Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM January 2020 | Page 22

RACHAEL MORGEN
Online Marketing Manager
Empire Creative Marketing
www.empiread.com
HOW TO STRATEGICALLY
DECLUTTER YOUR MARKETING
Plus, Save Time AND Money
S
“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”
trategic marketing is a structured approach to
marketing, where you take intentional time to
clearly define what you are trying to accomplish
as a business. Then plan, implement specific
action steps, measure and analyze the results,
and repeat the process. Strategic marketing works to not
only shorten the sales cycle, but maximize your business’
return on investment by marketing with selective intent.
Having a marketing plan for your business saves
time and money, and nets better results. It’s important
to plan out your marketing for 6 months or a year at a
time.
Why? Consider these situations...
There is a trade show is next week and you are out
of brochures. Printing materials in a hurry, because you
didn’t plan ahead, will incur rush fees and extra shipping
costs. You also have no time to consider if your materials
carry the message you want. Additionally, printing the
same things over and over without reviewing them to be
sure they are still relevant can negatively
impact your company’s image.
Or, you are in the middle of an event
and realize it is something you should
have documented. Photography and
videography are services that should
always be planned. Hiring a team in
advance means you’ll have time to put
together a shot list and items you’d like
them to focus on while recording your
event.
Here’s How To Declutter Your
Marketing
1. Put a marketing strategy meeting
with your team on the calendar -
and DON’T push it back or ignore
it. Come to the meeting prepared
to review last year’s marketing
initiatives: the good, the bad, the
ugly, all of it. Also, start developing a
list of goals you’d like to set for your
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MOMENTUM | 2020 Year of Small Business
business this year.
2. At the strategy meeting, set your company goals. Then,
break them down into realistic milestones throughout
the year.
3. Establish a marketing budget.
4. Schedule any events and priorities into the calendar.
Tradeshows, meetings, anything big, should be on the
calendar. Then schedule out when you need to start
preparing for those events.
5. Break down how to accomplish the goals into action
items and identify who is in charge of making those
items a reality.
6. Put monthly marketing meetings on the calendar - do
not skip them! These will allow everyone to regroup,
debrief and make sure the team is working together to
accomplish all the goals together.
So, go put that marketing strategy meeting on the
calendar today. Decluttering your marketing puts you in
the driver’s seat and helps free up more time to run other
aspects of your business.