Tuesday Tip: For your 2017 marketing strategy, focus on what you already know

Trying something new can be thrilling. Starting fresh, you have a clean slate. We are often even encouraged to start over and try the next greatest trend. When you look towards your 2017 marketing plans, you are probably tempted to go this route. However, as Phil Frost (and many before him) have pointed out, there's value in history. This week's Tuesday Tip: Don't start from scratch, but rather, focus on what's worked in your marketing as you approach your 2017 marketing strategy. 

I subscribe to Phil Frost's Main Street ROI email newsletter which inspired today's tip. In this week's email, he broke down a 3-step path towards better marketing in 2017. These steps serve as a much needed reminder – we should first and foremost review what's worked and improve upon it.

1. Focus on what you already have:

Frost calls this "incremental improvements." We often try to fix the problem areas; "Twitter isn't driving conversions, so let's invest more time into improving it" or "our ebook isn't getting attention, so let's promote it differently." These aren't inherently bad prospects to consider, but if your audience isn't interested in that channel or that ebook topic, these areas may not be worth your time and money. 

Instead, look at your Google Analytics and see what is working to drive traffic and conversions. Then apply most of your budget and attention to keeping those areas effective. This will be less expensive and likely show more returns.

2. Clean up quality channels

Look at the areas that are seeing some action, but could be improved upon. If your Facebook page is getting a lot of traffic, but not converting, work on fine-tuning your calls to action. If your email newsletter gets a lot of opens but not many clicks, work on finding more interesting content but keeping those subject lines / send times. 

3. Fill in the missing pieces

Now that you've 1) continued to do what IS working and 2) improved upon what could soon be better, now you can 3) try a couple things you aren't doing. If you see any gaps that seem to hold potential, based on what you know about your audience and what has worked in the past, try those out.

In the end, don't just try the next greatest trend or only invest in what's working for other marketers. Discover ways to better reach your audience by studying what's worked in your past. 

Subscribe to Phil Frost's emails for more content like this. To receive next week's tip in your inbox next Tueday morning, subscribe below: