2020 has been a tough year for many businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have been forced to either suspend their operations or shut down permanently, as the long-term effects of the scourge begin to take a toll.
Digital marketing planning during the pandemic has also taken a back seat, with businesses trying to cushion themselves from the financial implications caused by the Coronavirus. However, as things start to slowly get back to normal, it is only logical that you begin planning your 2021 marketing initiatives.
Here is a 5-point digital marketing checklist to help get your business back on track in the coming year and beyond.
Review Your Current Progress
For any marketing strategy to work, you must first look back to where you are coming from and review your progress to find out whether or not you are pushing the right buttons this year. 2020 has obviously been one of the worst for business due to the pandemic.
Taking a step back and analyzing your current growth is one of the best ways to plan for the future. During this stage, you should scrutinize your business data to determine whether you were able to achieve your objectives for the year.
Start by asking yourself the following questions:
- What efforts did my business take to overcome the challenges faced in 2020?
- What measures did we put in place to adjust to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic?
- What are the effects of the pandemic on our business or industry?
- What do we need to do differently to overcome the effects of the pandemic more efficiently?
Focus on Key Areas of Growth
One of the biggest mistakes to avoid during marketing is trying to grow all areas of your business concurrently. Doing this will not only affect the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns but also reduce your potential return on investment.
With this in mind, you should identify and select a couple of key areas that offer the most potential returns, and focus on them fully. This will increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and reduce wastage of time and resources.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you choose key areas of growth:
- What areas of business generate the highest profit margins or monthly reoccurring revenue?
- What market trends and changes do we need to embrace in the coming year?
- What customer needs haven’t we met in the past year?
- Where do we stand in terms of SEO and social media presence?
You can use tools such as Google Analytics, GMB Audit, Digital Analysis, and Business Listing Report to track the success of your marketing campaigns.
Create Realistic Goals
There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious. After all, the main goal of any business is to increase sales and make more money! However, this does not mean that you should set goals and objectives that are beyond your reach. Doing so will only set you up for failure.
Instead, you should use the SMART method to set clear and achievable goals and guarantee the success of your marketing strategy. SMART is an ellipsis for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
- Specific – Set specific goals for better focus. Use the five W questions to specify
- What does this goal try to accomplish?
- Why is this particular goal important for business?
- Who is involved in working toward this goal?
- Where is the goal located?
- Which resources do I need to achieve this goal?
- Measurable – You should be able to monitor progress and measure the success of your strategy toward achieving your goals
- Attainable – The goal you set should be clear and realistic. Do not set the bar too high to reduce the chances of failure
- Relevant – Any goal you set should be relevant to your business. It should also help in achieving other business goals.
- Timely – Make sure that you can achieve your goals within the set time limit
Create a Strategy to Achieve Your Set Goals
After setting clear and realistic goals, it’s time to work toward achieving them. For you to succeed, you must have a game plan. Fortunately, you can use different tried and tested marketing strategies to achieve your set goals. The most recommended methods include:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Content Marketing
All the above-mentioned strategies work to:
- Improve your page rankings in search engine results pages
- Drive more traffic to your website
- Inform, educate, and entertain prospective customers
- Receive feedback and engage your target audience
Quantify and Track Your Progress
Finally, you should be able to analyze and track the progress of your marketing campaigns. You can use premium third-party tools or utilize free reporting tools to gather insights about your past performance and create a plan for your future marketing campaigns. Having access to good data can help quantify and track your progress as well as keep you accountable for your actions.
