With the leaves just falling from the trees, you might think you have all the time in the world to plan your marketing for 2023. But we’re here to tell you there’s no time like the present and why planning now could put you ahead of your competitors and boost your sales.
Here are our top tips for getting started on your marketing plan for 2023.
- Set your SMART goals
SMART – it’s an acronym for five criteria that your marketing goals for the year ahead should include:
Your goal (s) should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timebound
Here’s an example of what a SMART objective looks like.
Business A has set a target of increasing profit growth by 10% by December 2023 and boosting website conversions by 15% by the same time.
See…smart!
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Reacquaint yourself with your audience
A lot can change in a year. Buying habits can alter, and web journeys can take a different direction. It’s important to stop and reflect and ensure you’re talking to the same people you were at the start of the year.
Here’s how you can check whether your audience is still the same:
- Access your website’s data to find your key demographic groups. Google Analytics handily separates your audience information into demographics and interests. Take this info and compare it against your 2022 buyer personas.
- Look at your social media channels. Are your followers still engaging with your content at the same time of day, from the same locations and in the same age brackets? If they aren’t, then it’s time to adjust your social media strategy.
- Take a look at your website. What’s your best and worst-performing content this year? Use the stuff that’s capturing attention and repurpose it. Make a note to do more of the same to attract your audience.
- If in doubt, ask. Use surveys to ask your customers more about who they are and what they’d like to see from you in terms of marketing and products in 2023. Better to hear it directly from the source than to make assumptions.
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Update your calendar
Unwrap that 2023 calendar, you social butterfly.
Think about the year ahead and what events you have in the diary. Are you planning on attending any exhibitions? Will you be holding any events of your own? If the answer’s yes, add them to your calendar and start making to-do lists.
Think about the marketing collateral you’ll need to organise before the event. Set up an alert to notify you in enough time to start thinking about this task. Brochures, leaflets and printed merchandise all include lead times. Be sure to factor that in.
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Refresh your search engine optimisation (SEO)
SEO isn’t a one-off process. Google regularly updates their algorithm so users can reach the best possible content, and your competitors are likely making changes to their sites to outrank you.
But don’t worry; you can get a head start on refreshing your website content to climb those dizzying ranks in Google.
Identify any new keywords.
It’s important to regularly update your target keywords to make the most of SEO. As search patterns change, so will the words your audience are searching for.
But don’t get carried away. Google recognises when you’re flooding your site with keywords and will destroy you…well, they might not destroy you, but they will move you down the ranks. Eek!
Optimise your title tags
Your audience will see this when they view your website on Google.
Title tags are essential for establishing good clickthrough rates (the percentage of users who click on your page after seeing it in search results). When you include the specific keywords a user searches for in your title tags, they’ll be more likely to click on your page because it’s clear that you have the information they’re looking for.
Don’t forget your meta descriptions.
A meta description is the other information that shows up along with title tags in search results. They’re a prime bit of real estate in results pages.
Although meta descriptions don’t directly impact rankings, you can use them to improve your clickthrough rates. This sends positive signals to search engines, which can boost your rankings. Win!
Content is King (or queen)
Content is key to boosting your SEO. It drives people to your website and gets them interested in your business. It’s time-consuming but has big rewards.
But never fear. There are some quick wins. Delete any duplicated content…Google doesn’t like it. And repurpose some of your oldies but goldies. If you have blog posts that have triggered some great results, refresh them, reupload them and reshare them.
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Establish your team
And if all of this seems a bit much, then call on team Nettl to help you design a marketing action plan for 2023.
You can sit with a Nettl marketing professional for three hours to review your marketing strategy. Yep, that’s right, three hours of our time.
We love all things marketing, and creating an action-orientated marketing plan should be a priority for any business. Let us take a look at yours.
For more information or to book your marketing session with our team, call 01636 611 112 or 01476 249 030.
