Does Your Marketing Need a Spring Makeover?

Spring is a season when we do lots of renovation projects. Its "spring cleaning" season. So it seems like the perfect time to refresh and energize your marketing if it is in need of a makeover.

It's a sign your marketing needs a spring makeover when your business is not seeing new customers or clients. Or when the marketing you are doing just isn't getting the results you'd hoped for. This can be especially frustrating, if the marketing plan you've had in the past has been successful, but many businesses do need to update their plan and sometimes they don't realize this. Every marketing plan needs "a makeover" at some point - whether they are actually in spring, or some other season. But when you start to see a slowdown for about 3 months or so, it's a strong sign you need to be doing something differently. Take this as an opportunity to revisit your marketing plan.

Sometimes less is more. If you think your marketing is in need of a makeover, it is probably tempting to toss everything you have and do things entirely differently. But that may not quite be what you need to do. Sometimes less truly is more. You could get very successful results making a few small changes to your existing marketing. The key is paying attention to your current marketing, and noticing what success you've had so far with each element. Which brings us to…

Take stock of your success so far. If you want to make changes, look at the success you've had so far. Probably not everything you've done had been unsuccessful. And probably some things need changing or even a bit of "tweaking." Look at your marketing plan, or start to write a marketing plan from the ideas you have put in place, and track your results. This can help you decide where you should go next.

Social media is a popular choice, but it's not for everyone. It can be easy to say, "I'll just do social media." It's tempting because signing up for social media is free and Tweeting and making comments on Facebook doesn't cost you a cent, the way advertising does. But if this isn't done properly, it will cost your business dearly. A social media marketing plan needs to be tended to and cared for, like a plant. It needs daily and regular care. Will you or someone in your business give it this regular care? If not, consider another option for successful results.

Set long term and short term goals. If you want to give your marketing plan a spring makeover, you probably aren't seeing results now. This could be from either long term or short term marketing that you have done. It is critical that you make both short term and long term goals for your marketing plan for the success of your business. Some don't realize that their marketing plan needs both long term - and short term goals. Set your goals and then put into motion tasks that have measurable results that you can track regularly so you know you are accomplishing them.

Write down your marketing plan and revisit it regularly. This is probably the best preventative tool to keep you from needing a spring makeover for your marketing plan. The most savvy business owners realize that their marketing plan is actually quite flexible, they do have a plan but they must allow for changes as time goes on. Their business may change, the economy may change, their industry may change and each of these factors will affect their marketing plan. Try reviewing your marketing plan once a week to confirm you are staying on track. These few moments can save you valuable time, effort and costs in the long run.


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Lawrence Reaves writes for Galorath, a software company that provides project management software tools to companies to help prepare and manage projects. For more information on this software and the company visit http://www.galorath.com/index.php/products/it/seer-for-it


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