Your marketing strategy is your roadmap, and tactics are just the changes you make along the route. Having a strategy gives you more power and control over the entire year. While tactics can play a part in streamlining your strategic efforts and eking more value out of your marketing dollars, they only pay out when set against the larger context of a marketing strategy.
At Mid-West Family Northern IL, we encourage each of our clients to develop a 12-month marketing strategy. This one-year marketing plan gives you a sturdy footing in a changing marketing landscape, and it encapsulates all the seasons (which is vital for on-peak, off-peak businesses, retailers that see 70% of their revenue during the holidays, or services with key seasons, like landscaping).
If you're developing a marketing strategy for the first time and aren't sure a 12-month focus is a right fit, consider these benefits that other frameworks won't provide:
Better Planning
Yearly marketing strategies are primarily useful because they create an annual view of your marketing outlook. You are able to set goals for the entire year ahead. The advantages of planning out 12 months of your marketing include:
- Budget allocation: You may have a set marketing budget for the entire year. Planning accordingly ensures you have enough set aside for your niche's peak buying season and that you still have funds available toward the end of the annual cycle.
- Annual goals: Set clear objectives for the entire year. This allows you to break those larger goals into milestones for every month or quarter that logically feed into your annual goals. Without this organized approach, you may focus on goals that won't systematically grow your business.
Consistency
One of the most important tenets for generating brand recognition and customer trust is branding consistency. Your messaging, communications, outreach, and voice need to be consistent throughout the year. Otherwise, customers may not develop a clear understanding of what your brand is. Annual plans ensure consistency because:
- You can develop campaign overviews that connect or align well together
- Establish the core branding assets you will use throughout the year
- Determine which channels you'll primarily focus on throughout the year
Improved ROI
If you want to increase your ROI for marketing dollars, develop a framework for assessing your progress.
For example, creating a strategy with overarching goals and intermittent milestones lets your team observe if you are progressing at the right pace toward your objectives. If you aren't, you can make adjustments instead of staying on the course and hoping for the best. Frequent checkpoints are invaluable for course corrections and ensuring your budget goes toward the most important actions.
Enhanced Customer Engagement
The ultimate sign of success for a marketing budget is customer engagement. In today's markets, customer engagement is an even bigger objective than sales alone, as customer engagement leads to recurring business, referrals, and a stellar brand reputation.
With a one-year marketing plan, you can develop a long view on engaging customers through every stage of the buying cycle. For example, you can:
- Craft content and campaigns that nurture customers during each stage
- Plan marketing content for specific seasons and holidays so customers anticipate your messaging
- Set time aside for post-purchase content and engagement
Competitive Advantage
Only one out of two businesses have a marketing plan—even fewer have an annual marketing plan. Simply by taking the time to set out your marketing goals and develop a one-year marketing plan, you're already ahead of a lot of competition.
Take this time to assess your brand's core strengths, the core strengths of your competitors, and what you can do to engage with more of the market. Research marketing trends in your industry and decide how you can efficiently incorporate them.
Many businesses are reactive—not proactive—about marketing trends and technologies, so acting earlier and more strategically gives you an automatic advantage.
Power Your 12-Month Marketing Plan With Support From Mid-West Family Northern IL
A one-year marketing plan is an invaluable resource for any small and mid-sized business. You can develop a detailed plan for engaging customers, consistently assess your efforts to boost ROI, and be more proactive throughout the year. Having an annual strategy also gives you the right organizational structure for implementing marketing tactics that support your long-term business goals.
At Mid-West Family Northern IL, we're here to help. Contact us today to discuss your business goals and to create a customized marketing strategy for the rest of 2023 and beyond.
