Marketers - Re-assess Your Marketing Plan Now!

With a quarter gone, marketers ought to be digging into business performance and results. The lessons learnt and course-correction (if needed) should be clearly outlined for the remainder of the year. While the lessons are one for the books, the insights about course-correction dictate how we end the year. And, irrespective of how deep we are into our marketing commitments for Q2, I have found that this is a crucial time to revisit the marketing plan. Slow down after the frenetic pace of Q1 (as it often is in many industries), and spend some time to analyze and level-set the expectations for the rest of the year. Yes, I am suggesting slow down – just think of the benefits:

1. You will most certainly have a better sense of any corporate-level tactical shifts, and their likely impact on revenue projections and upcoming marketing campaigns
2. You will likely learn something new about your product performance and customer-buying propensities
3. You will be able to devise tactics to ensure revenue commitments stay on-course, based on 1 & 2 above
4. You will end the year with a bang – guaranteed!

So, what are we to consider now? 

• Analytics – make sure Q1 results are in and being analyzed for ROI by product, customer segment and marketing channel, not only for attribution, but also for tactical moves in Q2 and Q3. What is going to be the marketing goal based on these results? Is it better engagement with customers, or drive more sales, or brand promotion, or product updates? The answers to these will greatly impact your acquisition and retention models for 2016!
• Seasonality – you probably have a good grasp of the seasonality in your industry, sales, etc. But, make sure that there are no extraneous factors that may warrant changes to your campaign strategy. For example, consumer-spending tends go into a lull in Q2, before picking up again in Back-to-School and Holiday seasons. How is it being projected to be this year for your line of business?
• Customer Targeting – with slower months, it is also imperative that, to maintain a healthy ROIs and CPAs, more valuable leads are targeted with relevant offers. Sharpen your mailing list and tailor the products to the segments that are more likely to buy now. Predictive acquisition and retention models ought to be able with better campaign design and retention efforts!
• Communication Channel by Product – In my multi-product environment, I always look at what products are more likely to appeal to a buyer, through which channel. It could be based on demographics, geography, interest, etc., but that email, or content marketing, or newsletter that is in the works, better be "more" relevant. For example, online Travel used to take precedence over online Shopping during these months. What makes sense to sell to your target customers during the lean months?
• Budgets – understand the budget spends and make adjustments based on any new corporate imperatives. Usually, any over- or under-spending in Q1 could be corrected quickly during this phase. The ROIs and attribution by channel will shed more light on how is each channel performing for the brand.

A little postmortem of marketing performance from Q1 is probably one of the more important projects that are often inadequately addressed or staffed. If done right, it instills discipline and focus, which in turn, promotes efficiency and effectiveness of marketing operations. As I said above, we want to end the year with a bang!