Structuring Your 2019 Marketing Strategy

Structuring your 2019 Marketing Strategy doesn’t have to be an aneurysm-inducing task, trust us.

If you’re anything like us, new years resolutions and plans can sometimes make their way down the gurgler along with the last of your Nutrigrain.

The first part of the yeat has come and gone as quickly as the holographic trend (no shade, we love holo).  But now time’s slippin’ and you’re yet to tackle your 2019 marketing strategy.

Fear not, chicken pie.  We’ve got you. 

Better yet, we’re going to show you how to map out your marketing strategy for the year ahead in real-world chat.

Here’s your easy as pie, kinda fun marketing must-dos for 2019.

1. Reflect on previous strategies

What were your marketing objectives for 2018?

Were they to grow your email list, increase your Instagram engagement or ramp up your website traffic?

If you’re a clever little cookie, you would have been tracking these metrics over the year. But if not, it’s not the end of existence for the human race. Simply collate your data and see where you’ve gained the most momentum.  If you’re using apps like Sked Social, Sum All or Google Analytics, this will make piecing together your 2019 Marketing Strategy a whole bunch easier.

Collating data is an easy way to see where your 2019 Marketing Strategy should be zoning in on – or an indicator of where you could maybe back off.  Half the work is done – hurrah!

And if you haven’t been checking your metrics throughout the year? Promise us, from now on, you will be checking your social media stats, website visits, google analytics metrics and all other platforms for juicy figures as often as you can. They all help to make your Marketing Strategy THAT much better.

Whether this is once a week or once a month, track what is working and what isn’t.

Save yourself the heartache (won’t somebody please think of the children?!).  We mean, what’s the point of investing time, money and brainpower into certain channels without knowing if they’re working?

These areas are a good place to start:

• Website visits
• Social media engagements/follower growth
• Facebook pixel data
• Google Analytics figures

It’s also worth your time to look into creating your own “Linktree” by adding a page to your site. This way, you’ll gain the data from click-throughs, not a third-party app. Then see which areas members from your social media audience are interested in seeing most.  Bloody brill.

2. Return on investment

And while we’re on the topic of tracking audience interest, it’s a good idea to calculate your return on investment (ROI) figures.

How much have you been investing in marketing and how many sales, inquiries or leads have you been receiving in return?  This can be broken into the following formula:

Profit / Marketing Investment = ROI

Easy, right?  Now let’s move onto how your 2019 marketing strategy is going to be bangin’.

3. Do your research

Sure, you have a Business Plan and conducted a helluva lot of research when you whipped it up.  But how long has it been since you revised this dazzling document?

Strengthen your 2019 Marketing Strategy by making sure you’re reaching the right people in the right ways – remembering this may have altered since your last review.

• Is your target market changing?
• Is your ideal customer or client reaching you in new ways?
• Are there apps or industry trends that you could be using to the advantage of your business?
• Are your competitors upping their game?
• Do you have new competitors?
• Is your USP still completely unique?
• Has the game changed completely?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it (obvs, you should!) is to dedicate 1-3 hours (more if you’re a shaken not stirred kinda business owner) to researching your industry.

You may be thinking, ‘I know my industry, that would simply be a waste of time!’  If this is the case, then what’s the worse that could happen?  You’ll either cement your knowledge about your place in the market or learn something new.  Win-wine (to celebrate with of course).

4. Goal, goal, baby

Now is the time to set your Marketing goals for 2019.

You might want to try something new (like linking a Pinterest page to your webby) or strengthening a 2018 Marketing Strategy that worked wonders for you (like increasing how often you post blogs or publish Instagram uploads).

But always keep the big picture in mind – You don’t want one million Instagram followers, you want a selection of qualified leads.

Do not let the numbers rule your goals.  Let them be an indicator of how many people are interested in your content.  Keep your ROI in mind (yes, your time is an investment).  Ensure that your goals are:

• Specific, measurable, achievable and realistic
• Focussed on increasing your business’s prosperity
• Time-relative(i.e. what’s the point of creating a marketing goal that requires so much elbow grease that you can’t actually complete your work?)

So, what are your goals for your 2019 Marketing Strategy?

Some ideas are:

• Social media strategy tweaks for increased enquiries
• Strategised advertising for brand awareness/traffic
• Grow email list + new freebies for subscribers
• Developing tutorials/e-books/downloadables to strengthen relationships with current customers
• Connecting with social media influencers
• Website revamp to ramp up SEO
• Introduce a blog to your site to show your audience you are an expert!
• Jumping on trends to stay relevant to current events for your audience

Budget like a boss

When you plan out your Marketing Strategy in 2019, you’ll want to ensure that you know exactly where you’ll be focussing, your approximate budget for the year and how you’ll be spreading your time around (or saving your time).

From a budgeting standpoint, you may be better off outsourcing certain marketing tasks instead of investing your time.  Planning out your budget will ensure that you don’t blow the lot in the first three months.

• Keep your resources in mind – Can you handle a huge increase in sales of your product?  Will you need to order, create or design more to keep up with the demand?
• Remember where you’re at – Are you in the early days of business?  Will your barista workshops be sustainable if you threefold your leads?
• Envisage where you want to be – Project your budget now to where you want it to be.  This may be a percentage of your overall business income.  Keep the future in mind to test the waters and see where is going to generate leads for you long term.

Keep up with 2019 Marketing Trends

Mobile optimization – A huge increase of mobile scrollers took over web viewing in 2018 and mobile-first indexing kicked off.  Ensure that your website is mobile optimised and check out AMP for quicker loading.

Relationship building – Now more than ever, your customers and potential clients are wanting to know about you.

Instagram lives, BTS posts, hearing your story.  This is all relationship building.  Your audience want to get to know you and your business.

They want to experience the lifestyle you stand for, your vibe, your you-ness.  So, give the people what they want and don’t be afraid to be the 100% real you online.

Social media trends – More lives, more diverse strategies, following hashtags.  You’re defo going to want to get on board in 2019.  Not only to please the algorithm beasts but also to stay relevant to your audience.

Video shmideo – The uprise in video content means that sooner or later you’ll need to get on board.  A super smart Marketing Strategy for any business in 2018 is to up their video content.  On social media, in ads, on websites. This is going to be huge.

Is your marketing strategy in full swing for 2019?  If you’re still feeling a little lost, chat to us about our Marketing Strategy Coaching sessions today!