As 2021 comes to a close, now is the time to start thinking about the year ahead—what does your company want to accomplish? How do you intend to get there? What role will marketing play?
We get it; diving straight into your end-of-year plans and trying to forget any of the stress 2021 brought upon may seem appealing, but taking the time to create a well-thought-out marketing plan is an essential step towards setting yourself up for success in 2022.
While every company and team has unique goals, challenges, and variables at play, here are a few things to consider that’ll help you make informed decisions about your 2022 marketing plan.
Look backward before looking forward
While you may be ready to dive right into planning for 2022, a critical aspect of planning for the upcoming year is to analyze the past year.
Look at your 2021 data and ask:
- What content performed the best/worst?
- What marketing channels brought in the most leads?
- Did we meet our 2021 goals?
- What tactics were the most/least cost-effective?
- What was our most significant marketing win/loss?
Answering these questions will heavily influence your plans for 2022—you’ll know what you want to continue, avoid, or perhaps try for the first time.
Consider new trends and tools
One of the exciting things about marketing is that it’s constantly evolving, and your marketing efforts should, too! Don’t feel like you have to stick to the same things you’ve done in the past. You may have read about up-and-coming trends for 2022 or heard about a new and exciting marketing tool; now’s the time to bring your ideas to the table.
Define your audience
Your marketing should revolve around your audience and what resonates with them. If you haven’t already, create buyer personas to clearly understand your audience’s wants, needs, and aversions. If you already have defined personas, you may want to take another look at them. Are they still relevant? Do you need to add any new personas to the mix? These are essential questions for you and your team to determine.
Talk about money
Create a clear outline of all money your business intends to spend on marketing in 2022. Knowing your overall budget, your budget per channel, and what expenses you’re expecting to incur will have a huge impact on the rest of your plan.
Set your goals
You can’t create a solid, aligned plan without knowing where you want to go and deciding how to get there. While there are many methods for setting goals, we frequently use OKRs (objectives and key results) with our clients.
OKRs work like this: your team defines an aspirational, big picture idea goal. This goal will provide a clear vision of where you and your team want to end up. Then, you create 3-5 actionable key results that will show your team you got there. Key results are more rigid as they’re quantitative and time-bound.
You don’t have to use this framework for goal setting—find a system that works best for your team and one you feel confident in using long-term.
Need help with your 2022 marketing plan?
There are a lot of aspects to consider when creating a marketing plan, and if you’ve never done it before, it can be downright overwhelming.
Partnering with an experienced B2B healthcare marketing agency to help you craft a unique marketing plan tailored to your company and goals can take the weight off your shoulders.