How often should a marketing plan be revisited?

Here are a few of revising your existing marketing plan

1. At the end of a marketing cycle

This is the most obvious answer to the question of how often should a marketing plan be revisited. Depending on your current strategy, some marketing campaigns may have a well-defined beginning and end. For instance, let’s say you have launched a paid ads campaign with a 3-month timeline in mind. Firstly, you will need to review your strategy at regular intervals during the campaign to see if it is working. But more importantly, you will have to conduct a thorough review at the end of the 3-month period to assess the effectiveness of the strategy. This brings us to our next point.

2. When developing a new service or product

Marketing cycles are often associated with the launch of a new product or service. Most businesses try various vigorous marketing tactics months before introducing a new product or service. However, before you decide to use the same old strategies, make sure to revise them and make changes wherever required. Without an innovative and efficient marketing plan, your product or service will fail to make the desired impact on launch or run the risk of getting lost in the crowd. That is why you should perform in-depth market research and revise your marketing plan accordingly. The same goes for relaunching a company website after a makeover.

3. When redesigning your company website

When answering the question of how often should a marketing plan be revisited not many people consider this point, but it is a crucial one. If you are redesigning your website and changing your company’s logo, you are essentially transforming your brand identity. Furthermore, to make the new website SEO-friendly, and to help it climb the search results fast, you need a bullet-proof marketing strategy along with a rock-solid web development plan. That is why revisiting your existing marketing plan is absolutely necessary if you are thinking about redesigning your website. It is all the more important if the website redesign is associated with company restructuring.

4. When restructuring your company

When a company goes through a major restructuring, a number of aspects of the business get affected. For example, if you are planning on expanding or adding another vertical to your existing operations, you might need to do a complete marketing overhaul. On the other hand, if you are downsizing and cutting down departments and planning to focus on a much smaller operation, you may not want to spend as much on marketing as you have in the past.

In most cases, company restructuring affects the marketing budget, the marketing team, and the goals for certain marketing campaigns. When handled poorly, these substantial changes to the core of the company can lead to massive losses in the long term. That is why revisiting and revising the old strategies are necessary. You would have to factor in the new budget, the new team, and focus your tactics to achieve the redefined goals.

5. When it is long overdue

Well, if you are asking the question “how often should a marketing plan be revisited” purely because you have not done it in a long time, it is definitely the time to do it! Times are changing fast, and the world of marketing (including SEO services, online marketing, and offline marketing) is evolving every day. If you are using the same old strategy and tactics for years now, you are probably not getting the desired results. To make the best use of your marketing budget, you should revisit your plan today!

Things to keep in mind when revisiting or revising your marketing strategy

As you may have understood by now, marketing strategies are dynamic, and they need to be evaluated and updated often based on your goals. While you should have a clear idea about when or how frequently you should revisit your marketing plan, you can take a few added measures to do it efficiently. Here are a few things you should do when revising your marketing strategies:

Ask your customers

Conducting surveys is a great way to know your customers and what they think about you. Through basic questionnaires or interesting quizzes, you can ask new customers about how they found your business. Doing this gives you a great opportunity to determine whether they came to know about you through your current marketing efforts or some other way. If the majority of them say they found you some other way, which has nothing to do with your current promotional activities, you need to rethink your strategies.

Study market trends

If you have not revised your marketing plan in a long time, chances are they are pretty outdated. Unless you have the backing of a competent digital marketing company, it is impossible to know the current trends. To know what strategies are working today and what the renowned companies are doing to promote their business, you need to do some studying. Carry out in-depth research online and you should be able to find the answers you are looking for.

A more refined approach would be to consult digital transformation services that are known for helping companies navigate this particular area. If your marketing strategies need a makeover, hiring pros to guide you is always the smart choice.