Many of the best and brightest 2020 marketing plans were derailed by COVID-19, and companies were forced to pivot quickly. For some, that might have meant a bit more investment in digital marketing; for others, it was a complete shift to their business models.
If the complete obliteration of your 2020 plan has you feeling a little unsteady about 2021, you’re not alone. Many organizations are wondering how they can possibly plan when there’s so much uncertainty about future safer-at-home orders or just how soon everyone will have access to vaccines.
Even so, as with any stage of this pandemic, there are some valuable things happening. You’ve learned plenty of good marketing lessons, and you can use those to build a strategy:
Dig into Digital
Companies used 2020 to invest more broadly in social media, email marketing, and other digital formats in an effort to maintain close connections with customers. You can count on digital remaining central to reaching your audience in 2021.
Embrace Contactless Commerce
If you implemented some contactless strategies for 2020, these are good elements to prioritize for 2021. Consumers appreciate the convenience of contactless ordering, pick-up, and other interactions.
Be Flexible
2020 taught you that you can get creative in a pinch, so think about how to leave room in your strategy for unexpected challenges and opportunities. This might mean a little room in your budget, or it might mean additional strategy sessions where you consider your approach given the current mood and moment.
How Do You Know When to Change Gears?
The key to a successful strategy, pandemic or not, is choosing the right metrics to measure success. Metrics help you assess when you’re achieving your goals, and when it’s time to change course:
Conversion Rates
You will need to break down conversion rates based on channels so that you can assess whether Facebook investment is outpacing your email marketing, or if you should be spending more on video and less on text-based content.
Cost Per Lead, or Cost Per Opportunity
You may be providing a high number of leads to your sales team, but if the associated cost is taking up too much of your budget, it may be time to reexamine your strategy.
Brand Awareness Metrics
Beyond followers and likes, you may want to measure shares of your posts or how much traffic you see from various channels to your website.
With specific marketing techniques, you can employ A/B testing to see if certain email subject lines perform better than others, or if a certain landing page design is better at resulting in a conversion.
Where Do You Go From Here?
Even as the world watches the vaccine roll out and hears promises of brighter days coming, there’s still a lot of uncertainty for businesses. When it comes to planning your marketing strategy for 2021, the guiding principle may be optimistic flexibility. You’re planning for the best, but you’re ready to shift gears if necessary. You’re pretty good at that by now.
Ready to talk about your marketing strategy for 2021?
We have some powerful tools to help you become a more efficient marketer. We work directly with agencies and printers, and can be the marketing solution for some qualified businesses. Get in touch with us today to see if we have the marketing solution to help you achieve your goals in 2021.
