As we approach the end of 2021, now is the ideal time to prepare your marketing strategy for next year. We know that planning for 12 months in one go can feel a bit overwhelming, so we’re going to walk you through the process to make it as easy as possible.
Here are our 4 simple steps to creating a solid marketing strategy for 2022.
1. Plan out the calendar
Take a 2022 calendar and mark on it every significant event throughout the year.
- Start with all the public holidays: Easter weekend, Spring and Summer bank holidays and Christmas.
- Next, add any commercial events that you celebrate in your business, for example, New Year, St. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Finally, add any industry events or dates important for your business, e.g. awards ceremonies, landmark anniversaries and launches.
2. Think about how to mark each event
Go through your calendar and think about how can you link your service or product to each event. You could hold a sale, run a brand awareness campaign, get your customers involved, run special offers, or promote individual products or services. Highlight on the calendar when to start your marketing campaign for each event. Now you have a timeline of what to do, when.
Top Tip: To break down the workload into manageable chunks, think about one quarter at a time.
3. Plan your campaigns
Once you have your calendar laid out, it’s time to plan your marketing campaigns. First, you need to decide which marketing channels to focus on. We’d advise a combination of both free and paid options.
Social Media
You should already have a consistent presence on social media (if you haven’t, we can help you get started), but you need to ramp up your posting when running an active campaign. Develop a strategy for each platform, ensuring your posting style and frequency are adapted to suit each one. Think about your messaging – what do you want customers to know in the lead up to an event? How will you make your posts stand out in the noise at busy times of the year?
Paid ads
You should ideally include paid ads as part of your marketing strategy. Social media has its uses, but we know that nothing gets your content in front of people better than paying for it. You can run paid ads on all social media platforms, although you should always test posts on your business page first to see which perform best before putting money behind them. Google Ads is another paid option that can generate impressive results if done strategically.
Email marketing
Email can perform really well as a marketing tool, as you’re broadcasting to a warm audience who have already shown interest in your business. Email campaigns might include special offers exclusively for people on the email list, discounts for referring a friend or a sneak peek of what’s coming up in a sale. It’s also important to have an ongoing campaign running in the background to encourage email signups and actively grow your list. The bigger the list, the bigger the impact on sales. You should be aiming for consistent growth, year on year.
Top Tip: Look back at last years data to see which channels performed best to help you shape your strategy.
4. Consider outsourcing
To run an effective marketing campaign, you need plenty of time and careful planning to get good results. You might decide you need some additional training to help you develop the necessary skills to plan and implement a solid marketing strategy for 2022.
If you don’t have the skills or capacity within your team to manage marketing campaigns across social media, email and paid ads, you might want to consider outsourcing. At Zesty Digital, we specialise in tailor-made services for retail and hospitality businesses. We can plan and manage every aspect of a campaign or just the bits you need help with.
If you want to find out more about what we do and how we can help, we’d love to chat. Contact us to arrange a free consultation.
