- When to Consider – Understanding what you need is key. Increase traffic? Grow brand awareness? Promote products / services? Customer Service?
- Setting Objectives in Support of your Strategic Plan Goals – It can be time-consuming. Ensure your resources are focused on what really matters – “if it gets measured it gets done”.
- Understanding Your Audience / Choosing Your Channels – Key to any marketing plan is to understand your audience and what they are interested in. That will allow you to narrow your choices down to the most widely used platforms to start – and then to identify which platform is the best fit with your target audience / will enable you to meet your objectives. Knowing your audience will also help you factor in the types of content that will work best to engage your audience (e.g. blogs, podcasts, testimonials, user-generated content, videos, webinars, live streams, eBooks or Whitepapers, photography, etc.)
- Developing an Annual Plan – Helps clearly map out tactics, content, budget, timing, people, tools and tracking. With potentially multiple platforms and multiple team members contributing content, this is critical to ensuring everyone is on the same page / remains focused on the priorities.
- Developing a Budget and Measurement Plan / Benchmarks – Determine if there needs to be a budget for photography, video’s, copywriting, contests / promotions, creative or scheduling software, measurement tools, advertising / boosting the reach of posts, etc. And don’t forget to ensure you are using UTMs or tags to enable you to determine what’s working and what isn’t – campaign tracking is now easily integrated but only if it is organized before you launch.
- What are the Resources / Tools we might need to be Successful – Are there any tools or staff training we need to consider? Check out our blog for a list of free / low-cost tools that can save teams huge amounts of time and money. Do we need a social media policy or do we need to amend our customer policies as a result?