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Planning ahead saves your business both time and money and gives the insight needed to create effective marketing & branding campaigns. Try our Top 3 Tips to get your small business started with planning your marketing strategy for 2023.

Marketing Plans: Is Your Small Business Ready for the Future?

If you don't plan ahead and get your business ready for the future you'll be constantly behind the game (and your savvy competitors). Not only that, but it can be an expensive way to do business. Creating marketing and promotional materials at the last minute usually leads to higher design, print and delivery costs.

Thinking and planning ahead is the way forward as it allows you to make better business decisions, understand your market and give yourself enough time to order promotional products, like reusable bags, pens, or mugs.

A great way to plan for the future is to assess the success of past marketing strategies. Value the marketing data you already have and use it to make plans for 2023.

Review Historic Data to Plan for the Future

It's key to review information from previous years so that you're aware of which marketing strategies worked well and which didn't. If your business was present at trade shows and consumer events throughout 2022, which ones generated the most leads, sales or interest in your brand and product?

It's important to identify the most successful events in order to make informed decisions about which shows you should attend in 2023. Stop attending shows that aren't giving your business any value and focus on the events that do hold opportunities.

Once you identify the right events, take a look at the marketing data from previous years so that you don't miss opportunities from lack of planning. For example, if a show takes place over 3 days and has 10,000 attendees, your business doesn't want to run out of promotional giveaways after the first morning. Turning up with 1000 leaflets won't be enough, so planning ahead ensures your business is prepared.

Knowledge is power. If you don't know which marketing strategies worked for your business, how can you improve on results? Conversely, you'll also spend time and money on strategies that are ineffective for your business.

Planning Early Saves Money

If you haven't planned a marketing strategy for 2023 yet, it's time to get going. There are always benefits to planning, particularly if you need to create marketing & promotional materials. Leave it too late and there either won't be time to create exactly what you wanted or it will cost more if have to choose express service to get delivery on time.

For example, custom-printed event bags take around 10-14 weeks to be produced and delivered via economy delivery by sea. Those same bags can also be delivered in just 3-4 weeks by air, but the delivery costs will be significantly higher.

Three Ways to Get Ahead with Your Marketing Strategy for Small Business


1. Talk and Collaborate

Take this opportunity to grab all relevant stakeholders and get their feedback on the year past and what they envisage for the year ahead. Marketing plans shouldn't be created in a bubble - get out there and talk to sales, product development and customer services. Everyone who can give you feedback on your customers and products is key to the process.


Keep communicating at all stages. Go back to stakeholders once your plan is complete and get their thoughts. Keep going back to them throughout the year to review how your marketing strategies are working. Good communication will also improve their trust in you and make them more inclined to support your marketing efforts - making the best recipe for success!

2. Use Historic Marketing Data

This has been touched on in the opening paragraphs of this blog. Think about what you learned in the past and apply it to the future. There's no point in making the same mistakes!

There is a mine of marketing data available such as Adwords results, Google analytics, customer feedback and whatever else you have to hand to make informed conclusions on the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

Look at data from trade shows. How many people came to your stand in previous years? Make sure you have enough promotional materials for the show and make it easy for customers to connect with your business after. Ensure promotional giveaways clearly show your business website address and details of any special offers to entice them back for more information.

If you run a retail store that hosts seasonal events showcasing stock for the new season look at how well they are working. Are these events popular with your customers and did they lead to extra sales in the long/short term? Or perhaps events generated valuable PR and helped to improve brand reach. Identify what your business gained/lost from each activity and the results on sales, leads and brand exposure and work successful strategies into your 2020 marketing plan.

3. Get Processes in Place and Review Them Regularly

Where could your marketing efforts improve? What gaps do you need to fill? Audit your current assets and work out what else you need. This will help you work more smoothly with other departments such as sales and customer services.

If you haven't started planning yet, use the time before the Christmas holidays to start making plans and identifying the urgent and important tasks going forward. There may be some things you need to attend to immediately, or as soon as the office reopens for business in 2023.

Where could you improve? What gaps do you need to fill? Audit your current assets and work out what else you need to market your business successfully. Ask for quarterly reports and feedback and see what other departments need in order to sell successfully. As in Point 1, keep talking as this will help all departments such as sales and customer services to work together towards the same goals.


And there we have it - three ways you can get your small business ready for the future.

What steps has your small business taken to plan ahead and what have been the main benefits of doing so? If you need help with planning your marketing strategies for 2023, keep reading for helpful links that can help you with more ideas and practical advice.

We'd love to hear your thoughts so please reply via our social media channels. If you found this post useful, please do share it.




Need Printed Promotional Bags for your Small Business?

Ordering promotional bags early saves both money and stress.

Marketing Plans: Is Your Small Business Ready for the Future?

If your business needs a bespoke promotional bag for marketing campaigns, place your order 10-14 weeks before the bags are required. There will still be delivery options available if you order later but they will cost roughly a third more.

Save the added stress of creating a brief and approving designs in a hurry if you're close to missing order deadlines and running the risk of not receiving marketing materials in time.

There are many practical reasons why you should think ahead and get planning. If you don't your competitors will, so don't leave things to chance. Is your small business ready for the future yet?

Need Promotional Bags for Marketing Campaigns?

Order early for cheapest prices - allow 10-14 weeks for delivery, depending on bag material selected.

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