We talk about small business marketing strategy a lot around here—for good reason! It’s the thing that guides you when you’re making big and little decisions about what you’re going to do to connect with customers. It’s the thing you can reference to remind yourself why you’re doing the work. And (honestly), it’s just one of the most critical aspects of your business' success! (Read: Marketing your small business by accident is no way to go about it.) But even though our first goal is to inspire you to simply create a marketing strategy, it's not enough to bust one out and stick to it indefinitely. (Sorry, not sorry.) So, our second goal is to help you realize you’ve gotta do this exercise every year—we promise it’s what’s best for your business. And today, we’re going to break down the three reasons you (small business owners) need to create a new marketing strategy every. single. year. Let’s go.

Reason #1 Your marketing strategy is an experiment

You might not think of it this way, but marketing is a giant experiment—for everyone. And we know there are people on the internet serving you ads to “steal my strategy” and selling you something that is going to get you that 6-figure business fast, but the brutal truth is that fool-proof plan doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist because your business is a different business, your customers are different customers, your resources, brand, you...it's all different.

Okay, stepping down from the soapbox.

But this is exactly the reason why your marketing strategy is an ongoing experiment. Because you are making educated guesses about what combination of things you might need to do, and you have to review your results in order to make the changes you need to put together a more effective experiment in the future.

Pro-tip: You might think creating a marketing strategy is a big project— one you couldn’t possibly do every year. And it used to be! But Enji makes it easy to create one. All you need to do is play a game of 20 questions with us and you’ll get a strategy that’s customized to your small business in minutes!

Reason #2 If your goals have changed, your marketing strategy needs to change

Goals are the driving force behind any small business—and any small business marketing strategy. Because your strategy is essentially your plan to reach those goals: what you need to do, where, and for whom. So, when your goals shift from year to year as you decide you want to increase sales, launch a new product, or start email marketing, your strategy should shift since it is directly tied to your evolving goals.

Still not super clear? Think of your goals as a destination you are trying to navigate to and your strategy as the directions to get there. If you change the destination, the directions change—it’s as simple as that and making the adjustments maximizes your chances of success since you’re keeping yourself on track towards achieving your business goals.

Pro-tip: When you create a marketing strategy with Enji, it outlines your goals and objectives as well as the marketing tasks you need complete in order to make progress towards them!

Reason #3 Your marketing strategy needs to react to the world around you

You customers, your community, your market, technology, trends, and the world around us all are constantly evolving, and it's crucial to adapt your marketing strategy to these changes if you want to stay relevant. So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve (or at least not fall too far behind) and meet the changing needs of your ideal customers and clients, it’s a really good idea to review and adjust your marketing strategy every year. Doing this as an annual exercise allows you to take advantage of new opportunities, explore emerging platforms, and try out the new-kid-on-the-block marketing techniques that might help you reach your customers more effectively. 

The bottom line—you gotta do it because it allows you to treat your marketing efforts as an ongoing experiment, learn from your past experiences, and make necessary (and smart!) adjustments. By aligning your marketing strategy with your changing goals, you can keep yourself and your efforts focused (because we know you don’t have any time or resources to waste). Most importantly, by adapting to the ever-changing world around you, you can keep your small business relevant and continue to thrive in a competitive marketplace. So, this is your official sign to either create a marketing strategy for the first time (you’ve got this!) or refine your existing one for next year!