Does your marketing program feel a little stale? Are any tactics within your plan repeated year after year simply because you’ve always done them? Possibly a trade show your company has always attended but never really measured; or a directory listing that is continuously renewed because many of the competitors are there. If this sounds familiar – and probably does for many marketing decision makers – it is time to give your marketing strategy a thorough evaluation. Think of it as Spring Cleaning for your marketing strategy.

An effective marketing strategy starts with a thorough understanding of the goals, target audience, geographic focus and budget.  Marketing 101, right?  Then why is it so easy to fall into the “because we’ve always done it” rut? If you have a marketing plan, pull it out and thoroughly evaluate each strategy and tactic. If you don’t have a plan, then conduct a marketing audit by documenting every program, strategy, media insertion, collateral piece, trade show, sales mission – and the list goes on.  Then, analyze your plan as if from a clean slate. Identify metrics to measure each component. Evaluate whether budget allocations align with priorities.  Determine whether you are overspending on what may be considered a secondary, or even tertiary goal and evaluate how reallocating those dollars may multiply the impact.

Spring Cleaning your marketing strategy will renew the creative approach to meeting your marketing goals for the remainder of this year and into the next.  New ideas and opportunities are sure to arise when you can look at your plan as a clean slate before another budgeting and planning cycle begins.  This way, changes – whether incremental or monumental – can be properly assessed and you’ll find yourself energized in the process.

Just in time for that other kind of Spring Cleaning!

Need help getting started? Contact Scheffey for a marketing analysis.