5 Tips for a Year-End Marketing Review
Nicole Krug — December 13, 2019 As we close the year and look forward to a new one, it’s a great time to think of strategy. You can’t be strategic unless you know what’s most effective – the last thing you want to do is pore time and money into marketing strategies that don’t produce any results. So as you plan for the year ahead, make sure you take the time to review your efforts from this year.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got five tips to get you started. Spend 4 minutes watching the video or read on for the tips.
#1 What drives traffic to your website?
Your website is your single most important piece of marketing collateral so make sure you know how it fits in to your marketing strategy. For instance, if you focused on PR efforts this year, did those mentions bring visitors to your website?
How about SEO? If you worked hard on search engine optimization, did it actually yield more traffic?
Use Google Analytics to get some answers, specifically the report on website traffic. {This resource might help if you need some definitions on the type of traffic.}
#2 Is your social media effective?
It’s really hard to judge social media ROI, but it would be silly to devote time and energy to something that’s not paying off.
If you’re lucky enough to get sales directly from social media, than measure it against your other source of sales.
If you don’t often see sales coming directly from social networks, you need to look beyond revenue. Some metrics you can use to judge the effectiveness of your marketing strategy include:
- Are your social channels bringing traffic to your site?
- Have the number of people on your email list increase?
- What type of engagement do you get on social media?
#3 Are there trends to your sales?
If your sales peak in February and go down in March do you know why? Do you have a seasonal product or is there another reason for the trend?
Do people buy certain products or services together? If so that might give you an opportunity to upsell or create a bundle.
Identifying sales trends is a huge part of your strategic review, because it helps you understand when and how to market. For instance, if business tends to be slow in April, will you create a marketing campaign to increase sales, or will you take that time to work on internal projects?
#4 What is your churn rate?
Finding new customers is more difficult than keeping the ones you have, so make sure to look at your churn rate. Do customers buy from you once, or do they come back and buy multiple times?
If you have an ongoing service or subscription, how long are people staying with it? If they are leaving do you know why?
You may find that you’re so focused on getting new customers, you’re leaving the ones you have dissatisfied. If that’s the case than you want to make sure your strategy plan includes some old fashioned customer service, and methods to reengage with prior customers.
#5 How well do you convert leads?
Let’s say your analytics show your campaigns have all been a success. Your podcast appearance brought traffic to your website and many of those visitors downloaded the free eBook you offered. But then, nothing.
simplu27 / Pixabay
Or you get lots of meetings, but they don’t turn into customers.
Something’s not working. Look and see where people are dropping off to find out where you can improve. Maybe that means putting in a drip campaign after people download your eBook, or maybe your proposal needs some work.
Before you spend more time and energy on marketing campaigns, make an effort to refine your sales process. If you need a little guidance on how to use Google Analytics to help your review, check out the Top 5 Google Analytics Reports You Need.
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