5 Steps To Planning A Successful Marketing Strategy For The New Year

Posted by Brenda Stoltz

As we move beyond 2016 and begin to glance into the future at 2017, it’s the ideal time for marketers to consider their 2017 marketing campaigns. Beginning your planning now will give you the best chance to build successful strategies for the upcoming year. But on which areas should you focus your resources? There are so many, and it can be hard to know where your attention will pay off.

In this post, we take a look at five steps to maximize your marketing strategies for 2017.

1. Learn the ROI

​Marketing is no longer a simple creative process that is left alone by decision-makers. Now, the C-suite expects marketers to know the precise ROI from their campaigns. This means teams need to consider how best to show the clear monetary value their campaigns bring to the company. Implementing the latest analytics tools is a great way to start this process and bring actionable data to your team that will prove your case to invest more in marketing.
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2. Commit to Segmentation

A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work in the future as we move towards the individual customer as the focal point of campaigns. Companies are now tasked with allocating more resources to segmentation and finding out exactly who their customers are and what they expect from the company and its products. Segmentation can help pinpoint which customers hold the best return on marketing investment, allowing your team to optimize its returns in the coming year.

3. Offer Consistent Brand Experiences

With the era of the empowered customer taking shape, companies must now ensure a consistent brand experience at every touch-point within their sales and marketing cycles. Your marketing team must work with your resources in all areas of the company to ensure the right message is being relayed at the right time in the buyer’s journey. This will help your brand to develop its connection with clients and allow your brand to improve its number of loyal clientele over time. Delivering a consistent brand experience isn't difficult; it starts with cohesive messaging and imagery and ends with consistent customer service and delivery of products.

4. Implement Mobile Marketing Campaigns

Mobile marketing applications are now one of the most important tools in a company’s arsenal, now that mobile search has beat out desktop search in terms of popularity. They can help teams locate their qualified mobile users and build customer relationships by providing relevant, context-driven content. Companies not implementing the latest mobile solutions within their marketing campaigns are quickly being left behind as we move toward 2017.

5. Commit to Smart Competitor Analysis

While your team should focus its time and resources on building a unique appeal in your industry, you can still achieve insights into the value of your organization by analyzing competitors. Take a look at your core competitors and their campaign strategies and determine if there is an opportunity to be capitalized on that could help you in achieving your marketing and sales objectives for 2017.

These steps will ensure that 2017 is the year you propel forward in terms of hitting your target on the nose with your marketing efforts.
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Source:​http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2016/12/21/5-steps-to-planning-a-successful-marketing-strategy-for-the-new-year/#6a7bf903b60b