Timothy A. Koonce: Start Your Marketing Strategy Revamp With These 11 Questions

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By Brooke B. Sellas, {grow} Contributing Columnist

At least once a year, many marketers aim for a marketing strategy revamp. This is a good best practice.

It doesn’t matter how successful your year was — a little reflection and some tweaks will set you up for another showcase year.

Here are the 11 areas I like to tinker with when planning.

Traditional Marketing Strategy Revamp

Many traditional marketing revamps look at three areas

Data
Competitors
Popular trends

Data

While data looks at your past, it can also tell you what worked and what didn’t. It’s a good idea to pull all of your data for the year and pinpoint places that need improvement.

Ideally, you can also spot campaigns or content that help you meet your business key performance indicators.

It’s also critical to understand where you should be spending your time in the upcoming year (and where to spend less time, too!).

Competitors

It’s always good to take a peek around the room and conduct a competitor audit. If you notice a competitor taking your share of voice, or spending a lot more on PPC campaigns, dig in!

We’ve found with some of our clients that when a top competitor spends less on PPC, they’re focusing on SEO or inbound content. This is a juicy tidbit. These are things you should be looking to uncover.

I really like digging into competitors for a marketing strategy revamp; more to come below!

Trends

Every business owner I know wants to futureproof. Many of them do this by staying on top of trends.

And I’m not necessarily talking AI or voice search. Marketers only need to look to Facebook and Instagram — both made major changes to their platforms in 2018 — to spot trends and areas needing some TLC.

Being adaptable and informed on major changes in the digital space will help you make necessary adjustments.

Okay, we’ve covered the basics. Now for a deeper dive.

11 Ideas For Revamping Your Marketing Strategy In 2019

I like questions that implore you to think. So, the 11 areas I like to look at for a marketing strategy revamp are listed as questions below.

See how many you can answer clearly … and how many make you take pause for next year’s planning.

What market(s) are you currently pursuing? Are you leaving any out (why)?
Are you immediately meeting the motivations and needs of your target customers? Why or why not?
Do each of my products/services have their own unique selling proposition (USP)? Is it clearly stated somewhere? Where?
Are my product/service USPs “pitched” to each of my target groups?
How is your company different from others like it; what is your primary differentiation strategy?
Does my primary differentiation strategy connect with the most urgent motivations and needs of my target customer?
Is our pricing model creating benefits or negatives for my business?
Who are my top competitors? What are they doing right/wrong that creates a threat/opportunity for my business?
Where do we promote our products/services? Is this where our target customers buy?
What is working the best and what is failing miserably with our current marketing strategy? (be HONEST!)
Is there anything preventing us from pursuing/executing our marketing strategy or marketing strategy revamp? What? Why? Who?

Now that your head is spinning, go for a walk. I’ll be here when you get back.

Set Your Goals

Welcome back! If those questions seemed tough, I’m doing my job. These questions are tough for me to answer!

Year after year, I struggle with questions 2, 4, 7, 8, and 11. I don’t think you’ll always have the perfect answer or the perfect marketing strategy.

Therefore, that’s exactly why you need to plan a marketing strategy revamp at least once a year.

When you’re setting your goals, get specific (not lofty). Areas I like to goal encompass …

Increase in leads or lead consultations (percentage increase over last year)
Social traffic to our website should increase by X%
I’d like to see engagement rates on our social channels increase by X%

Remember, you need to do an early check-in to make sure the goals you set aren’t too unrealistic. If it seems like that 15% increase in consultations will be a stretch by the end of Q1, change it to a percentage more in line with how your year is shaping up.

Another area we audit is our processes or workflows. I always ask the team to come up with gaps in our processes so we can improve on efficiency.

Goals don’t always involve sales. Customer care is a HUGE place to focus on.

In any case, your goals come down to the top areas you need to improve on in 2019. Choose them wisely!

Are you planning on a marketing strategy revamp? Let me know your top tip for planning in the comments section below!

Brooke-b-Sellas-businesses-grow

Brooke B. Sellas is the CEO & Founder of B Squared Media, an award-winning done-for-you social media management, and advertising agency. In 2018, she was named a Top 25 Brand Builder & Woman Entrepreneur in New Jersey. She’s also a blossoming blogger and a purveyor of psychographics. Brooke’s marketing mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on Twitter!

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