End of Financial Year Marketing Checklist: Everything You Need to Do
The End of Financial Year Marketing Checklist
It's that time of year again – the end of the financial year is just around the corner!
This can be a busy time for businesses, as there is a lot of work to be done in order to wrap up the previous year and prepare for the next.
If you're feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start, don't worry – I've got you covered. In this blog post, I will outline everything you need to do before the end of the financial year.
By following this checklist, you'll be able to wrap up your marketing activities efficiently and set up a smooth transition into the new financial year!
1. Review your last 12 months
2. Review your expenses and revenue
3. Update your marketing strategy
4. Update your marketing goals
5. Set your marketing budget
6. Update your marketing plan
7. Implement reporting
1. Review your last 12 months
First things first, you will need to review the outcomes of your marketing efforts from the previous year.
Look at what worked and what didn't.
What marketing activities generated the best outcomes for you?
Look into why some marketing activities worked better than others. This will give you a good starting point for understanding what to focus on for the coming financial year.
Also, this isn't limited to marketing. Look at your business outcomes overall and in the same light. You might spot some things you weren't aware of.
2. Review your expenses and revenue
Then review your expenses from the previous year. This will help you identify any areas where you may be able to save money in the new year. For example, are there some marketing subscriptions you're not utilising that you could invest those $$$ elsewhere?
Once you have reviewed your expenses, it's time to take a look at your revenue streams.
This will help you identify where your marketing activities are having the most impact and generate the most revenue. These are most likely the marketing activities you need to include in your next financial year marketing strategy.
3. Update your marketing strategy
Once you have reviewed your past performance, it's time to update your marketing strategy.
This is where you will review your marketing goals, your ideal clients, your brand position, and key messages.
Has anything changed?
Chances are your ideal clients, brand position and key messages won't really change. Particularly if you're really clear on this.
However, it's good to review them because it will help make sure that your marketing efforts are focused on reaching, connecting and engaging with the right people to build that know, like, and trust factor so they buy from you and/or choose to do business with you.
What's likely to change when updating your marketing strategy are your marketing goals.
4. Update your marketing goals
Have you achieved your marketing goals from the previous financial year? If so, what will your new goals be?
What do you want to achieve in the new financial year?
Remember to make sure your goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
You can read more about setting marketing goals here.
5. Set your marketing budget
Once you have your goals sorted, it's time to allocate your marketing budget. This will make sure that you don't overspend and you can focus on marketing that gives you the best return on your investment (ROI).
Also, having an allocated marketing budget helps you measure your marketing activities.
You can read more about setting your marketing budget here.
After you have allocated your marketing budget, it's time to review and update your marketing plan.
6. Update your marketing plan
Your marketing plan is where you outline your marketing activities for a specific time period. It can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be, but at its core, it should include:
- what marketing activities you're going to do
- when you're going to do them
- what budget you have allocated to each activity
- who (of your ideal clients) each marketing activity is for
Reviewing and updating your marketing plan is important to make sure your activities are still relevant and achieving your marketing strategy objectives.
Ideally, having completed Steps 1-5 of this End of Financial Year Checklist will help you understand which marketing activities are going to help you achieve your goals.
7. Implement reporting
Now that you've reviewed your marketing performance, updated your marketing strategy, and marketing plan – it's time to implement reporting.
This will help you measure your marketing activities throughout the coming year so you can see what's working and what's not.
There are a number of different ways to measure marketing activities. The key is to choose the metrics that make sense for your business and track them consistently.
Having your marketing reporting in place will also help you understand your ROI (return on investment) for each of your marketing activities. So, when it comes to next year you can easily follow this checklist again.
Now you're ready for the new financial year
By following this checklist, you will be able to efficiently wrap up your marketing activities for the year and transition into the new financial year with ease!
Don't forget – if you need help with any of these marketing activities, I'm always here to help! Contact me today to get started.
P.S. If you're looking for more marketing tips and resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter – the Starfish Splash!
You'll get access to my library of freebies, blog posts and other goodies delivered straight to your inbox.
You can sign up here – I promise not to spam you! 😉
