The end of the year is right around the corner. As you’re sitting there thinking about your holiday plans: family, eggnog, cookies, presents, a decrease in the daily emails you get (at least for a few days), you’re also probably thinking about how to make the most of your marketing firm in these last few weeks of 2013. There are a few things that you should definitely contract your marketing firm to take care of for you as you end out 2013 (or any year for that matter):
1. Wish Your Clients/Customers Happy Holidays
It’s that time of the year. Holiday spirit is running rampant and you’re reflecting on a year of success and milestones. Ask your marketing firm to craft an email for your clients and customers wishing them a happy holiday and to thank them for contributing to your past year’s success. It can be gracious, heartwarming, clever, cheeky or witty, whatever fits your company’s image the best. Stratus has always aired towards the cheeky and witty side (see a portion of our 2011 holiday email below). Maybe an email isn’t your style. Maybe you’d prefer something a little more unordinary like a video or a song. No matter what your preference, your marketing firm can certainly execute your vision and help you to wish your clients and customers a great holiday season.
2. Analyze the Numbers
The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on what happened throughout the year. You should definitely be asking your marketing firm to analyze the analytics from your marketing efforts that year to determine your return on investment. You need to know what worked, what didn’t, where things need to be changed, where things can stay the same and overall how effective your marketing initiatives were for 2013. Make sure to assess your promotions from the whole year so you can see what should and should not be repeated in 2014. Let’s be honest, marketing can be a big part of your yearly budget so you need to know how effective it has been and what adjustments need to be made for the next year. Who better to do that than your trusted marketing firm?
3. Develop a 2014 Strategy
After thoroughly analyzing the analytics from 2013, your marketing firm can then develop a strategy for 2014. In this strategy, they will take into account the findings from their metrics analysis and adjust their tactics as needed. This will also be a great place to determine how the budget for the next year will change. Do you need to allocate more towards inbound marketing? Do you need to cut back on a tactic that had lower results than others? This is the time to determine that.
4. Technology Assessment
This year we’ve had the introduction of Google glasses, Amazon drones, smart watches and so much more showing how much technology can progress in just a years’ time. For this reason, your marketing firm should help you to perform a technology assessment and make sure your internal capabilities are up to date for the New Year. This also would be a good place to look at how this new technology will fit into your 2014 marketing plan whether its integrating these new technologies somehow, taking advantage of the new ads on social, using emerging social sites or adopting trends like vine videos.
5. Reassess the Environment
Finally, you should take the end of the year to get together with your marketing firm and reassess the competitive environment. How has the industry changed? What external threats have emerged? Are there any opportunities that you need to focus on for 2014? Have new competitors entered the market that you need to account for? The best way to plan for 2014 is to be proactive. Make sure you identify these things before 2014 even starts and you should be better prepared for whatever comes at you.
So, as you say goodbye to 2013, remember that your marketing firm’s job isn’t exactly done quite yet. Call on them to help with these few things to close out the year and make sure your 2014 is as successful as it can be!
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
