With 2023 officially underway, it’s time to start thinking about ways to set your business up for success this year. But, before you get started, it’s important to reflect and review your data to understand what worked well and what didn’t work well for your business last year. Are there key touch points missing in your customers journey and what can you do now to get better results?
Here are five areas you can focus on in the first quarter to improve your marketing.
1. Map your goals
By now you would already have a good idea what you want to achieve this year however do you often find you struggle to achieve them? This is where mapping your goals will help you.
Start by outlining where you want to be in 12 months from now.
Then, think about the high level things you need to do to get there. For example, if you want more time, what can you automate to improve your processes and save time?
Once you have this list then break them down! Overwhelm is the biggest productivity killer and show stopper. Outline the specific steps to take to achieve those goals. If you have a team make note of who is responsible for each step and when it needs to be achieved by.
Use our Marketing Goal Planner to help you lay your goals out and share it with your team. Put it on the wall where everyone can see it so the goals stay front of mind during the year and your team can keep each other accountable.
Importantly, be aware of what is going to get in the way of these goals being achieved and come up with steps to not let that be the case.
2. Review and update your website
If you want to increase your leads, build your mailing list and sales potential, a good place to start is by assessing your website. A good review starts with understanding your data! It’s time to log into your Google Analytics account and take a look at what is happening on your website.
Some key areas and questions we seek to answer when reviewing websites are;
- Are you ready for the Google analytics update?
- Is your website responsive?
- Does it have a quick load time?
- Does your website have a logical information flow?
- Is all of the information up-to-date?
- Are there unused plugins and pages that could be impacting your website’s performance?
- Is your message clear?
- Does the copy align with your business and brand voice?
Send us a message here if you would like to find out how we can help with this.
3. Audit your Social Media
It’s important to focus your time and resources on the social media platforms that will be most beneficial for your business in your respective industry. You don’t need to have a presence on every channel; focus on the channels where you can best reach and make an impact on your customers.
- Look at engagement metrics (such as likes, shares, comments and saves) to assess each channel’s effectiveness for your business
- How much time are you putting into each channel and are you seeing results reflective of that?
- Do your customer personas match up with the demographics of the users on the social platforms you’re using?
- Are you using all of the available features on the platforms?
- Is your best performing content user generated or owned?
- Are you using the channels well or are you spreading your resources too thin and therefore not seeing results?
Once you answer all of these questions the next steps to take should become clear. Focus on two or three social channels that will give you the best shot at reaching your target demographic. Create content that suits the platform and focus on doing a really good job of it. Continue to look at your analytics and make changes based on what you see.
4. Plan your content
There is no doubt you have the next six, 12 or even 18 months of business activities planned out already, so why haven’t you planned the content to promote and support your business across your channels?
A good place to start is by looking at any events, announcements, fun activities, product launches etc. you might have coming up over the next six months. Then look at how you can support those with:
- Blogs
- Email marketing campaigns
- Social media posts
- Website updates
- Google business updates
- Ecommerce activations
This will start to form your content calendar! Now you can fill in any quieter periods with content that educates, entertains or brings value your customers when you’re not promoting. Make sure to leave room for user generated content (USG) too!
5. Review your email marketing and automate where you can
Are you maximising each and every point of contact that your customers have with your business? Do you find yourself sending the same emails over and over again? These are the emails you should automate!
Some easy areas to think about automating:
- Welcome emails
Prospects and subscribers who are new to your brand can be welcomed with a series of onboarding emails, also called “drip” emails. You can use them to engage, educate and guide subscribers to relevant content over the course of several months. Monitor conversions and aim to improve by trying out different email elements (like new subject lines or images). The more you review and understand what works, the easier it will be to achieve your goals.
- Follow-ups
If a subscriber doesn’t take action from a previous email, you can use automation to follow up. This follow-up can be based on the subscriber’s actions or inaction from the original email.
- Lead generation campaigns (downloads, webinars and any other freebies)
Once you have a customer’s attention, it is important to maintain it. If they visit your website and sign up to receive educational materials or freebies, ensure that they receive a confirmation email immediately. In addition, follow up with other information or educational opportunities they may be interested in.
By providing quality content, you will encourage customers to return to your site and eventually become paying customers.
- Ecommerce journey
Emails are a great way to keep customers engaged with your product. You can set up automatic emails to customers based on the products they purchase, asking for a review or suggesting other products they may like. You can also reward them with discounts or special deals because of their latest purchase. Thanks for everything, email automation!
More often than not, the best way to achieve success is by taking small steps. One action at a time adds up over time to achieve great things. Choose one area of focus to begin with and keep building from there.
Need help getting started or simply don’t have the time? Reach out to our team and we can help you audit your website, social media channels and customer journey. We’ll give you actionable feedback that you can either implement yourself or we can implement for you.