Is it time for a Marketing Strategy Review?

I can’t quite believe we are already in June – it feels like only yesterday that 2022 was lying ahead of us and we were discussing putting together a marketing strategy for the year ahead. Whilst summer is here at long last and post-lockdown life has returned to somewhat normal (with a few bumps along the way), the world is looking very different from early 2022. With a sharp rise in the cost of living, increasing inflation and the war in Ukraine, the year so far has certainly turned out differently to the one I was anticipating. Is it time for a marketing strategy review?

In such a fast-changing world, if the last two years has taught us anything, your marketing activities may need to adapt quickly to the climate to ensure your messaging strikes the right tone. A mid-year review of your marketing strategy is a great opportunity to reflect on your marketing achievements and refresh your strategy for the remainder of the year.

As a general rule of thumb, your mid-year review should include:

Reviewing your marketing results

A lot of marketing tools now provide great analytics which are often free. These can provide insight into the marketing activities which gained the most engagement, reach or leads. Social channels like Facebook and Instagram can inform you how well each post performed as well as how many followers you have gained. Email marketing platforms such a Mailchimp or Mailer Lite provides data for each campaign including open and click-through rates.

After gathering together the analytics spend some time reviewing the data, comparing it to your intended results in your marketing strategy. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you get started:

• Which content received the most engagement?
• Could you do more of it in the second half of the year?
• Which email marketing subject lines received the best open rate? 
• How many visitors did your website gain so far this year?
• Could you do more with SEO? 
• Which content didn’t land as well as you had hoped? What do you need to change to improve the results? 
• Did your advertising help drive your brand awareness (more tricky to assess), but you would be able to get a sense from your audience.

Review your target audience

All the marketing activity you produce should serve your target audience so it’s important to make sure your understanding of them is still accurate. For example, perhaps they are business owners themselves who are struggling with the rising cost of supplies involved in running their business, tweaking the messaging of your content may be necessary to acknowledge the tough economical climate they are facing. 

Reflect on your CSR Policy

From when I wrote RIMU Marketing’s marketing strategy at the end of 2021 to now, it feels like the outlook towards the environment and the importance of sustainability has shifted higher in the priorities of consumers. For me, this has been great to see as sustainability, the environment and charity has always been at the heart of RIMU Marketing. Not just for large businesses, forming a CSR Policy is achievable for all SME’s who wish to lower their carbon footprint and the good news is it’s not too late to put plans into action in the second half of the year. 

Of course, any initiative you put into place should also be integrated into your marketing strategy so you can communicate them across to a wider audience. Sharing your ways of becoming greener not only improves brand loyalty and image but it also raises awareness of the importance to be sustainable in business. Initiatives such a Ecologi’s tree planting (Click here to see RIMU Marketing’s forest!) and volunteering at local wildlife projects are simple but important ways to be more sustainable so don’t forget to shout about it! 

Summary

It is surprisingly common that I come across small business owners who don’t look back at their marketing strategy throughout the year. Yet it is so important to ensure you are on track for reaching your objectives and goals by the time 2023 comes around. If you know it is time for a marketing strategy review but are not sure how to get started, or perhaps you need support integrating a CSR Policy into your strategy, please get in touch for a no obligation discovery call.