It’s Time for Your Mid-Year Review!
July 1, 2016
Can you believe this year is already halfway over?! Where has the time gone? If you're like us, you've been busy this year – growing, building new client relationships, trying out new things in your online marketing – all things you set up at the beginning of the year in your 2016 marketing plan. How's that plan going by the way? Summer is the perfect time to review your marketing plan and strategies to decide what's working and what isn't. What's the best way to review your successes ? Let’s break down some ideas…
First things first, dust off your 2016 marketing plan. Take a look at the plan you put together back in January with ideas on how to grow your business this year, and goals you set to accomplish. Did you ever start that blog or newsletter, test a pay-per-click campaign, or launch a referral program yet? If so, what’s working best for your company, and what requires some more attention? How happy are you with what's been accomplished the past 6 months – have you seen any response to your marketing efforts? Go over each of the points and compare where you are now with where you projected you'd be. Are you on track to hit your goals and accomplish all that you have planned so far? Consider where you are now and decide what you want to achieve by the end 2016. While you're at it, do some spring-cleaning. Cut your least-performing marketing activities and stop wasting your time on a campaign that isn’t driving traffic. Marketing can be hit or miss depending on what you’re doing. Don't keep wasting time on marketing tools that aren’t producing successful results and overall improving your bottom line. You need to see a return on your investment, so if something or some site isn’t working after a reasonable amount of time, then move on and try something new.
Next, identify your audience. To succeed in marketing you need to be sure you are marketing accurately and to the right audience. Who are they? What do they read, what sites do they like, what companies do they follow? What are their wants and needs? How do they communicate with you and your business (i.e. social media, email marketing, phone, face to face)? Once that's identified, look at your company through the perspective of your target audience. If your marketing plan is layered with your ideal customer’s desires it should give you tremendous insight into what is working and what is not.
Think about how you can change and improve things. Try new initiatives in select areas and with select audiences. Update your website. You should be consistently adding new content to your website, as it's your online storefront, but if you’ve found yourself slacking so far, mid-year is the perfect time to give your site an overhaul. Add new content based on your 2016 experiences thus far – like success stories, client testimonials, or best practices. Also edit and disregard information that may have changed, and remember to switch up the wording and sentence structure throughout your website.
You can't let the year pass you by without making a few changes – again the goal is to see the return on investment so it is important to evaluate where your social marketing stands, and where you can improve. A mid-year review doesn’t have to be extremely lengthy – it just needs to identify some key points in where your audience stands, what they are interested in, what they aren’t in an effort to improve your online presence going forward.
We also invite you to open this 100 Point Mid-Year Marketing Checklist as a quick in-depth guide to what you should be looking for. After you've gone through and decided on what changes you'd like to make, remember that Social Marketing Solutions is here at all times to help your company have the best marketing campaign possible!
Speaking of that…check us out on our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Connect with Kelly, Connect with Misty), we appreciate your support (and we follow/like back, of course!)
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Author
- Kelly Jones
Social Media Manager
