Having challenges with your business? Here’s some tough love advice. Get your eyes off social media and non-revenue producing activities and onto year-end financials.

Be honest with yourself. Are you on track or underperforming? In either case, you may want some end of year marketing magic. Hiding your head in the sand isn’t the best idea to deal with a problem you can easily fix.

Which brings me back to that tough love advice. Now’s the time to evaluate and adjust your marketing strategy because it can make all the difference in meeting your goals.

Why is this so important and what signs should you look out for? Read more.

Why Is It Important to Update Your Marketing Plan?

Change is inevitable in marketing. The industry, competitors, and your own business will shift over time. That’s why you need to update your marketing plan to reflect what’s new and going on.

Quick Tips:

• Don’t “set it and forget it”. Every marketing plan needs to be updated.
• Track your competition and updates in your industry. Compare your progress.
• Business goals are liable to change. Make sure your marketing plan is aligned with where you are and where you want to go. 

Ready, set, let’s get started! 

Signs You Should to Update Your Marketing Plan

Here are my top ten signs it may be time for a marketing plan refresh.

1. Competitors Are Outpacing You
2. You’re Analytics Aren’t Cutting It
3. You Struggle to Attract Ideal Customers
4. Your Goals Have Changed
5. There’s an Industry or Market Shift
6. You’ve Added New Offers or Products
7. Budgets Have Changed
8. Your Branding Feels Stale
9. Lack of Positive Engagement
10. Your Marketing Plan Hasn’t Been Updated for Years

1. Competitors Are Outpacing You

A little competition is healthy, but if you’re constantly being outmaneuvered and overshadowed by others in your space, it’s probably time to switch up your marketing plan. Do a competitive audit to see what’s working for them, then take notes and adapt or expand on it. With your own unique twist, of course.

2. You’re Analytics Aren’t Cutting It

If metrics like site traffic, leads, conversions, etc. have stayed stagnant (or worse, tanked) despite best efforts, it’s a clear sign you need to shift. Don’t just keep throwing things at the wall hoping they will stick. Do something that makes an impact.

Not sure which analytics you should check?

Take a look at your social media engagement and email open or unsubscribe rates. Website traffic, bounce rates, conversion rates, and customer-acquisition-costs count, too. By analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas that need improvement and develop strategies to improve your overall performance.

3. You Struggle to Attract Ideal Customers

Are the prospects and buyers you’re targeting not exactly the clients you want to work with? Pay attention to the leads that come in from your marketing efforts! A giant red flag is waving your way, so don’t miss it. Your targeting, messaging, or channels may need adjustment to connect with your perfect-fit audiences.

4. Your Business Goals Have Changed

If your marketing goals are changing, so should your marketing plan. A reset of goals often means that your team should develop a new strategy with refreshed marketing timelines, tactics, and an operational marketing plan to help you achieve your goals. 

Marketing goals can and should change if there’s been a change in business objectives, in the industry (more on that in the next section), target audience, or product or service offerings. 

5. There’s an Industry or Market Shift

From new regulations to emerging tech to cultural trends, if your industry has changed, realign your marketing to match. When you cling to old tactics, it’s easy to alienate your audience and look or (gasp) act out-of-touch.

Need some ideas? The best way to stay current is to identify and follow top sources of information or influencers in your industry. Keep a running list of blogs, podcasts, and trade publications. Google alerts work well, too. Just be sure to schedule time to read, listen, and put the ideas into action.

6. You’ve Added New Offers or Products

Whenever you expand your services or change product lines, refresh your marketing to effectively promote the new products. That way, you can maximize your impact and attract the right audience. Regular updates keep your brand relevant and make sure your messaging stays current.

7. Your Budget Has Changed

Whether it’s an increase or decrease in budget, the amount of money and resources you have to spend on a marketing plan can greatly affect your planning. For instance, if your marketing budget has decreased from the previous year, you may want to scale back on strategies that don’t yield ROI.  

8. Your Branding Feels Stale

Is your brand voice and content feeling a bit boring? Overdue for some inspiration? That disconnect and creative stall is a sure sign it’s time to sprinkle some pixie dust on your marketing message. Update dull marketing campaigns with new content themes, campaigns, videos that your audience will engage with. Dust off your digital assets or bring in outside content creators. That refresh alone may do the trick.

9. Lack of Positive Engagement

If you’re not seeing the engagement you’d like with your campaigns, it’s a surefire sign to update your marketing plan. Whether it’s on social media or your website, poor user engagement can signal low quality content that misses the mark with your audience. Furthermore, negative customer engagement on social media can even damage your brand. Ultimately this wastes your marketing budget, and could even further financially impact your company.

10. Your Marketing Plan Hasn’t Been Updated for Years

If your marketing plan hasn’t been updated in years, it’s time to reassess your brand compared to your industry and audience. Things change over time, and you need a plan that reflects the ever-evolving shifts in demographics, geographics, and trends.

Now What?! Update Your Marketing Plan in Six Steps

If you’ve experienced one or several of the signs, it’s time to update your marketing plan. So let’s get to work! Here are a few steps to follow to develop and update your marketing plan.

1. Outline your Updated Goals

Every marketing plan should start with establishing goals and objectives. Setting achievable, realistic goals for your new plan gets everyone on the same page. 

Be sure to follow SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to guide your goal setting within a certain timeframe. Make sure that your marketing goals align completely with your business goals.

2. Research your Audience

Your marketing plan should revolve around your target audience. Every marketing tactic included in your strategy ultimately targets potential new consumers, and having quantitative and qualitative data fuels your decisions as you craft your plan.  

3. Define your Budget

If your budget has been updated, your marketing plan should reflect this, too. In order to reach your marketing goals, you’ll need to know the budget available to reach your audience. Keep this in mind during the next step, determining your mix of marketing strategies.

4. Determine Best Marketing Strategies

How do you reach your audience? Choose the most effective marketing strategies, channels, and platforms to target your ideal customer, and invest your budget accordingly.  

 

To determine the best marketing strategy for your business, you should have a deep understanding of your target audience and be clear on their pain points, challenges and what they’re looking for. Then, match this information to the marketing channels, platforms and strategies that best reach your audience with your brand message.

5. Create a Roadmap

Now that you have your marketing strategies, it’s time to create a digital marketing roadmap. A digital marketing roadmap is a timeline of marketing activities that will help your team achieve the goals outlined in the marketing plan.

6. Track Progress

Finally, as your plan unfolds, you’ll want to track your performance. It’s important to evaluate your marketing plan to see what’s working and what’s not, to see whether you should change your plan and update it according to your SMART goals outlined from Step 1.

To learn about creating a plan, read our article on “how to build a successful marketing plan”.

Closing Out: Is It Time to Update Your Marketing Plan?

In marketing, the only constant is change. As customers, industries, and companies change, so should your marketing. Updating a marketing plan helps you adapt and allows your marketing efforts to improve and meet your goals. Isn’t that what we all want? 

So the real question is, are you stuck in the status quo or ready to shake up your marketing? Me? I’m always looking for better results. 

 

Robin Samora is a marketing consultant in Boston with over 20 years of experience creating winning marketing plans for clients. If your business needs a marketing plan and timeline, reach out online.