The new year is right around the corner, so your company needs a plan for its updated marketing efforts. A lot can change within a year, and many of the ideas and techniques you used this time will be obsolete in the next. Luckily for you, Michigan Creative has a few innovative ways your company can get ahead of the changing times. What’s next for your business? Have you started strategic marketing planning for 2022? Don’t worry if not, we’re here to help you figure it out.
Learn From Your Mistakes
After an entire year of executing your latest marketing plan, you may have run into a few hiccups. Maybe some things didn’t go as planned, or communication isn’t what it should be between your teams. This time of year can be a great time to look at past mistakes. It’s the only way for your company to grow. At Michigan Creative, we like to say we’ve learned how not to run a business. Not because we keep repeating similar mistakes, but because we’ve learned to avoid the ones we’ve made in the past. We’ve turned them into lessons. Albert Einstein says, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” You can’t run a successful business without planning what you will and won’t do next year.
Utilize Your Resources
One of the best sources you already have to help you notice your mistakes is your clients. Not only do your clients rely on communication to know where you stand with their projects, but your company relies on client communication for feedback as well. With a healthy client relationship, your clients should feel encouraged to reach out and talk through their needs. If they aren’t satisfied with what you’re doing, they should be able to let you know. In turn, you should start thinking of new ways to get the results your client wants. This includes not repeating last year’s mistakes as you start your marketing planning.
Make a New Plan
Social listening through your social media accounts is one of the easiest ways to prepare for the next year. Using the analytics available through Facebook Creator Studio and inbound marketing sites like Hubspot, your company can witness live results and reactions to the posts and ads. If they’re not working, you need to reassess a few different areas your plan might be faltering in. These could range from the timing your posts or ads get published to the overall message you’re trying to get across. If the response you’re receiving is perfect, make sure you include similar strategies in the plan for next year. Michigan Creative can do this for you through our research and planning. Our MC Greenprint is marketing made for you; A plan for next year that gets the results you expect.
Another area to look into while forming a new marketing plan is your brand identity and brand personas. With an improper representation of your audience, or incorrect message distorting your brand identity, it’s hard to stay on track with your overall mission. Depending on your level of success or failures this year, it may be time to make sure you’re accurately presenting yourself and communicating your understanding to your audience.
Marketing for Talent
This year has been a struggle for many companies to find the right employees to help their business grow in the industry. One thing we preach at Michigan Creative is a mindset of marketing for talent. Just as you need to relate to your customer base, you need to present yourself as an environment where talented employees would love to work. In the upcoming year, spend time establishing a solid company culture with openly discussed core values, a defined brand identity, and respect for the people who help your company. If you’re open to what you can do for an employee’s work and life goals, you’ll attract individuals who are qualified to represent your company. Once you lock in your brand and who you’re looking for, make sure you place yourself where that person can find you. Understand who you’re looking for and where you can find them.
2021 was a challenging year for many companies, so we’re here to help make sure you are on the right track for strategic marketing planning for 2022. A focused marketing plan can help solve all of the pitfalls you may have found along the way. Michigan Creative works to make sure you find results without having to relive the letdowns of last year.