Want to create a 2020 marketing plan for your business? If so, you are in the right place if you are a freelancer, solopreneur or small business owner then you are in the right place. Keep on reading to see my 6-step process, which will help you to create your 2020 marketing plan.

STEP 1: REVIEW YOUR 2019

It is essential before you start planning for 2020 that you have a real picture of your 2019. When I work with clients, no matter what time of year it is, I always ensure they look back and understand the real picture. Too often people aren’t great at reviewing their analytics or even keeping track of key metrics such as sales. As a result, people will often be working from memory or their gut feelings about things. Wherever possible you need to gather information to get a real picture of what happened in 2019.

Here are just a few things you can consider to get you started with reviewing 2019.

Sales

How much revenue did you generate in 2019?
Break your revenue you down further either by month or by different services/products you sell

Customer Acquisition

How many enquiries did you have?
What is your enquiry to sale ratio?
How did people find out about your business before enquiring?

Website

How many visitors did you have to your website?
Has website visitors been constant across the year or do you have spikes at certain times of the year?
What are your most visited web pages?
How are people getting to your site? Social media? Paid advertising? Natural search? Referral?

Email

How has the number of subscribers on your list changed throughout the year?
If you have multiple ways to join your mailing list which lead magnets have been the most successful?
What has happened to your open rate throughout the year?
What has happened to your click-through rate throughout the year?
Which emails had the best click-through rate? Can you see any patterns in terms of the call-to-action?
Which emails had the best open rate? Can you see any patterns in relation to the subject line or the time/date of delivery?

STEP 2: SET YOUR BUSINESS GOALS

Before you can start to set your marketing objectives, and a plan to achieve those objectives, you have to get clear on what you want to achieve in your business.

So “What do you want to achieve in your business in 2020?”

If that is too big of a question you can think about the following:

How much money do you want to generate in your business in 2020?
How much do you want to be able to pay yourself in 2020?
Do you want to add any new products, services or events into your business?
Do you want to grow your team?
How many clients would you like to work with?
How much time would you like to work and how much time off would you like?

STEP 3: SET YOUR MARKETING GOALS

Once you are clear on your business goals you can then set marketing goals that will support the direction you want your business to move in.

Some examples:

Grow your email list
Improve conversion rate
Increase the ROI on paid advertising
Improve open rate and click-through rate on emails
Increase website traffic

From the examples above, you can see how all of the goals are directly related to marketing activities.

To make these even better marketing goals you should make every goal SMART.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Actionable

R – Realistic

T – Timed

STEP 4: ESTABLISH YOUR MARKETING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)

To keep you on track across the whole of 2020 it is a good idea to set key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can be monitoring ongoingly.

For example, if your goal had been to increase website traffic by 10%. Then you should work out what you will use as the benchmark (you could use the average monthly traffic across 2019 or you might want to use December 2019 stats) and then be monitoring month on month the traffic and noting the % decrease or increase against the benchmark.

By regularly monitoring your KPIs it means you can identify if you are move in the right direction and make changes accordingly.

STEP 5: DECIDE WHAT MARKETING CHANNELS WILL YOU USE?

A new year is a great time to take a look at the marketing channels you are using and consider whether you want to use them going forward.

Write down all of the marketing channels you are using:

High-Value Content: Blog, Podcast, YouTube
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest
Email
Paid Digital Advertising: Google Adwords, YouTube Advertising, Programmatic Advertising, Social Media Advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
In-Person: Attending events, speaking on panels
Guest Appearance: Guest blogging, guest on podcasts, speaking in online summits & in Facebook Groups.

Then judge the effectiveness of each channel based on time and money required and the final results. It may be that you decide you continue to use the exact same mix as before, maybe you add in something new or maybe you take something out.

STEP 5: TAKE A LOOK AT THE WHOLE YEAR ON A CALENDAR

It is now time to pull out the calendar and start plotting.

This plan is specifically for solopreneurs, freelancers and small business owners, so the first thing you need to do is mark out your personal commitments. Your business revolves around you so if you are going away on holiday for a week, a bridesmaid in September or having an operation that needs to be noted now.

Next you want to mark out any key events that are happening in your business. Do you have a peak period in your business? Do you run events that happen at a specific time? Do you use live launches? Mark all of these things down.

Then you want to add in key dates based on your industry, country etc. This will be a mixture of national holidays, awareness days etc. Plot all of these down so that you are fully aware of them when it comes to any marketing activity you plan in the future.

STEP 6: CREATE A DETAILED MARKETING PLAN

This step looks different to everyone. Some people are great planners with a lot of stability in their business so feel they can plan for the whole year ahead. Whilst other entrepreneurs see their business as much more fluid and therefore only like to plan in detail for a month or a quarter in advance.

I am a big fan of planning in quarters or 12 weeks. You can find out how to follow a 12-week planning system in your business.

I also suggest from a content perspective that you have a weekly or monthly ongoing marketing plan that you can follow over and over again without much thought to the structure and just focus on the content.

That’s it! Now you know the 6 steps to follow to create your very own marketing plan for 2020.

If doing that all by yourself sounds like too much, don’t worry, that is exactly why I create the Intensive Strategy Day. In just one day I will help you to create your marketing plan for the next quarter, 6-months or year. Find out more about the Intensive Strategy Day.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it helps you to create your own marketing plan for 2020. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below.