As we close off another month of 2022, with the blissful days of July and August locked in our memories, we start to look into the last quarter of the year.
Often, September is considered the new January. This is a time when routines are re-established, and goals are set as we work on getting our habits back in line. This can be personal goals, professional goals and hopefully business goals.
Now is the time to be working on your marketing strategy for 2023.
Begin with taking stock of your business – what it does well, where there is room for improvement, what opportunities are out there and what could be a threat to your business. This is known as a SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Once you’ve done your SWOT, reflect on your business and jot down how you’ve been doing over the past year. Are you in line with the goals you had set out? Are you meeting your revenue projections? What went well, and what fell short? Be honest here, this will only help later.
In addition to this, you’ll want to take note of what’s going on around you – the macro environment. Think of things like inflation, consumer spending, employment rates, economic conditions and so on. This is an important step, because while at one time what happened in the next community, the next province or even the next country may not have had much of an impact on your business, those days are a distant memory in the world we operate in today.
Do you have any research you’ve done on your customers, such as satisfaction surveys, how your business is perceived, and so on? How about competitor research? Have you spoken with your customer-facing employees to ask what customers are looking for? Now is also the time to review and/or update these. This can help you to understand what your customer (or ideal customer) needs and wants are and how your internal team can support them, which will be important when you design your marketing initiatives.
The next step is to outline your business goals. What is it that your business is striving to achieve? If you have a clear understanding of all the priorities and initiatives of where the business is going and the timeline to achieve those, then you can align your marketing goals to support this.
This process is the beginning and helps to lay the foundation of focus for your marketing strategy.
When you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve in your business, are as educated as you can be on what’s happening in the world around you, have taken stock of where you’ve been and where you’re going, and understand who you are serving, you can then determine your marketing goals.
Your marketing goals are what you want to achieve overall and are directly linked to the business objectives. As you are setting your goals (examples could be revenue growth, awareness, perception), you’ll also want to determine your measurement of success. Each goal could (and very likely will) have several strategies that underpin it.
It's important to note, that a marketing strategy is not a campaign, nor is it tactics, nor is it a channel (like radio, email, or social media). A marketing strategy is the foundational north star that guides all these items to ultimately achieve the goals your business has set out.
If you are interested in learning more, or how I can help you create your strategic marketing plan so you can make the most of your hard-earned dollars, I would be happy to chat with you.
Keep on being amazing,
Lyanne
Whether you are interested in learning more about how blue dragonfly can help your business, are interested in joining or learning more about Mastermind groups, would like to chat about a speaking engagement, or just want to meet with me, this is a great way to get started. https://www.bluedragonflystrategies.ca/contact Cheers to the beginning of a great relationship.