The Ultimate Marketing Checklist for 2024
As the new year rolls in, it is the perfect time to take a deep dive into all aspects of marketing for your business. As you go through this complete marketing checklist for 2024, make notes of things you need to implement in the new year. Ultimately review how your current marketing strategies are performing for your business, improve strategies for the next year and plan for new goals.
Marketing Goals
Identify your primary marketing goals for the new year. They may be a continuation of your current goals, and you may have additional goals based on changes within your business.
☐ Create a list of your primary marketing goals.
☐ Outline your target audience in terms of geography, demographics or interests. Have there been any changes in this area or is it the same audience?
☐ List new products or services that you want to market in the new year.
☐ List areas of your business that need more attention in the upcoming year.
Branding
☐ Review your company branding. Does your current brand convey the right look and feel for your business, and appeal to your target audience?
☐ Review your current brand’s key messages. Are they consistent across all platforms, and do the key messages resonate with your target audience and current clients?
☐ Confirm your brand voice aligns with your brand.
☐ Confirm your branding is consistent in all areas from your website, online activities to print brochures.
Website
☐ Review your website and make sure everything is up to date.
☐ Make sure you have strong calls to action on your website such as clickable phone numbers, contact forms, or ways to lead people to areas on the site where your primary conversions can occur.
☐ Confirm your site is mobile friendly and looks good on various devices from mobile to big screens.
☐ Confirm that your website uses headlines, subheadings, bullet or numbers lists to make your content easy to digest vs. a wall of text.
☐ List the types of content that your website features, ex. how to, resources, FAQs, quizzes, surveys, trends, reviews, etc.
☐ Confirm that the type of content featured on your website is resonating with your target audience. Is your content readable, understandable and shareable?
☐ Post a new blog or repurpose older blogs on a regular basis so that your blog section is up to date.
☐ Confirm you have an updated privacy policy on your website. GDPR guidelines may change frequently, and you want to be sure your privacy policy is up to date and you are following the rules.
☐ Have a plan to implement a cookie policy in the upcoming year if you don’t currently have this on your website.
Google Analytics
Review digital marketing reports to evaluate successes and opportunities for improvement
☐ Are you growing the number of unique visitors to your website?
☐ Are you reaching your target audience in terms of geography, demographics and engagement on the site?
☐ Confirm your analytics are set up to track conversions on your website.
☐ Are your conversions meeting expectations? i.e. phone clicks, form fills, signups, purchases, etc.
☐ Identify the site content that is providing the highest number of conversions for your business, i.e. blogs, articles, case studies, videos, products, webinars, events, etc.
☐ Identify the channels that are driving the most traffic to your website. These could include email marketing, social media, GoogleAds, organic search, etc. Which are the most successful? Where are opportunities for improvement?
☐ Do you have Google Analytics (GA4) setup on your website with events and conversions?
Marketing Platforms / Digital Tools
There are so many marketing platforms that could be considered as digital tools for a business marketing strategy, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Google Ads, YouTube, email newsletter programs and reputation management.
☐ List the various platforms you are currently using to market your business.
☐ Review statistics on your current platforms, and confirm which ones are driving most of your site traffic, online engagement and conversions.
☐ Identify ways to improve your current strategy within each platform.
☐ Identify new platforms that could make sense for your business, and that you want to test in the new year.
☐ Create a solid plan to grow positive online reviews for your company, and respond to the reviews.
☐ Create a plan to grow your email database by uploading new contacts on a monthly or quarterly basis to your email marketing platform.
☐ If you are using email marketing, use a litmus test to confirm that your newsletter design is responsive, and looks good on big screens and mobile devices, as well as in various email platforms such as Outlook.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
There are so many marketing platforms that could be considered as digital tools for a business marketing strategy, including Meta (Facebook & Instagram), LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), GoogleAds, YouTube, email newsletter programs and reputation management.
☐ Request an organic search ranking report from your agency if you aren’t already getting one on a regular basis.
☐ Identify how many keywords and their Google rankings for your organization’s website.
☐ Confirm that your business is ranking for keywords that align with products or services offered.
☐ Identify your top competitors and request a report from your agency to identify their keyword rankings. Compare and look for opportunities where you can improve your SEO strategy.
☐ Create a strategy to rank higher for keywords that support your top offerings.
☐ Consider GoogleAds for important keywords that you are not currently ranking for.
☐ For local SEO, confirm your Google Business Profile (GBP) is fully optimized.
☐ Create a plan to update your businesses GBP on a monthly basis with new images, updated information and responses to reviews.
Plan of Action
☐ Working from the list of actionable items from this checklist, implement your plan of action for the new year.
☐ Contact Riverworks Marketing to assist with items that may require additional marketing expertise. Contact our team at (423) 710-3866 or via email at [email protected].