A Spring Clean Up Checklist for Your Marketing

Spring is a time of new beginnings. a time for cutting down last year’s old dead husks to make room for new growth. That same logic can and should be applied to your marketing. Take some time to take stock of your on-going marketing efforts. What should you cut away? What should you be nurturing? Where are areas where you should plant new seeds? Here is are a few simple marketing clean up ideas you should check off your spring cleaning list.

Cut Down Dead or Dying Efforts

Take a good, hard look at all aspects of your marketing efforts. Are there strategies, programs or channels that are delivering little to no ROI? Create a list of these under-performers and review them one by one. Is this something that used to work but doesn’t any more? Is it something you can cut and spend your time/money better elsewhere? Or is it something that could thrive again, if you approached it differently?

For example, I’ve always been a strong believer in Twitter. But Twitter today is nothing like the Twitter that gave me so much in return 10 – 15 years ago. I don’t see the interaction we got back then nor does it drive as much traffic to our blog or our site as it used to. Sure, there is value in paid advertising on Twitter, but are we seeing any ROI on my stubbornness in posting multiple times a day, to share good content I’ve either curated or created? Or could my time and effort be better our Instagram account or something else?

Those are the kind of decisions and discussions you need to have to trim away old, dead efforts that may be blocking new growth for you company, product or service.

Weed and Feed Neglected Programs

When you go through your dead or dying list, you may find some things that have potential but need more tender loving care to thrive. What programs, tactics, channels or strategies aren’t doing as well as they should, but aren’t getting the attention, effort or budget that they need to thrive? Is the potential there that would make it worth feeding it enough to grow healthy?

For instance, this very blog. I know the importance and potential content marketing and blogging have to create a strong ROI, especially for B2B businesses like our own. But, over the last year, I’ve been running a number of blogs for our clients and this one has been neglected. I look and it has the least number of new posts this last year than in any year since we started it back in 2006. This is one I definitely need to start feeding and nurturing – starting with this post here.

What areas of your marketing have great potential but haven’t gotten the attention they deserve this last year? Go through your entire marketing plan and find those gems that need to be moved up the ladder of importance and have more resources put against them.

Trim Back Overgrown Areas

As you review all your marketing efforts, look for what has grown too wild and is taking up more resources than it needs. It’s easy to keep funneling more money and efforts into a marketing channel or strategy that has worked in the past. But are there some that are blocking the sun from other efforts that could grow into more profitable areas of your overall plan? Where can you trim back and reallocate resources into stronger growth potential.

A good example of this can be found in some of our retail clients. Many of them have used newspaper circulars for decades and they take up a good portion of their marketing budget. But, newspaper circulations are way down, especially if you need to reach younger consumers. Meanwhile digital and mobile marketing are blossoming into strong channels for marketing. In this case, trimming back on circulars and investing in the new digital channels could create new stronger ROI growth for these clients.

Look for Areas of New Growth

Finally, identify new areas of growth. What new strategies, tactics or channels have emerged in the last year? Which ones look like viable marketing success stories for your brand? Are there new technologies that have applications for your marketing efforts. Talk to your team and gather ideas. Make a list of the possibilities and decide which ones look promising in terms of moving your brand forward or creating greater ROI.

Maybe you’ll find that harnessing AI combined with Chatbots lets you add greater customer service online and gain new insights for your marketing efforts. Or maybe Augmented Reality has become an affordable option to create a way for customers to see what your product looks like in their home. Or someone on the marketing team has a great idea for an online video that could help change customer perception and knowledge of your product or service. Whatever it is, there is bound to be at least one idea you haven’t tried that is worth nurturing to fruition.

Reviewing the totality of your marketing efforts at least once a year will help keep your marketing from growing stagnant. Spring is the perfect time to do a marketing clean up, if you haven’t in a while. Yes, you should record your results and make adjustments on an ongoing basis. But a yearly deep dive into what you’re doing can give you insights you might not find otherwise. Follow these four steps and you’re on your way to giving your marketing a good spring cleaning.

Mike McClure, planting seeds & looking for growth