Marketing
Planning for the Year Ahead: Will you have a successful year?
By Susan Young, President, AimFire Marketing
December 2006
For
most businesses, the end of the year is the time to begin
the planning process for the following year. And for many sales
and marketing professionals, you have the luxury of starting
fresh with a brand new (and hopefully larger) marketing budget.
Take the time to analyze the past year. Was it all that you
hoped it would be or do you drastically need to do better? How
can you make sure you do it right next year? Here are some
suggestions:
1.
Do you have a marketing plan? Has it been updated within the
last year? Don't move reactively through the year. If you
do, you're more likely to make mistakes. Take the time to:
-
Research
potential advertising options and how they fit with your
budget
-
Analyze
what associations to join/remain involved in and what
tradeshows to potentially exhibit
-
Review
what competitors are up to (visit their websites, newsrooms,
etc.) and note any new competitors
-
Survey
customers' needs and talk with sales representatives to
determine how on-target this year's marketing really was
2.
Analyze your website: Does it need a refresh? Some things to
consider when refreshing your website:
-
Is
it user-friendly?
-
Does
it adequately represent all of your company's
products/services?
-
Does
it do a good job of "selling" for you and moving
prospects through the sales process?
-
Is
it optimized for the search engines so that you come up on
searches for your product, company or industry?
3.
Think about your marketplace, your positioning and what trends
will shape the upcoming year. This could relate to
your pricing (whether or not to lower or raise prices), your
products/services (whether to add more or to narrow your focus).
Make a list of trends as well as business opportunities, threats
and weaknesses that you want to overcome in the next year.
4.
Set some measurable objectives for your business. Whether
your goals are to expand into a new industry, pump up your
publicity efforts, get more involved in industry associations or
update and optimize your website, write down your goals. Align
your budget and your manpower next year to ensure that you achieve
those goals.
Happy
New Year, and good luck!
Susan Young is
president of AimFire Marketing, an Indianapolis, Indiana marketing,
public relations and website development firm that works with
growing companies to implement effective marketing
communications programs. You
can contact Susan and learn more about Aim Fire Marketing by
visiting www.aimfiremarketing.com.
Copyright
- Aim Fire Marketing. You can reprint this article on your
website or newsletter by including this and the above paragraph.
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