Marketing 101: 4 Steps for Your New Year Marketing Efforts

Happy New Year! Who else is ready to start fresh in 2021? Now is the perfect time for setting goals and focusing in on priorities specific to your marketing efforts. At Transform Consulting Group, we know your work is important. We also understand that your time and resources may be limited, regardless of the role you play at your organization. Your marketing strategies cannot be a luxury that you ignore. With these quick tips, you can make the most of your efforts this year!

1. Reflect Push the brakes and spend time reflecting on your marketing efforts last year similar to what you would do for your organization’s programs and services. What worked? What didn’t work? Did you reach your target audience and participation numbers? Did you accomplish your fundraising goals and how was marketing a part of that effort?If you set goals last year, did you meet them? If you didn’t set specific goals last year, spend time looking back on your efforts. Take inventory of your social media platforms, your organization’s website traffic, other digital efforts, advertisement efforts, created collateral, etc. What are trends you can recognize? Specific marketing “wins”?Make sure you have a clear idea of where you’re at before you start taking those next steps into the new year. At TCG, we do a to share with our clients. This is a great opportunity for us to highlight our successes and share in a visual way.

2. Plan Now that you’ve put in the necessary time for reflection of the past year, it’s time for the fun part – planning! Brainstorm – Team up! Your organization may not have the luxury of a huge marketing department, but your colleagues can offer fresh perspective to your planning. Bring new people to the table, and start dreaming up possibilities that align with your goals. You could invite staff from different departments, board members, volunteers and possibly clients, if appropriate. The more voices and perspectives you include might provide fresh insights to inform your marketing efforts.

3. Set Goals We wrote a whole blog on setting SMART goals here. You’re probably setting goals for your programs. Don’t forget your marketing goals! Make them Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Look at the systems you have in place to help you report out on your marketing goals: Google analytics for your website traffic, social media platform analytics, customer feedback surveys, and any other data collection methodologies. Schedule – Once you have goals determined, break out action items that will need to happen to ensure success. It can be intimidating to have a full-year goal, but monthly or even weekly goals are realistic. At TCG, we like to use a monthly plan and highlight the theme or goals for every month of the year. We then break down specific tasks and put them on the calendar for reminders and regular check ins to ensure we stay on task.  

4. Budget There are a lot of ideas you can implement for the new year without additional money (check out our other blogs here: list your organization online, improve your website, enhance your social media, and build your brand). However, you should have a budget allocated to support your organization’s marketing and communication strategies. Some line items on our budget include:

• Dedicated FTE (staffing – either internal or hired out contractors)
• Conferences and special events
• Advertising
• Collateral/Swag (printed materials, pens, banners, signage, etc.)

Your budget should align with your goals and the schedule you implemented earlier. Space out the expenses throughout the year and make sure you factor in any additional expenses to avoid surprises. Once you begin to collect some data against your goals, you can start to determine which marketing investments are “worth it” and redirect funds accordingly.

Is your organization ready for the new year? Are you prepared with a marketing strategy to elevate the importance of your work and cause? If not, contact us, and let’s put some plans in place!