It’s no secret that we’re big fans of creating a communications plan and sticking with that plan to build consistency. But sometimes stuff happens in business, and you need to reassess and adjust your marketing goals (or even your business goals).
Let’s look at a few steps to take when you find yourself needing to adjust your marketing goals and tactics.
Take a step back and assess the situation
Maybe you lost a big client and it’s impacting your revenue and therefore your marketing budget. Or perhaps there’s a natural disaster that cancels a big conference where you usually market your business heavily. Maybe it’s a personal crisis that means you need to focus on life and family more than your business for a bit.
Take some time and make sure you’re not reacting too quickly. Evaluate whether it’s an internal or external force prompting you to re-evaluate and potentially adjust your efforts. What’s going on exactly? Is it completely out of your control or something you could discuss with your team (or a mentor) and potentially work through?
Review any data available to you
If you’re thinking about stopping some of your marketing efforts entirely, review your data to make an informed decision. What do you know about the time/expense of that specific marketing tactic and the return you get on that investment? The ROI isn’t always completely tangible, so factor in the quantifiable data and any qualitative feedback you have as well. How do new customers find out about your business? What sort of engagement do you get through various marketing activities?
If you’re not tracking any marketing data or customer acquisition data, be sure to start gathering some data moving forward so you can make informed decisions.
Give it some time
If you do move forward with adjusting your marketing goals or tactics, make sure to give your adjustments time to play out. All too often, small businesses bounce between different marketing efforts and don’t allow enough time for those efforts to show results. You don’t want to get stuck in the loop of switching back and forth between strategies and creating confusion for yourself and your audience. When unexpected things happen in business, adjustments are necessary. Just be sure you think through those adjustments and approach them strategically.