The end of the year is just around the corner and with that comes a prime opportunity to see how your marketing efforts worked in 2019. Not sure what to look at? We’ve got a four-step checklist to get some idea of what worked, what didn’t, and what you can change for 2020.
In a world overwhelmed by data, it’s often best to stop, slow down, and look at the big picture. We work in a field that allows us to measure things as minute as the number of clicks on a particular email by a particular recipient; it’s easy to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of a single platform or a single campaign. Take a big step back and divide your marketing efforts into some overarching categories. You probably already do this, but especially for small businesses, it’s easy to mash everything into a mental drawer labeled “Marketing” and leave it at that.
Look At The Numbers. Try to divide your efforts into neat piles; events, social media, print and traditional advertising, and donations. Look at both the amount of time and money you invest and find a metric that is helpful in measuring your ROI. Sometimes it takes putting a more specific dollar amount to your marketing efforts to show you what works and what doesn’t; if you’re getting more phone calls from social media than sponsoring events, does the community impact make up for the dollar difference?
Quality Check. Using analytics from each platform, give the quality of your content an honest assessment. Don’t focus on the top-performing posts yet; instead, measure your output and quality against the rest of the industry. If you’re a small business, use your industry leader as a benchmark. For example, while your local coffee roasting company may not be able to spend millions on campaigns heading into #pumpkinspicelatte season, you can spend ten minutes making a high-quality graphic. Investing in quality matters even more when you can’t match in quantity, and it often has a better ROI.
What Works. Across your social media and website, what drives traffic? Look at what posts and photos drives volume and make a game plan with your team to create more of that in 2020. If customers and clients respond well to informative posts, lean on that at peak scheduling times on social platforms, and create more of that content in video, blogs, and photos on your site. This is worth checking throughout the year, but the lens of a full 365 days gives you a wider scope to see what brings eyes to your business.
Make A Wishlist. In evaluating your marketing efforts, you’re bound to uncover some things you need to work on. Put together a list of assets that would support your marketing success, even if they aren’t something you can budget for right now. Maybe it’s time for a new website, a new social media planning software, or building a more substantial video library. Put it in writing and prioritize what needs to happen now and what can wait.
Need help? We can jump in and put together a marketing audit that can help show you what’s working and what we’d change for the new year. Let’s make 2020 your biggest year yet.