10 Things to Consider for Your 2022 Marketing Plan
Another year has begun and we’re ready to hit the ground running. To help you do the same, we’ve put together a list of items you need to review to prepare your 2022 marketing plan!
1 – Budget
Let’s get the big one out of the way first: budget.
We’ve had many conversations with business owners who are excited to explore marketing but have given little thought to the costs involved. Do some research about pricing and set a minimum and maximum amount that you’re willing to invest into marketing.
Now, it isn’t just your budget that needs to be reviewed, but where that budget is allocated. So if you already have marketing budgets in place, the start of a new year is the perfect time to audit them.
The Takeaway: Prepare one if you don’t have an actual marketing budget. If you do have a budget, analyse it for performance – it may be time to reconsider a new strategy or marketing method.
2 – Social Media
Social media is the place to be, especially if you’re a business. If you aren’t on social media, then for 90% of businesses we strongly recommend changing that.
For those already on socials, scrutinise the analytics and your performance. Also, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is your content visually and tonally consistent?
- Are your hashtags relevant?
- Are you posting consistently, or are you spamming people one day and ghosting the rest of the week?
- What platforms are you on, and are they the right platforms for you?
Socials take no small amount of effort to produce content for and manage, but the payoff can be immense when done so correctly.
The Takeaway: Are you active on socials? Are you posting consistently? Are you on the right platforms? These are just a few questions you need to ask yourself about your business’s social media.
3 – Targeting
It’s always good to review your targeting to ensure that your marketing is connecting with the right audience. Your audience’s needs, wants, and priorities shift regularly. It’s important to keep up to date with those changes. Otherwise, your offering becomes less and less relevant in their eyes.
How you reach your target audience may need to change over time, too. The same goes for your messaging. As your business grows, you may even find that you have more audiences to connect with. Or, you may discover a more niche audience that you can offer great value to instead of a broader audience with a standard value.
The Takeaway: Review who your audience is and how you reach them.
4 – Brand Consistency
Brand consistency is sadly something that we persistently see being underappreciated and misunderstood.
Brand consistency is when your business is consistently represented across all touchpoints, creating a cohesive and unified business representation.
Brand inconsistency is when your brand is inconsistently represented, making it misleading and alienating. It can confuse and frustrate people when given multiple representations of your business. They may even think you are an illegitimate or unprofessional business.
It is essential to frequently review how your brand is displayed across all media and collateral, including work uniforms, print material, and digital assets.
The Takeaway: Is your brand consistent across all touchpoints? If not, it’s time to change that.
5 – Paid Ads
Paid ads are great for raising awareness and driving campaigns. They also allow for focused targeting and deeper analytics, which are great for post-campaign analysis reports. So, depending on the level of awareness for your brand, paid ads could be a good move in 2022.
One of the great things about paid ads is that their budgets can be very flexible. Small budgets can achieve great things when applied strategically. That means you don’t need to have a budget in the thousands to receive the benefits of paid ads.
The Takeaway: Do you want to boost awareness or promote something specific? Are you interested in split-testing messaging or offers? Do you need to work with smaller budgets? Then paid ads are a method to consider.
6 – Blogging
As marketing methods go, content marketing is often not on the radar of small and medium businesses, as production time for all that content can be pretty intimidating. However, blogging is a good entry point for content marketing that you could explore in 2022.
Running an active blog doesn’t have to mean pumping out multiple articles per week. It can be one to two a month, so long as posting dates are kept relatively consistent. Content can also be recycled and revisited by promoting it in EDMs and social media, and by referencing to previous articles in new publications.
The main benefit of running a blog is that it provides value to your audience and positions you as an industry leader. It also improves your website’s SEO, which Google likes to see.
The Takeaway: Are you in a position to educate, inform, or provide industry insights? Then you have an opportunity to create a value-providing blog for your audience.
7 – Networking
Face to face marketing still has its place. There are many opportunities for businesses to mingle in B2B and B2C settings – and you should look for those opportunities, as the benefits are many.
Depending on your industry, you might find expos and festivals the perfect means of gaining exposure and getting face to face with your audience. If your business is more professional service-oriented, perhaps consider joining a Chamber of Commerce or a Business Chamber.
Networking isn’t just about creating sales leads, either. It’s about creating awareness. It’s about building your business’s reputation and staying top of mind through exposure.
The Takeaway: Consider where your business can get face to face with its audience and build its reputation.
8 – Website Refresh
Websites aren’t eternal, and they aren’t designed to be timeless. A good habit is to frequently review your website for areas that might need some TLC. The start of a new year is the perfect time for a website review.
Are all the design elements on brand and up to date? Are the contact details and team page accurate? Is the UX still up to scratch? What’s the page speed? What’s the site’s Google ranking? There are dozens of questions to consider when reviewing your website – these are just a few of the most critical to answer.
The Takeaway: Review the UX, speed, content, ranking, and general design of your website. It could be time for an update and refresh.
9 – Sponsorships
A good way to support your local community and raise your business profile is to provide sponsorships. Communities, chambers, charities, groups, and events are always happy to receive funding. What you receive in return varies but will almost always include promotional exposure of your business.
If a direct sponsorship isn’t feasible, consider other means of giving back, such as participating in charitable events or supporting not-for-profits in different ways. These parties are always looking for donations beyond monetary ones, like services, supplies, vouchers, or venues. See what you can give and reach out to a party that aligns with your business’s values.
The Takeaway: Look for ways to raise your business profile by supporting your community through donations.
10 – Goals
The goals you have for your business are invaluable for shaping the year ahead and, critically, setting your marketing budget. Depending on your goals, your budget may need to be adjusted, and vice versa.
Set goals and milestones for your business, and then look strategically at how marketing will play a part in achieving them. You can essentially create a timeline for the year ahead by doing this. For example, if you’re launching a new product line in Q3, begin a passive brand awareness campaign by the start of Q2 in preparation for an active strategy focused on the Q3 launch.
The Takeaway: Set goals for your business designed to measure and guide your marketing plan.
Start 2022 strong by getting your marketing plan sorted straight out of the gate. These ten tips are some great starting points for covering the essentials and getting that job done quickly and efficiently.
If you want to know more about any of what we’ve spoken about today, contact us!
