It’s easy for marketing strategy to get a little, let’s say, messy. Staff turnover, the allure of trying trends you can’t sustain, budget challenges - there are lots of reasons to lose the thread. And, when marketing that wasn’t that strategic in the first place gets too overwhelming for your small or cobbled together marketing team it’s easy to justify putting it on the back burner. You’re less likely to know what you’re missing. Still, that really out of date website or your lackluster email response might linger in the back of your mind as something to figure out one day.
Where to Start
Deciding where to begin putting your marketing strategy back on track is one of the biggest challenges small business and nonprofit leaders face. As your friend, allow me to recommend taking stock. That’s right, a good old fashioned inventory. You can’t plan how to get somewhere new without knowing where you are now.
Marketing covers a lot of stuff, so even doing one single comprehensive tactical inventory can start to get overwhelming pretty quickly if you’ve never done it before. In this article, I’m going to walk you through how to start with a wide net across tactical areas to help get a systems overview of your marketing activities in order to make strategic decisions. But if you’re looking to narrow the scope, start with everything that touches a device - your digital marketing.
Start with People
A young marketer recently asked me how to get up to speed in a new position, and I recommended she talk to as many people as possible and ask them all the same set of questions about what is and isn’t working for them when it comes to marketing. And I’m giving the same advice to you - talk to people.
If you have more than one team member doing anything audience-facing, the more of them you talk to, the better a view you’ll have of the big picture. But, I get that small teams are often usually super busy teams and you don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I’d encourage you to think about why they’re so busy. Is it because they’re wasting time on marketing tactics you’re not sure are working? Meanwhile, consider the message you send by the choices you make in this process. Talking to as many people as possible about your efforts shows how much you value marketing, and sets the tone for making it a priority.
Make a List
I know, groundbreaking subhead just above, isn’t it? But seriously, make a list. If you already have a marketing strategy, plan or budget, you’re way ahead of the game. Although chances are good those have already changed, so you’re not entirely off the hook. Other places to check to make sure you’re not forgetting anything include your password manager, app subscriptions, and emails.
Write down every marketing tactic, platform, and effort you’ve undertaken in the last 6 months to a year (depending on how varied your tactics are by quarter). Don’t forget to include networking, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, and events, even if they’ve been exclusively virtual lately. List out each social media channel and get into the weeds with things like photography and intern projects. Lay it all out there. Put it in a document or on a flip chart or in a survey to your staff. Then label it all. Depending on your business you could have categories ranging from print ads to partnerships, and some things might end up in more than one category, just be sure anything that includes any type of digital effort gets flagged as digital marketing.
Identify Impact
Got your nice, sorted list? I’m super proud of you. Just reminding yourself of all the things you’re already doing can be a big boost. But very little irritates me more than activity for activity’s sake. I love relaxing too much for that nonsense. So now it’s time to determine how much each activity is worth to your business goals. I put that last bit in bold because there are endless ways to track marketing but not all of them are great.
Vanity metrics, things like post likes and email subscribers, can serve a useful purpose as part of a really comprehensive marketing strategy. But I’m going to guess we’re not quite there yet. Instead, think about actionable metrics you can connect to goals like leads, sales, and brand awareness. Got a lot of activities you’re not sure how to label? Or some you’re quite sure are not helping with your business objectives at all? Don’t feel bad. We’ll get to them at the end.
Rank ‘em
Look at this list! Oh my gosh. This is usually the point where I have everything in a spreadsheet and start sorting and re-sorting the rows in data nerd glee. But wait! There’s more! Now it’s time to rank those activities that have an identified business value. I’ve found that, much like the direction in which one spins a roll of paper towels, people have particular feelings about how to rank things. So, rank as you deem fit, but I recommend sticking to a simple high/medium/low. If you need more data first, consider adding costs in time and dollars to each tactic.
Then sort them again, which, honestly, is there anything more satisfying when it comes to basic spreadsheet functionality? What you should be left with is a short list of high value marketing tactics, a handful of mediums, and a bunch of low- and unranked items.
Decide
Just having your tactics inventoried, ranked, and sorted by value, you will feel so smart and strategic. There is so much power in having a systems level view. But to truly feel your marketing strategist strength, you have to make some decisions.
Remember those business goals? Now’s the time to revisit what you need to accomplish. If you’re trying to grow your business in a new geographic area, for example, lead generation might be your highest priority. Look back at your inventory, what’s been helping most when it comes to growing leads in new markets? You’ll likely find a tactic that works. Get creative. What else is working in general? Could it support lead generation too? What else came up as frustrations or opportunities for lead gen in your interviews at the start of your inventory? There might be something new to add to the mix as well.
Let’s say you’ve now got three tactical priorities - one you’re currently doing for the purpose of lead gen, one you’re currently doing that you’ll adapt, and one new one. That’s a beautiful mix of tactics. You’ll likely have secondary goals, like growing revenue within an existing audience, that other tactics are suited for which you can choose to continue, just with fewer resources.
Now, what can you stop doing? Start with the list of tactics you were unable to identify a value for and ask why you’re doing them. Don’t just cross them off the list! If something is amazing for morale and not a huge cost, for goodness sake keep doing it. Or if it’s not worth the political battle with the CEO or your boss, I get it. Just be sure to focus on the priorities you identified and the measurements you can take to show their worth.
As a small business or nonprofit, it’s likely your big goals won’t vary so wildly year to year that you need to revisit this exercise with this level of intensity annually. But, if you do make a major organizational shift, talk to people, make a list, sort, and so forth.
Happy strategizing!