The new year is a time for new beginnings. It’s the time to reflect, re-evaluate, and restart your organization’s plans and projects. Even though it might be freezing cold outside (which it definitely isn’t in Nashville) the new year is a great time for looking to the future, especially when it comes to your organization’s marketing plan.
Marketing changes almost daily. New technology, new ideas, and new strategies for reaching the right people evolve constantly, so it’s essential that you are able to keep up with current marketing trends. However, when you have other commitments on your time, developing an entirely new marketing plan can be overwhelming. Don’t worry. The first step to a great marketing plan is creating a great framework, and we’ve come up with three easy, actionable tasks that will help you lay a foundation for your 2016 marketing plan. So as the year draws to a close, grab your favorite sparkling beverage and get ready for your best new year yet!
Evaluate
When you’re creating a marketing plan, it’s just as important to look back as it is to look forward. Reflecting on your accomplishments and frustrations from the previous year will help you to see which projects and campaigns were most successful, and which would be better to skip in the new year. While you can do a more serious and in-depth analysis of your accomplishments in January, taking a bit of time to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your goals now can save you quite a bit of time and effort later.
Not sure how to quickly evaluate? Try this:
On a piece of paper or on the computer, create three columns. In the first, make a list of the marketing goals your organization accomplished, or that you considered successful. In the second, list your ongoing goals (that is, tasks that will be carried over to the new year), and in the third, list the goals you weren’t able to accomplish or that you considered unsuccessful.
Now, go through your lists and look for patterns. Are there similarities between the goals you accomplished? How about the ones you didn’t? Finding those common threads can help you get an idea of how to structure and create realistic goals in the coming year.
Collect
Great resources are essential to making your organization succeed. That’s why it’s important to know the places and people you rely on when you need information. Looking through your resources and understanding which tools and connections were the most helpful over the course of the year will let you to know exactly where you go when you need help or information. In addition, having those resources collected before the end of the year can make it much easier to formulate a marketing plan— because you’ll have the resources to make it happen.
Not sure what your best resources are? Try this:
With your staff, take a few minutes to brainstorm the most common issues your organization faces. These issues can be anything: which donor management system your organization uses, the method to managing your social media accounts, or even where you get images for your blog posts.
Then create a list of the places you go to solve those problems. What kind of social media post scheduler do you use? Who do you talk to about your blog? Knowing where you automatically look when trying to answer questions can help you compile a helpful list of resources, and it will also be beneficial for your volunteers and staff to have a list of places they can go to obtain information or get help.
Timeline
Having an ongoing timeline of marketing events, campaigns, and projects throughout the year is incredibly beneficial for any organization. That’s why having a rough idea of your timeline in advance can help you see the times of year that are slower, and what times might have more room to plan campaigns. For example, if you create a marketing campaign for an upcoming silent auction, write a weekly blog, and plan a volunteer lunch in December, you may want to hold off on scheduling your annual 10k for December as well.
Not sure how to create a loose timeline? Try this:
Look at the list of accomplishments you made in the “Evaluate” stage. Are there any that are recurring or that are yearly tasks and projects? If so, write down when those occur. Are there any events or projects you’re planning to create campaigns for in the coming year? If so, write down when those occur.
By the time you’re finished, you’ll have a rough timeline that you can use as a base for more focused planning. Remember, this doesn’t have to be your full-scale marketing plan with every post and campaign scheduled, it’s simply a general idea of things you know will be taking time on your calendar.
Create a foundation
These activities are all designed to be quick and easy, so don’t worry about spending hours on any of them. You’ll only need to focus on creating a basic sketch of what you’d like to accomplish, so when you sit down in January you’ll be able to create a full-scale marketing plan for the new year with minimal stress. Spending a few minutes now planning for the future can help you to avoid the new year sneaking up as quickly as the holiday season!
Want to get a jump on marketing strategies for the new year? Check out our free Marketing Guide. We’ve got tons of resources and ideas for your organization. Or talk to our team— we’re happy to help with whatever you need!