Building a strategic plan for the coming year isn’t something to put off but to embrace. With a wide range of opportunities available to make this year more meaningful, it is critical that companies take a hard look at their goals now, prior to the new year getting underway.
Review Where You Have Been
To plan for next year, consider what you achieved this year. Look at revenue and customer success rates. Consider your branding changes. Determine what worked and what did not. Lay out the tactics and strategies you selected to use, and then discuss why they did or did not achieve your goals.
Establish Broad Goals
The next step is to create broad goals or tasks you want to achieve in the coming year. Some ideas to consider include the following:
- Expanding locations
- Building your business’s brand by increasing social mentions
- Launch a new product
- Increase customer retention
- Improve customer service experience
Write down a set of goals that are ideal for your company. This could include considering what all of your stakeholders believe should be the direction of your business.
Determine Assets Moving into the Year
As you begin to structure new goals, it becomes essential to understand what assets you are bringing to the process. Evaluate where you stand right now, including in areas such as:
- Customer data: What are you doing to collect and use customer data?
- Marketing channels: Define the marketing channels you are using now and how well they are doing.
- Better understand your competition as well as your competitive edge. What are you bringing into the new year that helps your business to stand out?
- Marketing assets: Do you have materials to use to market your business, such as a website, blog, social media pages, signage outside, and brochures to hand out?
- Your team: Know where your team stands. Do they need training? What skills and value do they bring to your business?
After conducting an audit like this, you can begin to see where you may need to make adjustments to assets to better achieve your goals. You may also learn of opportunities that can help your business to stand out.
Create Defined KPIs
Define what your business’s key performance indicators (KPIs) are for those goals. How will you measure improvement in your brand? How do you know your marketing is working? Outline your specific strategies in this area.
Create a Budget and Put a Plan in Place
There’s still much to do. How can you create a budget to get your business’s plan in place? You may want to use some help to get you to that point. Your budget has to match industry standards and what the process will cost. You also want to develop a plan that includes a range of marketing styles to reach a larger number of people.
Have a Professional Help You
To achieve your best outcome, rely on the experts in the industry who make strategic planning their goal. Reach out and learn more about the opportunities available to you.