Make better (marketing) choices this year
Your marketing strategy called, and it wants you to make better choices this year. Maybe you had a good marketing year in 2022, maybe you didn’t… But chances are you can likely improve on your overall marketing strategy.
There is so much to consider when you’re building or revising a marketing strategy and it’s almost impossible to remember everything. So here is a bit of a cheat sheet to help you make better marketing choices this year. Let 2023 be your year for marketing success!
Note: If you’ve already made a plan for 2023, that is amazing! Make sure it’s optimized and that you have considered all of the important factors for marketing. If you’re not sure, take a peek at the list below anyhow. It can’t hurt!
Build your strategy around your audience
First, get to know your audience. You can’t be all things to all people and that means figuring out who would be interested in what you’re selling. Get to know everything about them – how they usually interact with other brands, what social media platforms they’re on, what kind of content they like, what their needs/pain points are, who they are currently buying from, etc.
The biggest thing to remember is that you will likely have to step out of your comfort zone. You may be pulled in a direction you’re not familiar with so you can connect better with your audience and allow your brand to grow. You either need to learn the skills necessary to succeed or hire an expert to help get things going.
Get your tracking in place
Track your success – and failures. It’s equally important to know what works and what doesn’t so you can either do more of something or cut it out completely. Before you get started on any marketing initiative, you need to decide two things:
What does success look like? Set goals that are measurable and timely so you can hold yourself accountable.
What metrics are you tracking? What do you need to know to decide if you’re successful – decide what will tell you if you have reached your goals.
Create better content
Your content is the first point of contact that many clients will have with you. Getting back to the first point – create content with your audience in mind. Even with all the changing algorithms on social media, don’t get sucked into the idea that your content should be created for the algorithms. Ultimately, your audience is who will interact with your content.
Looking for some specific advice on writing content? Check out these blogs:
7 ways to change up your content strategy during COVID-19 (still relevant!!)
9 Types of social media content your brand could be creating right now
Revisit your priorities often
I talk a lot about prioritization in marketing whether it’s prioritization of your tactics when you’re building your strategy or individual tasks that you need to do to help you reach your goals and mini milestones along the way. Regardless, be aware of your priorities and keep yourself accountable by revisiting them over time.
For longer-term goals, decide how often you’ll check in – either with yourself or your team. When starting out, I suggest checking in more frequently – even monthly. You could also do quarterly or every 6 months. And after a year, you can do a more in-depth review of the previous year to see whether you have reached your shorter term goals that are within a year and whether you’re on track to meet long-term goals.
Also, prioritize your tasks for the week to keep you on track. I am a BIG fan of lists because you get to cross things off when you’re done. But also, it allows me to make sure I get done what needs to get done to reach those bigger goals.
Talk to your customers
Customer feedback is potentially the most important information you will ever receive as a business owner. Use the feedback to improve your products and services and your overall marketing strategy. Here are a few different options:
Testimonials: Don’t be afraid to ask for them and then make sure you use them! Post them on your website, your socials, marketing materials, etc. In a perfect world, enough people would say nice things about you to build up your reputation. However, in reality, you need to get comfortable reminding people how amazing you are.
Customer surveys: Not every purchase will warrant an in-depth testimonial. However, you can automate the feedback process after an online purchase by asking them about their experience.
Engage in meaningful dialogue on social media
Even more than talking to your customers and asking for feedback, build overall engagement and dialogue into your marketing strategy in 2023. Your ability to connect with both existing and potential customers will have a direct effect on how well you’ll grow your business. Here are a few different ways you could do it:
Polls and questions on social media: There are so many tools built into social media platforms and you have access to all of them. So use them! Ask your followers what kind of content they want to hear from you. Ask them what they like about your business. Ask them what they wish existed in your industry. The opportunities are endless.
Active Listening and engagement: When you walk into a room it’s always a good idea to get a sense of the conversations that are happening before you jump in. The same can be said online. Take the time to listen to what people are saying in your industry and what your target audience is chatting about and then join in the conversation with meaningful engagement.
Include clear calls to action
Be clear with your intentions and what you want from people. What action do you want your audience to take? For example, if they read a blog, do you want them to comment? Book a consultation? If you post on Instagram, do you want them to visit your blog? Like and share? Save for later? Be clear with your “ask” as part of the content you’re putting out there.
What about you? Think about your biggest marketing challenges from 2022. If there is anything you would like to chat about, book a free consultation with us!