5 marketing tasks to tick off your list these holidays
‘Downtime’ is a bit of a myth for most business owners. But the good thing about the summer holiday period (aside from eating leftover Christmas ham for brekky) is the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and start planning for the year ahead.
So, where to begin? We’ve rounded up five ways to prep your marketing strategy for 2021.
1. First thing’s first: Get your internal comms sorted
Before you start dreaming up ways to woo new customers, it’s important to look within – at your own team. Communication is key when it comes to ensuring your people love what they do, and this is especially true for distributed teams.
Outside of team catch-ups and one-on-one chats, think about how you can scale your efforts to keep employees updated throughout the year. How can you inject fun and personality into your internal comms? How can you surface information in a variety of mediums e.g. videos, infographics and written content? Is it possible to ‘gamify’ parts of the process? The goal is to make it fun, engaging and easy to navigate.
And last but definitely not least: don't forget your team's milestones and birthdays! Get them in the diary so you can celebrate when the time comes.
2. Tidy up your CRM
Now's a great time to give your database a spring (summer?) clean: dust off the cobwebs, clear out any inactive or junk contacts, delete any duplicates and fix any incomplete ones. This will give you a clearer picture of the size and quality of your database, and whether you need to work on re-engaging lapsed contacts.
Also think about how you want to segment your database going into the new year – this could be warm vs cold leads, active customers vs prospects, or whatever makes sense for your business – then you can start to plan content targeted at each of these segments. Which brings us to our next task…
3. Put together a content plan
Arming yourself with a content plan ahead of time will allow you to be proactive rather than reactive in the new year, so you can maximise opportunities as they come up.
Make a note of any relevant dates, periods or events you can leverage throughout the year and what sort of content you can create to support them. Software Pundit’s social media calendar is a handy tool for keeping track of key dates and hashtags, and you can find some tips for curating a beautiful Instagram feed here.
Also consider pencilling some client case studies into your plan. These are worth their weight in gold for building brand credibility, especially if you’re selling a professional service or B2B product.
4. Make a wish list of marketing partnerships
Power in numbers means you can reach a wider audience with marketing partnerships. While you’ve got more time on your hands, it’s a great opportunity to think about some potential awesome collaborations, and plan to make them happen!
Think about how you could team up with a complementary (or even unexpected) brand or business to create something special. Ideally, you’ll want to choose partners who cross over with your target customer but have an audience that may not know about your business yet.
Need some inspiration? Here’s a handful of collaborations we love:
5. Do some housekeeping
It’s easy for online marketing to fall by the wayside when business is busy. Use this time to delve into your website and other channels to suss out what’s converting, what’s not, and where you can improve your approach.
Here are some of the key questions to consider:
Google Analytics:
How many visits do you get to the website?
Where do visitors come from?
Which pages do they land on, and which do they leave from?
Your website:
Can you improve your most popular pages on the website and make them convert better?
Should you use a third party a/b testing tool?
Are there opportunities to add more relevant content, like dedicated landing pages or blogs?
How many pages are indexed by Google?
How many pages are indexed by other relevant search engines?
How easy is it for people to find out how to contact you? For example, a contact form, phone number, social media links etc.
What do you want people to do on your website and is it easy to convert/purchase? Is there anything you can do to improve the process and perhaps shorten it?
Is your imagery and visual content up to scratch?
Google Search Console:
Does your website have any errors? What do they mean and what can you do about them?
Which search terms bring people to your website?
Which websites link to your website?
Other marketing and advertising channels:
Which channels are you managing and how are they performing?
Are there any other channels you could benefit from having a presence on?
Are you happy with the creative for your ads and banners?
Can you see the complete funnel from a click to conversion, or even better, value your conversion and calculate ROI?
Are your online channels sending traffic to the right pages on your website?
Can you improve your conversion rate by adding an incentive like a first-time discount code?
Are there different times of the day or week that people convert better?
What can you offer that’s better or different than your competition?
Are you allocating your budget properly between channels?
Is there room for a testing budget to try new things?
That’s a lot to take on… so if you need a hand with any of the above, feel free to get in touch.
Relax and give yourself a pat on the back!
Running a business is hard work. Now’s the time to reflect on all you’ve achieved this year and give yourself space to get excited for what’s ahead. Have a well-earned break, and here’s to many more wins in 2021.