No company stays the same during its lifetime; the need to adapt to changing market trends, customer demands, and tech innovations is crucial for business survival. Making the decision to implement a significant change to your business can be a difficult decision. Knowing how to realign your marketing program for better results can be a challenge.

Is Your Marketing on Track?

Marketing has become more dynamic and plugged-in these days, so developing and following the right strategy is essential to setting the direction of your company. Instead of maximizing just one or two channels, you must leverage a host of various sources, many of which are online or have a digital component, to reach your target market. And as the landscape continues to shift, so do the tactics you need to use to connect with consumers.

If your marketing techniques are not shifting and adjusting with the times, there is a good chance they aren’t producing the results you need. This, in turn, could cause your company to lose its competitive edge and potentially new and recurring customers.

Here are some indicators that signal it’s time to change the trajectory of your marketing strategy.

1. Your Strategy is Older Than 2 Years

The marketing plan you had 24 months ago probably doesn’t account for changes in your clients’ business. Supply chain, work environments, market focus… all look far different that 2 years ago, regardless of the industry you’re in. Review and edit your strategy every 6-12 months to determine if it still aligns with the company core values and is creating opportunities for you to capitalize on emerging trends. Tactics that evolve frequently include content marketing, SEO practices, and email marketing.

2. Overly Promotional Social Media Content

Thanks to our hugely populated online world, social media (especially LinkedIn!) is now crucial for business, allowing you to connect intimately with your audience. When companies treat social media as another advertising space to blast their marketing messages, customers tune out. Social media advertising is effective, but that shouldn’t be your company’s sole purpose in this space. Focus on creating helpful, creative content for your audience, rather than flashy promotions. Creating a social media calendar can help balance your social posts and build relations with your audience that then leads to sales.

3. Mass Emailing

Sending the same email campaign to everyone on your email list is a tell-tale sign that your marketing strategy is outdated. As mentioned previously, customers enjoy a personalized experience and the same goes for email marketing. For your company to stand out from the countless emails companies receive daily, you want to make sure your emails resonate on a personal level with them. When done correctly, email marketing’s ROI can be higher than social media, increasing your company’s profitability. Segmentation, opt-in parameters, validation and periodic list review will ensure you are communicating to a healthy set of interested subscribers.

4. Non-Distributed Old Blogs

Having a blog on your company’s site is a great addition to your marketing strategy. Blogging allows you the opportunity to educate your customers with valuable content, while building credibility and engagement for your business. When your company doesn’t bother to distribute your blogs via email or social posts, or lacks recent content, it’s time to rethink its purpose. Updating blog content at least once a month engages viewers and assures them that your company is still highly relevant, while contributing to SEO and site visits. With more frequent postings, you can prioritize distribution (think about the email segmentation we noted above…). Great content is wasted if no one knows it exists. By sharing your blog content on socials and newsletters, as well as optimizing your posts for search engines, your company is bound to get more views and interactions from customers.

Stay Aligned to Relevant Market Trends

Not every marketing strategy is going to work for your business, but it’s important to continue to evolve your tactics to find what does and see if new ones move the needle. Ignoring the growing trends in marketing will leave your company irrelevant. Prevent this by ensuring the direction of your marketing accounts for the inevitable shifts and execute those strategies deemed effective for your business.