We’re feeling festive in the office, and we’re also thinking about marketing! One of our favourite Christmas films is ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

So, we’ve taken this theme and transposed it into our marketing, sharing our thoughts and our take on your ‘marketing past’, ‘marketing present’ and ‘marketing future’.

Reviewing your Marketing

How often do you review what your marketing has achieved, which activities have worked well (and not so well!) and then create a plan based on the best activities to move your business forward? Even if you feel your marketing is working well for you, there are always ways to optimise it further.

Most businesses set their marketing plan for the year ahead. However, a year is a long time. Just look at how our circumstances have changed throughout the Pandemic, and like this, your marketing should be continually evolving.

Ideally, you should review your entire marketing every 90 days, apply learnings, grasp new opportunities, and refine them to hit your objectives. And don’t forget the continued analysis of online and social metrics, which should be daily and weekly.

Your Marketing past

Although you shouldn’t dwell on activity that has not worked well, it is essential that you learn lessons from it and use these to develop even better marketing for the future. So we encourage you to:

  • Review your target customer profile
    • Has it changed?
    • Do you need to modify it?
  • Analyse the channels you use to talk to your target audience
    • Which channels have the most traction and engagement?
    • Do you need to add new ones?
  • Look over your activities
    • Are they aligned to your overall business strategy, goals, and vision?

Reflecting is good! But don’t feel guilty about missed opportunities. Instead, think holistically to see if there are any themes you can learn from and apply to your ‘marketing future.’

Your Marketing present

Looking at your current activity:

  • Is it aligned to your goals and overall business strategy?
  • Has it resulted in new leads, sales, or increased brand awareness?
  • Did it achieve a return on investment?
  • How does it compare to previous years’ performance?

Based on this, and thinking ahead to the following year, what activity should you:

  • Start
  • Stop
  • Continue

At this point, don’t be afraid to stop marketing activity if it is not working! If you have A/B tested or modified it, but it is still not hitting the mark, then stop! Then, re-evaluate, re-think and start again.

Your Marketing future

Thinking about the future, now its time to:

  • Take your learnings from your past
  • Apply a start, stop, continue to your present activity
  • Set new benchmarks to achieve a return on investment
  • Create an activity plan for the year ahead
  • Ensure all activity aligns with your vision and overall business objectives.

Our final words are from the story itself, ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present and Future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons they teach….’

More on Marketing & PR.

We don’t whisper your story. We Scream Blue Murder.

A design and marketing communications agency.