When developing next year’s marketing plan, the first objective should be to spend less on marketing in the New Year than you did last year. Pretty reasonable, considering the economic roller coaster that we’ve been riding over the last 18-24 months.
Plan ahead by first looking back.
Counter-intuitive? No, and here’s why it’s important to look at 2022 outcomes vs. objectives, and the reasons for them, before looking ahead. Moving into the new year without clear, objective understanding of what worked, what didn’t and why is a sure path to mediocre results or failure.
Here are some basic ways to prepare next year’s marketing plan:
Keep elements that did work
Tweak those parts that didn’t work as hoped, but moved the needle enough to improve profits or other market outcomes
Eliminate what didn’t work, and cannot be fixed – No shame in admitting that not everything you did last year worked
Now, add those elements that are necessary to cover the markets and conditions anticipated in 2023. Between tweaking and eliminating items, the result of adding necessary elements may easily result in spending less to earn more.
At the end of the day, the cliché “work smarter, not harder” could not ring truer.
Contact us if your marketing plan could benefit from an objective look back in order to improve results in the year ahead.