more responsive? Are you happy with your SEO standing? Are you considering advertising on a new platform, or breaking into using AdWords? Should you retool your print campaigns? Do you have a firm social media plan? Have you held off on email marketing?

Going into 2018 with a plan in place for social, digital advertising and outreach strategies will position you ahead of the competition.

Here are some process tips on how to put that plan together:

First, you want to set clear goals, so you can track and measure the success of your outreach campaigns. Create objectives based on those goals. The goals should be based on what is attainable, meaningful, financially feasible, operationally possible and accomplishable in the time frame allotted. Some people likes to call these type of goals SMART goals.

One way of thinking about goal setting is asking yourself, “How much new business do I want to have, and how many new customers do I need?” If you can quantity how many new leads you need, your conversion rates, your cost per acquisition and profitability per customer, you can quantify how much investment is needed to reach your goals, for example. In other words, knowing the numbers can help you calculate what it costs to get one more customer. Digital marketing is great because measurement is very robust compared to traditional media.

Determine which metrics you will use to measure each of those successes on each marketing channel.  Each marketing channel will have unique metrics. For example, in SEO, you may be looking at a combination of organic traffic growth, conversions, rankings and cost per organic visitor. In Pay Per Click, you may be looking at Cost Per Action, conversions, conversion rate and time on site. You may also be looking at costs per click, average position, and leads by device type or CPA by device type. In social media, you will be looking at a combination between numbers that evaluate your reach and metrics that tell you how well you are engaging with reached users. You should set these goals for each digital marketing channel.

Next, determine your strategy and your action plan for reaching each of those goals. That means “how” you are actually going to get the results you need and “why” that plan is going to work. Your action plan is part of your strategy. That’s where individuals come into play; the staff you are going to assign tasks to in order to support your strategy. It’s the nuts and bolts of the everyday tactics your team will take to align your work schedule to meeting your company objectives. It’s the resources and budget attached to each program you will use. It’s the nitty gritty of marketing!

Remember to look at the marketing and the industry.  Things have probably changed over the past year, hopefully to your benefit! New industry players may have come in. Your rankings may have changed online opening you up to a more saturated search engine environment. A new product may have taken off, drawing more competitors into the niche. Or, even laws may have changed, or there are other macro factors affecting your business. Take a 10K foot view and evaluate if your overall business model, your positioning and your offering are still “relevant” and competitive. Then, identity what has to change.

It’s important to also look at how service may be changing in your industry and what customer expectations will be this coming year in 2018. Are you ready? What do you need to change? What are your strengths worth reinforcing? What weaknesses need correction? Where are the opportunities and growth areas in your industry? Who on your team will take point to follow up on initiatives?

Look at your marketing message and your promotional strategy. Many companies offer similar or the same products and services, but why do some excel and others fail? Sometimes, it’s a matter of what connects to your customers the best, and what you have to offer in the moment where they have a need. Is your marketing message clear? Is it clear for each product line or service you may have? Do you have a promotional strategy? Are you susceptible to price competition? If you are, how are you differentiating through messaging? Even with an excellent product and an amazing customer experience, it’s sometimes the sales process that needs the most help. Make sure you are laser focused and crystal clear when it comes to customer communications.

Map it all out on paper and ask for feedback. Actually write it all out. Map out your goals and tactics (by month), with a budget allocated by marketing channel, and assign a point person who is accountable. Schedule meetings to follow progress and determine the Key Success Factors needed to make it all happen. Executing your plan and then measuring, monitoring and adjusting your plan can be the difference between success and failure. So get feedback from your team and your Digital Agency or Marketing Consultant. Place calls to vendors or business partners you work who and who serve a similar audience and get more ideas. Don’t stop until you have something concrete that you can actually execute.

In summary, if you want you want to see results from your marketing strategy in the coming year, don’t sit back. Get up and make some moves….now! And if you need some help, you know you can get in touch with us at any time. Best of luck in turning 2018 into your most profitable year yet!