As we enter a new year, it’s likely you’ve been wondering what you can do to help your business grow in 2020. Where should I be spending my advertising dollars each month? Are my ads getting in front of enough of the right people? How else can I promote my business? 

With so many questions to ask, it can be nerve-wracking to try to begin drafting your marketing plan for 2020. Thankfully, you don’t need to secure a huge budget or hire an entire in-house team in order to start making a big impact this year. 

Here are some tips for how to refresh your marketing efforts in 2020.

AUDIT YOUR 2019 EFFORTS

It’s difficult to move forward into 2020 without reflecting back on all the work you did in 2019. Take the time to review the different strategies and tactics you implemented. What was successful? What wasn’t?

• Which channels brought you the best return on your investment?

• Did you invest in any new technologies, and if so, were they as helpful as you anticipated?

• Which marketing campaigns brought you the most awareness and sales?

• Which of your efforts delighted your customers most this year?

• Were there tactics you planned to implement in 2019 that you didn’t get to?

• Which of your web pages drove the most traffic and revenue last year?

• Did you have all of the resources you needed to accomplish your 2019 goals?

When you make an effort to evaluate what worked and what didn’t in 2019, you’ll be better prepared to make decisions for 2020. Whether you’re looking to scale your successful efforts up, or recover from a 2019 investment that wasn’t worth it, you won’t know what to prioritize unless you’ve thoroughly audited your past decisions.

TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR COMPETITORS

While it’s certainly important to look deeply at who your customers are, and all the reasons they’re interested in your offering, it’s equally important to pay attention to the types of stories your competitors are telling in the marketplace.

• Have your competitors launched a new line of products, or entered a new category?

• Did your top competitor create an innovative new marketing campaign to promote themselves?

• Has a challenger brand entered the marketplace?

• Is another brand utilizing influencers in a creative, effective way?

While you don’t want to copy everything your competitors do, you can find some great inspiration from others in your industry. If you’re considering a new tactic, see if it’s been done by someone else in the past before you decide whether to commit.

CONFIRM YOUR BUDGET

Whether you’re waiting for information from finance, or are the one in charge of the budgeting decisions, it’s quite difficult to create a refreshed marketing plan for 2020 if you don’t know what you have to work with.

• Will you have more, or less, to work with than last year?

• Do you have the ability to decide where funds will be applied?

• Was your spend effective in 2019?

Before you dive into strategy and tactics, confirm your budget for the new year, along with whether or not it’s flexible. Use this information to guide the actions you’ll take on each of your marketing channels.

CATCH YOUR HOT LEADS

Once you’ve reviewed your 2019 performance, taken a good look at your competitors and secured your 2020 budget, think about quick and easy ways you can catch more of your hot leads.

• Create an automated email drip campaign to welcome new subscribers and educate them on what you’ll bring to their life.

• Employ retargeting efforts to help convert site visitors who are already somewhat interested in your offering.

• Set up additional automated email campaigns (such as cart abandonment messaging) to become top of mind, even after a visitor has left your site.

Try to take care of the quick fixes first - they’ll start helping your business right away and will also give you great year-over-year data from 2019 to 2020.

BUILD YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

After you’ve taken care of the low-hanging fruit, your content strategy is a critical element in refreshing your marketing efforts in the new year. 40 percent of Americans shopped direct to consumer in 2019, and that percentage is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. Now more than ever, brand storytelling is essential to distinguishing yourself from your competitors - not having an intentional, thoughtful content strategy could truthfully break your business.

When building out your content strategy for 2020, it’s helpful to think about your customers and what they find important:

• Where, how and when do they use your product?

• What would they tell your friends about your product?

• What types of words and language do they use when they talk about your product?

• What types of issues (social, sustainability, etc.) are important to them?

• What social channels are they on, and when are they on them?

• How do they search on search engines, and on your website?

• Do they prefer video, audio, pictures or text?

Perform a gap analysis and conduct keyword research to identify which of your customers issues and/or desires aren’t being addressed by your competitors, and use this information to guide the stories that you tell! Once you have the overarching theme of your stories, identify where, when and how you’ll tell them.

ASK FOR HELP IF YOU NEED IT

While marketing has become more data-oriented over time, and digital efforts have an instant feedback loop, results aren’t always straightforward and it’s absolutely okay to ask for help when you need it. Whether you’ve been in marketing for years, or do it all as a business owner, it’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed at the thought of tackling another year of marketing efforts. Don’t be afraid to consult outside digital marketing experts for support when you feel you could use a boost. A simple consulting call might offer fresh perspective, and send you on the path to creating amazing campaigns in 2020.

Looking for ways to refresh your marketing efforts in 2020, but not sure how to tackle each of these tips? The team at Doukas Media would be happy to help you with everything from brainstorming, to strategy, to execution.