Marketing plans put companies on the path towards achieving their goals. However, creating a plan is just the beginning; regular reviews are crucial to measuring effectiveness and adapting to changing market conditions. This article will guide you through the essential steps to conduct an annual marketing plan review, helping you assess your progress, refine your strategies, and set the stage for future success.
1. Set a Schedule
When creating your annual marketing plan, it’s important to identify how often you’ll check in on your progress. For example, a full plan review might happen late in the third quarter, or you may choose to check-in more frequently. Choose a schedule that is achievable for your team and makes sense with your overarching strategy. Then, add those dates to your calendar and plan for how you’ll track your notes.
2. Collect and Analyze the Data
One of the first steps companies should take when creating a marketing plan is setting goals and measurable objectives. This is one of the easiest ways for companies to determine how successful their plan was. Commonly, companies look at social media, website and email campaign stats, as well as revenue, number of new customers, and other related data.
To do this, we recommend adding measurement-related tactics to your marketing plan and calendar. Determine how often you will pull stats, the data points needed, and how they will be recorded. Then, incorporate these tasks into your calendar to make sure they are gathered routinely.
3. Check Your Progress
While reviewing data is the most clear-cut way to analyze success, it’s not the only metric you should consider. We recommend reviewing all the tactics included in the plan and identifying which ones were completed. This information is invaluable when planning for the next year. Discuss which items were missed and why. Here, you might discover what is not serving your team or something that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
4. Take a Hard Look at Your Resources
Another consideration is roles and responsibilities. Look at whether or not these have shifted over the year and how work is distributed. If your team isn’t able to execute all that is planned, critically examine what could be removed or streamlined. There might be a tool that could make your life easier, or it might be time to secure more help.
5. Gather Input.
When all the notes and data are in place, schedule a meeting with your organization’s stakeholders to discuss your findings. Talk through what went well, gaps in the plan and areas needing improvement. Determine how you will address each in the coming year and begin formulating a game plan. These takeaways should form the foundation for the next year’s strategic marketing plan.
Let us conduct an independent review of your marketing strategy and efforts. Contact us for more details about our approach and how it could work for your organization.