9 tips on how to start building a 2023 marketing plan

It can be daunting, even if you’ve done it before. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at our top 9 tips to help you start building an effective marketing plan.

Need help with your 2023 marketing plan? Get in touch.

1. Review. Review. Review.

Before jumping into your new marketing plan, take time to review your old plans. Check in on how 2022 went for you, review past goals, results and ask yourself some key questions:

Did you reach your previous goals, if not, why?

What strategies did you try? Did they all work? If not, what didn’t work?

Were you missing a specific resource which could have improved your results?

Does your website work? Do you need a new website?

The deeper you dig into your overall reporting from the past year the easier it will be to assess your KPIs and the success of them. If you need further insight, try breaking down the data into quarters.

2. Conduct a marketing audit

If you’ve no idea how to start reviewing your marketing plans or you don’t have any mapped out to refer back to, a marketing audit will help.

An audit scrutinises your marketing efforts to discover information, identify which channels are achieving the best results, and pain points, and provide a panoramic view into all aspects of your marketing. It will be easier to digest if you spilt it up into areas such as website audit, branding audit, social media audit and an SEO audit.

Just like other elements of your marketing plan, audits can be hard work, but they’re also the best way to provide your team with the foundations they need for better customer connections, stronger branding, and bigger results. Be frugal, the goal is to identify what marketing efforts work and eliminate the ones that don’t, for improvement, better return on investment and scope to explore new tactics that could be more effective.

3. Assess your target market and current audience

In an ever-changing world, it’s more important now than ever to know your target market so you can craft tailored strategies. As your business evolves and grows, your audience may pivot slightly, expand or lessen.

Ask yourself, is your target market the same as you planned last year? Has it shifted? Is it time to expand your market? Does your target audience align with the current target market? If not, it’s time to adjust and improve to fit within your current business model.

You must keep a check on this, it could be the key to taking your business to the next level.

4. Set new goals and business objectives

Ultimately everyone wants their business to be more successful, but that’s not enough to drive sales. A key element of your strategic marketing planning is to set specific goals based on your company’s current needs.

This will change depending on the stage your business is at. A start-up business may set goals based on growth and awareness whereas a well-established business may focus on campaigns to improve sales. Whatever the goal, it’s essential they are specific and actionable to support your business objectives, aligning with your marketing plan. The more detailed, the better.

We can deliver a workshop to support you and your team in identifying your goals and objectives for 2023. Not sure if your business needs a workshop? Call us on 01782 618324.

5. Determine KPIs

After setting your goals it’s time to assign relevant KPIs to each of them. This will enable you to measure the success of each goal accurately.

A KPI (Key performance indicator) must be quantifiable to successfully track progress and measure the data. Remember, if created appropriately they can help you prioritise, focus, and scale processes toward your goals. (source: Hubspot)

6. Research the competitors & market

Focusing on your own marketing strategy is important but you have to be aware of what others within the market are doing. And not doing.

Invest time into this. Start by asking, who are your competitors? Do they do something well? Do they not do something well? This will assist in pinpointing how you differentiate from the competitor and take advantage of a gap in the market. As long as it suits your business.

7. Set a budget

As part of the planning process of setting clear goals and objectives, there is likely to be an expenditure to accompany them. It’s a good idea to plan ahead for this. Consider carefully what goals will need a budget, to achieve the assigned KPIs. Understand the roadmap ahead to maintain financial stability in the next year. PS – If your business is growing, it’s likely your budget will too.

8. Choose and schedule marketing activity

Now it’s time to combine the actions above and implement effective marketing plans and campaigns to achieve your goals. Make sure you cover all essential touchpoints over multiple platforms as you develop your plans.

To execute and keep track of your plans, build a marketing calendar for 2023. It may seem obvious but sometimes it can be considered less of a priority. It’s not. Planning ahead will give you full visibility of all marketing activities and events allowing you to be prepared and ready for scheduled campaigns.

9. Develop a plan to measure success

Measuring your performance is key to optimising any process. Set recurring dates to check in with your team, share data to better evaluate performance and track what works, what doesn’t and spot areas for improvement.

Creating a detailed, relevant and ambitious plan for your business is both an essential and valuable process.

If you need help with auditing your existing marketing activity or developing a new marketing plan for 2023, get in touch on 01782 618324 or at info@starbots-creative.co.uk