I’m thankful this year for my faith, my family and my friends. I’m thankful for you, my readers. I’m thankful to have had another good year in business, bolstered by marketing tools that make my work and my clients’ work simpler and more fruitful.

As we all plan for 2025, there are three simplifying marketing tools that, in my experience, make the biggest difference in setting a clear vision for a company each year and in keeping its team on track for reaching goals. They are:

1. Five-Point Analysis of 2024 Marketing Results

A client of mine recently asked me, “What do you recommend we review in our Monthly Performance Review meetings for the marketing KPIs? What matters right now?” I love that second question. She and I agreed it’s best to focus on meaningful metrics over all the analytics.

To simplify your process of gauging what worked and where to invest in 2025, begin by empowering the team to gather metrics from 2024 on these five points in the marketing system:

• Monthly Website Traffic
• Number of Marketing Contacts in the Database
• Email Campaign Open Rate
• Email Campaign Click Rate
• Social Media Followers

Now set goals for each. If in 2024, the company averaged 5,000 monthly visitors and you wish to increase that by 20% in 2025, slate 6,000 for the goal. Once you have 2024 and 2025 metrics for each of the five points, go to #2 below.

2. One-Page Strategic Marketing Plan for 2025

I have written before about the client company that happily exchanged a 7-page marketing plan for our One-Page Strategic Marketing Plan. So much easier to follow! Clarify your approach for an even stronger year ahead than what you had this past year.

You can even start at the end. In the far-right column, fill in your Measures, which are simply the 2025 goals you drafted in step #1.

At the top, list your Big Important Goal, otherwise known as the BHAG. We encourage clients to write it in this format: “Increase [awareness/nurture/intent] marketing to increase [revenue/profit] from [amount] to [amount] by [date three years in the future].”

Once you have your Big Important Goal down, gather the team to inquire about what Objectives or far-off yet attainable destinations the company needs to reach to meet it. Fill those into the far-left column. You only get three, as this encourages focus. Here are some examples:

1. We are a predominant [thought leader/services provider/supplier] for [industry or sector] companies.
2. We are the preferred [industry] company in [region/country].
3. We have team alignment on [financial/operational/marketing and sales] efforts.

Finally, fill in the middle column with all the Strategies, or actions, your internal team and external partners will take to reach the Objectives, or far-off yet attainable destinations. Unsure what Strategies to include? Send a one-question survey to clients asking what types of marketing they paid attention to before selecting your company or what media they think their peers will consider. Here are a few examples:

• Continue the Content Marketing Strategy with Marketing Automation
• Continue the Social Media Marketing Strategy with Marketing Automation
• Continue the Event Marketing Strategy with Marketing Automation
• Continue the Promotional Email Campaign Strategy with Marketing Automation
• Start Google Ads Campaigns
• Start Search Engine Optimization
• Hold Monthly Performance Review Meetings to Continue to Measure and Report on Marketing Efforts
• Hold Quarterly Success Review Meetings to Continue to Align the Team on All Efforts

And yes, all this fits neatly on just one page. This Strategic Marketing Plan becomes the compass for the team to reach the company Objectives and, over time, Big Important Goal.

3. 2025 Marketing Budget

Now that your Five-Point Analysis and One-Page Marketing Plan are done, budgeting becomes much easier. Overall, invest a minimum of 6% of top-line revenue into marketing to reach Objectives and achieve the Big Important Goal. Invest more heavily in initiatives that your 2024 metrics or survey results indicate will yield higher results. Increase value on every initiative by developing social posts from excerpts of email campaigns, and email campaigns from excerpts of blogs and downloadable assets.

These three simplifying tools have made work a lot easier for my clients and for me over the years. When we simplify our marketing processes, we open up more time for creativity. That’s where marketing really comes to life.

Since 2007, Big Buzz® has helped Stage II to Stage III organizations systemize marketing to achieve growth goals. Founder and CEO Wendy O’Donovan Phillips is the author of two books available on Amazon, Kaboom and Flourish, multiple data-driven eBooks, has been published in McKnight’s, in Forbes, and has been quoted in The Washington Post, ABC News, and Chicago Tribune. She has lectured for the American Dental Association, Argentum, several chapters of LeadingAge, and dozens of other organizations in front of audiences ranging in size from 25 to 3,000. She has been honored by the American Marketing Association for excellence in her field and has been named a Gold Key Award Winner by the Business Marketing Association. In her two-decades-long career, she has consulted with hundreds of organizations globally to support improved marketing clarity, strategies and outcomes. Get details: visit www.bigbuzzinc.com and follow Wendy.