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The new financial year is always a bustling time for every business.
July begins, budgets reset and there you are, looking at the next 12 months of marketing, putting together your plans to achieve your KPIs.
You’re not alone.
At Melotti Media, we value this time as an excellent opportunity to evaluate our marketing strategy to set ourselves up for success – and we shouldn’t be alone either!
While most marketing professionals and business managers have a good sense of what they want to do and where they want to head, chances are that you’ve stumbled here because you want some reassurance and inspiration for the new financial year.
So – I’m not going to disappoint
New Financial Year, new marketing strategy!
Having built a fair few marketing strategies and content marketing plans for B2B clients over the last few financial years, I’ve got some excellent insights to share.
So, here are a few marketing tips that you can incorporate into your marketing plan in the new financial year to kick-start the next 12 months right.
1. Review your business plan
Remember the basics. Your business plan is the overarching document that details your organisation’s overall direction. This always comes first as you need a “north star” to guide the business towards where you want to be in the next year, 5 years and even 10 years.
Start here always as the following steps cascade from your business plan.
I have also prepared a business plan template to get you started.
2. Align your marketing plan with your business plan
Obvious, right? However, so many businesses miss this. Your marketing plan is marketing’s answer to the business’ objectives.
So, a smart approach to the new financial year is to set marketing goals, and then divide the year into focus areas that aim to achieve them. For instance, Quarter One may revolve around a product or service extension, and the next may focus more on a rebrand, while the third involves a January new year campaign and so on.
These marketing phases will help break the year up into more digestible segments that you can rally the marketing team and budget around.
3. Review and reinvigorate your brand’s messaging
Are you still proud of what your brand is saying to the people who matter?
Every new financial year is an excellent time to revisit your brand’s mission and purpose to determine whether there are areas in your branding, messaging or marketing that have missed the mark or fallen short.
Then, it’s time to act.
For more information, see our core brand message development service.
4. Re-evaluate your customer journey
Don’t forget your main customer types in all of this – especially the journey they take to go from strangers to leads, paying customers to loyal advocates. The new financial year is the perfect time to revisit your customer journey and experience to determine how you’re connecting with people.
Do you have a marketing funnel designed to convert cold traffic into warm leads? Do you have systems and processes in place that help keep you in touch with your existing customers? Do you have a means of communicating with your customers regularly?
It’s time to revisit this and solidify your customer strategy.
5. Align your marketing plan with your content marketing plan
Of course, this cascades down into your content marketing production as well. One thing I always say is to never isolate your marketing strategy from your content marketing – they should be completely in sync with each other.
So, when you’re mapping out your content over the next 12 months, how are the themes, types and topics aligned with your customer, your goals and your brand’s messaging?
For more, see our content marketing planning and strategy solution.
6. Allocate your budget like rocks, pebbles and sand
Remember that age-old story of the lecturer that got out a jar in front of his class and said: “to get the most out of your time, start with the big rocks, then add the smaller pebbles and finally the sand”?
Well, the rocks are the marketing priorities like your overarching campaigns, events and big-ticket marketing initiatives. Plan those out first. Perhaps they are the quarterly milestones that drive the big push towards your overarching objectives.
Then you’ve got the pebbles that can be more of the medium tactics, such as website upgrades, smaller product launches or content marketing sprints.
Finally, you’ve got the sand which is your day-to-day projects, marketing software subscriptions and simpler projects that keep the marketing momentum moving.
7. Invest in content – a lot
It should come as no surprise that content still is king. Sure, it’s evolving, but it’s still a big deal. People are hunting for it daily in the form of videos, blogs and articles, press releases, eBooks, case studies and the list goes on and on.
Perhaps set out to expand your brand’s presence onto multiple platforms, but really focus on the most important ones that align well with your key customers.
Don’t skip investing in content marketing or doing it on the cheap. While content marketing generally tends to be more cost-effective than overarching campaigns, it’s still important to invest in content creation, especially if you’re time-poor, spread thin or don’t have the internal expertise to get it moving all by yourself.
Speaking of which…
8. Don’t try to do it all yourself
You don’t have to! Why stress yourself out? There are so many external marketing agencies and supplies out there – shameless plug: we at Melotti Media are one. Marketing solution providers like us can just get things done.
If you’re a Marketing Manager or business director, you know that you have bigger things to focus on. But that shouldn’t be an excuse to just let things slide. Soon, you’ll look back, and 6 months have passed with no content – and then you’ll get frustrated.
Reach out, set a budget, plan an objective and then lean on the external marketing experts to get it done for you. That way, your marketing strategies are being executed and you’re not falling behind.
9. Prioritise the sign-off process
As part of maintaining your focus on the bigger picture, you will still be involved in ensuring every project gets approved and published. So, if you’re handing your marketing and content creation to agencies like Melotti Media, then don’t slow the momentum by ignoring the sign-off process.
After all, you outsourced your marketing to keep things moving. The last thing you want is to still be the bottleneck. Plan out your marketing execution with your marketing partners and then set times to cast your eye over everything and green stamp it.
10. Don’t delay!
The financial year goes fast. You see it every year.
Yet so many business professionals and marketing managers take their time to kick things into gear. The reality is – if you don’t make time, then you’ll never have it.
It will be Christmas before you realise it! So, get the marketing strategy underway, map out a list of marketing priorities and make sure you and your team are generating some strong momentum today that will carry you over the 12 months.
You don’t want to look back and realise time has gotten away from you.
Preparing the next financial year’s marketing plan
While marketing departments aren’t under as much stress in a company as the financial team, it’s still a busy time for planning.
What’s on your list for the next 12-months?
Visit the Melotti Media Campus for resources, templates and more.
If you need some assistance this financial year, Melotti Media can help.
Do you need help kickstarting your marketing projects this FY?
If you’re a Marketing Manager or marketing professional who is looking at the next 12 months and wondering where to start, my team and I have your back.
Contact us today to discuss your projects and how we can support you with our content marketing and copywriting services this financial year.
Thanks for reading.
Christopher Melotti
Melotti Media | Copywriting & Message Marketing Bureau
www.melottimedia.com.au
enquire@melottimedia.com.au
