Don’t Be Afraid of the Unknown: Plan for What’s to Come
Budgets, objectives, and strategies are all waiting to be determined, and it’s enough to give you nightmares. But don’t fret, we’ve got you covered.
As you prepare your 2020 marketing plan, we want to help you see things a little more clearly. Where do you start? What should you prioritize? How do you plan the right budget? In this series, we give you a look behind the curtain to how we approach things here at Phire Group.
Take a look at our other 2020 Vision posts:
Budget for strategy, then tactics. (Not the other way around)
Adding ONE sentence to your website can make a big impact in 2020
A Content Marketing Roadmap with Zero Buzzwords
It’s the scariest time of the year, planning for what’s next. Budgets, objectives, and strategies are all waiting to be determined, and it’s enough to give you nightmares. But don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. We put together four simple tips that will help you fend off the night terrors and hopefully create some excitement for planning for 2020.
1. Plan for purpose.
What’s the why? It’s a question marketers love to ask because it’s an important one. Planning for purpose provides clarity for the year to come. Once your primary objective is identified the road to get there becomes clear and all the fears surrounding the unknown start to drift away.
Strategizing before planning is necessary. Defining goals, mapping out audience personas, and creating an ideal customer experience can help you figure out what you need to meet your objective. Once you’ve figured that out, the rest is easy.
2. Understand what’s worked in the past.
I’m not going to wax poetic about understanding where you came from. But knowing what’s worked in the past will help you plan for the future. Whether specific tactics outperformed industry averages, or key messaging resonated more thoroughly with your target audience, well-informed strategies will always lead to greater success. Allowing the past to inform your planning will put you in a position for success for years to come.
3. Stay flexible.
If you experiment, then you need to be ready for anything. Staying flexible with your budgets, your campaigns, and your creative will allow you to stay on top of everything and make the most out of experimentation. But being flexible means removing bias and relying on your data to make decisions.
4. Plan for optimization. Then, optimize the hell out of it.
Test. Rinse. Repeat. Optimizing your campaign will help refine your messaging, customize your creative, and adjust when it’s needed. Experimentation will allow for the best possible understanding of how your audience responds to your ads and will give you the opportunity to adjust on the fly. So baking in room for experimentation will give you the chance to make the most out of your next year, not to mention, have some fun testing different opportunities.
Still seems daunting?
That’s alright. That’s why we’re here. When it comes to strategic planning that is consistent, actionable, and effective, we know a great team you can reach out to.
