If you’re lucky enough to see leftover marketing money in your budget at the end of the year, don’t let it go to waste. End 2019 on a high note by investing in a marketing move that will put your firm in a strong position to hit your 2020 goals.
We have some ideas to help you get the most out of your marketing money this Holiday season.
1. Timely content is always in style
It’s the end of the year, and you’re drained of energy. But you have some fuel left in you to finish off strong. With this energy, consider writing Holiday related content, such as tips for your clients to stay safe on the roads, or create end-of-year roundups of the best blogs and infographics that you think your clients would find helpful. Cater your content to what you think will help your audience feel hopeful and prepared to tackle the new year.
Keep in mind that you will want to plan ahead to publish your content to give yourself the time to promote it and ensure it will reach your readers. Check your analytics to track how your best content of 2019 has performed, and implement what you’ve learned about your strengths. Blast these timely pieces to social media channels and inboxes, and watch that content help you boost your SEO.
2. Get experimental
Playing it safe when you have little to lose is rarely the way to go. When it comes to the remaining marketing dollars in your budget, you have some wiggle room to try out some ideas that never came to fruition during the year. Experimenting with new modes of storytelling and content creation will help you see what works and what you can improve on. Now’s the time to play out that idea you were thinking about earlier in the year but never got around to.
Explainer videos, tutorials, infographics, and webinars are ideal for generating user engagement. This is because videos are instantly shareable, invoke emotion, and provide easy to digest material that users really remember. Some other formats you might like are year-in-review style content, interactive media, or an infographic series. These projects will likely stand out from your standard content, and will create a strong impression on your audience.
3. Revamp and repurpose older content
It’s the end of the year, so recycling and revamping old material seems like an easier way to build new content rather than starting a new project from scratch. Doing this doesn’t mean you’re cutting corners, it means you’re being strategic. Collect some of your best content, and rework it into a long-form page, video tutorial, ebook, or other compelling mode of storytelling. Give that content the visibility it deserves by using your remaining marketing budget to give it a boost through social media or email campaigns.
4. Have a 2020 vision
How many new clients do you want next year? Do you want to grow your revenue by 10, 15, or 20 percent? Do you want to focus on nurturing your lead generation or social media strategy? These are the kinds of specific questions you should be asking yourself as a way to start implementing actionable goals for 2020. Keeping your 2019 insights in mind, use this final stretch to consider how you might make changes to your current strategy to achieve your new goals.
When it comes to your online marketing, you have tools to help measure the performance of your individual marketing efforts. Google Analytics can help you determine the popularity of your content and gain an overall view of your mobile and desktop site performance. Take a look at the sections of your site that aren’t performing as well as you’d like, and focus on boosting their performance next year. These goals will help you create a marketing budget for next year, too.
Don’t watch your end of year marketing dollars go to waste. Use these last weeks of the year to analyze what’s worked best for your firm, try something new, and plan for a strong start to 2020. With our team of expert analysts and content developers, Custom Legal Marketing can do it all for you, so that you can get back to enjoying your holiday season (and year) doing what you do best.
Cristina Fríes is a MA in English/Creative Writing from UC Davis (2019), and is a legal marketing strategist and content developer for CLM. Her interests include creating compelling marketing content, writing books, and traveling the world.