Put Your Best Marketing Foot Forward This January

One minute it was 2019 and now suddenly we’re starting 2022.  The past two years have been tough to navigate across the board, but your PR and marketing strategy doesn’t have to be.  Pandemic or no pandemic, there’s lots we can do to plan ahead.  

It’s all well and good thinking that you want to be featured in a certain publication – or generate a certain number of views or click-throughs on social, but it’s important to think about why you want to reach these goals.  Does your target audience read that publication?  Do your products sell well via social?  Once you’ve planned WHERE your target audience is, you can begin to set up your goals.  

WHAT do you need to achieve your goals?  New photography for press and content?  Get that done now and plan for the year ahead – remember we pitch Christmas in July so it’s always good to have some Christmas shots early on.  

We plan activity for clients for every month in the year – this might be press releases, tying into key dates, product launches, or social media campaigns.  These goals can always move or be adapted – especially depending on the news agenda, we wouldn’t want to advertise dining out during lockdown for example! 
Be sure to measure how well things are going. If you are using social media, keep an eye on analytics to see which posts have done well, who engaged and what didn’t work. Always ask people how they heard about you, especially if you are running ads – anecdotal evidence like this is a great confidence boost and feedback is always helpful. 

If you don’t have a cuttings service set up where your brand mentions in the press are sent to you, there are other ways to see if you’ve been featured.  We have Google alerts set up that help us keep track of online mentions and sites such as PressReader.com also host copies of lots of print publications where you can search for key words or phrases.  We also use Google Alerts to keep track of competitor mentions or trends – keep track of which journalists are writing about your competitors and add them to your target list.  

Spending time planning your year now will pay dividends in the long run – remember to diarise your actions and stick to them.  

Here’s to a successful 2022!