Let’s face it: keeping anything on track during 2020 was a Sisyphean task. With the battle against the global pandemic always waiting in the wings to knock you off course if you relaxed for even a second. The main advantage we have at this point is that we’ve become accustomed to the chaos. Though it doesn’t hurt that vaccination efforts seem to steadily be allowing global restrictions to be lifted. Let’s discuss how to keep your marketing plans on track this year.
What it takes for a business to succeed has changed hugely in such a short time. Only a mighty effort can keep your promotional plans moving ahead at a decent clip.
Keeping your marketing plans on track
What does that effort need to involve? That’s what we’re going to address with this post. We’re going to look at some tips for keeping your marketing plans on track, allowing you to continue with greater confidence in your ability to thrive amidst the chaos. Let’s discuss three ways to keep your marketing plans on track.
1. Take advantage of relevant resources
The internet is absolutely packed with guides, blog posts (like this one), tutorials, and even templates you can use to accelerate your content production process (HubSpot’s selection is strongly recommended). If you’re not already taking advantage of them (perhaps the visit to this blog is a rare occurrence), then this is the time to make a stronger commitment to expanding your awareness and skills.
By paying close attention to marketing industry content, you can pick up on relevant trends that should impact the choices you make. One social media platform might dip in popularity while another one ascends: the rise of TikTok in recent years has made this abundantly clear. Start bookmarking any resource that seems interesting, including this blog, and make a habit of spending at least thirty minutes each day catching up with the latest developments.
If you like reading, consider grabbing and poring over some books on digital transformation.
Remember to cross-check startling developments, though, as it’s certainly possible to encounter bad advice. This is highly applicable in the search engine optimization (SEO) world where every company or marketing guru has their own convictions about which factors drive Google’s ranking algorithms.
Pro tip: Do the research, check what you find, and take action accordingly.
2. Invest in your software foundation
Marketers today have many things to do, and often need to wear many hats (particularly when they’re working for startups that can’t afford to bring in dedicated experts for all their needs). In one week, you might end up needing to design some graphics, create some content briefs, find some social influencers, and chase some freelancers.
So why not draw upon handy software?
It’s common for entrepreneurs to imagine that complex software systems are only for enterprise-level operations. In truth, productivity software helps small businesses just as much because they’re so limited in their human resources. GetBusy has a great list of productivity tools, so I suggest taking a look to see what might gel with your requirements. And while it can take some time to learn how to use a given tool, that effort is likely to be worth it.
You must also consider the software foundation of your website, because having an exceptional online presence is mission-critical. Both your outbound and your inbound marketing efforts will funnel people through your site, after all.
- Does it run as quickly as it should?
- Is your hosting good enough?
- Could a new theme radically improve the look?
Pro tip: Do what you can to upgrade it will prove keenly beneficial in the long run.
3. Focus on iteration and adaptability
What do you envision when you think of a good marketing plan? A static document that sets out every single step from where you are to where you want to be? Maybe that’s the sort of thing that worked once, but it won’t get you far now.
Things change too quickly, and gauging results is a complicated and sometimes-confusing process. In short, you can never be sure that your carefully-planned strategy will achieve what you want: you need to try it and see how it goes.
Come up with some tactics that seem like decent bets, then try one of them on a small scale to see what happens. If it works, try it again but with some tweaks to improve it. If it doesn’t, figure out what went wrong and either revise it or move on to a different tactic.
In a hectic marketplace and a shaky global economy, you don’t have years or even months to waste on ideas that aren’t delivering.
Pro tip: Roll with the punches as best you can, and you’ll be able to keep moving forward.
Keep you marketing plans on track
In marketing, it’s easy to get overly attached to your preferred tactics. Maybe you’ve come up with some clever pay-per-click (PPC) ad copy. Or perhaps you’ve built a landing page of which you’re enormously proud. That’s fine — but what matters is getting results. You must never forget that. As the year continues, you may need to sacrifice your preferences.
So, when something isn’t working, fix it or drop it swiftly. Keep advancing. Make your plans mutable and concentrate entirely on reaching your goals. That’s how you’ll win.
This guest blog article was written Rodney Laws. He is an eCommerce platform specialist and online business consultant. You can get his advice for free by visiting Ecommerce Platforms. For more tips and advice, contact to Rodney on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio.