Half-Time Report: Are you reaching your 2014 marketing goals?

We are officially half way through 2014, and for many marketers the 2nd half the year is the most critical. It is easy to set goals for the year, but more difficult to analyze the full spectrum of progress that your marketing strategy may, or may not being making. By taking the time to dive into your key analytics, you may find weak spots or holes in your strategy that can easily be improved for the 2nd half of 2014.  By breaking down your goals into segmented easily digestible data, you can improve your planning. Here are some different aspects of your marketing strategy to focus on for your mid-year analysis.

A key aspect to growing your business is having your consumers actively engaged in your brand. Start by looking at what campaigns have been most successful this year. What audience were these campaigns targeted to? Which e-mails received the highest click-through rates? If you are not receiving great response from your e-mail strategy, it may be time to segment your database and focus on the active openers. Try higher stakes promotions to engage dormant contacts.  Another way to measure engagement is your social media presence. What types of content has your audience responded to? If you are not seeing active interaction here, it may be time to re-evaluate your content strategy.

Prospecting

To enable your brand to grow, it is crucial to increase the audience you are marketing to.  How much has your email database grown since January? What percentage of followers have you acquired through your social networks? If these numbers are low, it may be time to implement more aggressive strategies for building your audience. Creating incentives for giving an email address or following on social media is the easiest way to build your database. Offer a discount in exchange for an email address, or offer a chance to win a product by following on social media. For non-ecommerce sites, offer content that gives value (whitepapers, industry guides, ect.) in exchange for email addresses. By investing in your database, you are increasing your long term marketing opportunities.

Predicting

Based on your engagement and prospecting analysis, you can now make realistic adjustments to your end of the year goals. Map out your promotional schedule and see where you need to compensate for weaker promotions in the first half of the year. If there were strong campaigns within the last 6 months, see how they can be repurposed. Research and see if there are marketing tools you are not utilizing that can help your reach these goals. Strategically planning the next few months may help you exceed your original sales goals.

At EmoryDay we plan and execute results driven campaigns based on any budget. Contact us today to see how we can help improve your marketing strategy.