{"id":29881,"date":"2022-09-29T13:16:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T12:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearbooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=29881"},"modified":"2022-09-29T13:16:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T12:16:43","slug":"how-to-breathe-new-life-into-your-marketing-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clearbooks.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-breathe-new-life-into-your-marketing-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"How to breathe new life into your marketing plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Putting together a marketing plan is such an important step for a small business owner. But unlike a lot of other tasks that are completed once they\u2019re ticked off, a marketing plan requires a little bit more TLC to ensure it\u2019s kept up-to-date and still working for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long gone are the days of 3 or 5 year plans, and whilst it\u2019s good to look ahead to the future and set yourself a clear path, you need something with more flexibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing is a creative function, so naturally some activities will work well and others may miss the mark. It\u2019s important to revisit your plan regularly, take stock of what\u2019s working, and rethink areas that may not have panned out as you hoped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s no need to start from scratch! There are things you can do to breathe new life into your existing marketing plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Revisit your existing marketing plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to regularly review your marketing plan<\/a>, and check that you’re delivering on the activity you had planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take stock of what you have and haven\u2019t done. Sometimes we have big grand plans that work on paper, but don\u2019t materialise for reasons such as unexpected resource changes or budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When looking at the activity you have done, ask yourself what has and hasn\u2019t worked. This will give you a better understanding of your audience and their behaviours, ultimately improving your future plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Keep a watchful eye on your target audiences\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a small business owner, you know that things can change quickly. A market you may have previously identified as one of your main targets, may experience serious changes that influence their buying decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can\u2019t be helped \u2013 you\u2019re not expected to be able to predict the future! But it does mean that if you identify this early on, you can make informed decisions and pivot if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not all doom and gloom \u2013 an unexpected opportunity may have arisen with a subset of prospective customers. Thinking about your audiences regularly will give you the chance to act on new opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Be mindful of emerging trends and topics\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may have plans for chunky content items like whitepapers, events\/webinars, podcasts and article series. Content like this is really important for driving engagement with your audience and providing them with valuable thought leadership, but can take a long time to produce, edit and publish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can also manage to produce some snappy, timely content to support these activities, you can gain traction by hopping on emerging trends and topics relatively quickly and easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t necessarily need to start from scratch either. If you already have some content written up, you can rework it to include a fresh perspective, for example if there\u2019s an industry change or legal update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Rework your existing content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Talking of not starting from scratch \u2013 you can always reuse and rework content you already have, to breathe new life into it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you have taken the time to produce a whitepaper, you could create an infographic or factsheet to pull out some of the key information and findings in a different format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a webinar recording, you can use extracts as snappy video snippets across your social channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathing new life into your marketing plan shouldn\u2019t mean going back to the drawing board. Reworking existing content will help small businesses, who are already time poor, make the most out of what they\u2019ve already produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"marketing\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5. Gain insight from your analytics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your analytics will be crucial for breathing new life into your marketing plan, as they will help you understand what is and isn\u2019t working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use your analytics to understand how customers are behaving on your website, where they\u2019re coming from, where they\u2019re dropping off and how they are interacting with your website and content.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Don\u2019t forget digital marketing \u2013 even if you\u2019re an offline business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If your business has a strong online presence, it\u2019s likely that you are utilising digital marketing to spread brand awareness and drive sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But digital marketing is so important, even for businesses more traditionally offline, like hair and nail salons, car mechanics and construction businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These types of businesses may not need to update their websites as regularly as others, but a strong online presence is important for helping people find you in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just having a website and expecting people to find you is not always enough, even if it\u2019s optimised well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few things for more traditionally offline businesses to consider: <\/p>\n\n\n\n