6 Marketing Projects to Add to Your 2019 To-Do List

February 8, 2019
11:53 pm

Posted by Mackenzie McLeod

It’s already February, which means if you are working on a calendar year, your 2019 marketing plan is likely already in motion. Even with a plan in place, marketers have often not clearly defined what success looks like at the end of a year. What milestone do you want to accomplish on behalf of your brand in the next 11 months? What will you be adding to your brand’s assets or library of tools to continue propelling your company forward?

We recommend marketers define 1 or 2 major milestones that they want to have completed to mark a successful year and help pave the path forward. With 2020 on the horizon, now is the ideal time to start thinking about how you want your brand to look and what you want to have accomplished as we enter a new decade. Here are 6 marketing projects you may want to consider adding to your 2019 to-do list:

Create a New (or Simply Refresh) Your Current Logo

Your logo is the most recognizable aspect of your brand and the first thing that your customers and consumers alike see when they engage with you. If your logo hasn’t changed in several decades, perhaps it’s time to consider a refresh or even a new, modernized logo to represent your brand. What a better time than 2020 to give your brand new life and an opportunity to reengage audiences with an updated look representative of your company in a new age? Logo projects are not a small undertaking – you will want to discuss the project with everyone who touches your branding so give yourself 6+ months to successfully complete a new logo project.

Establish a Brand Aesthetic or Identity Guide

Do you have a clearly defined set of guidelines for how your brand should look, feel and communicate? If not, you may find yourself with a tradeshow booth that doesn’t look like your website, or social media assets that don’t match the audience you’re trying to reach. A Brand Identity Guide eliminates these inconsistencies and ensures everyone touching your brand has a clear blueprint to guide everything they do. This is a great project to embark on following or even in tandem with a logo refresh.

Build a New Website

In the digital age we live in, websites are no longer a one-time project every 10 years. Your website should be constantly evolving and undergoing consistent updates, and the overall design and structure of your website may need an overhaul up to every 2 years to keep up with functionality expectations and search engine algorithm changes. A couple key indicators that you should considering starting a new website project include low organic search traffic, an inability to make easy text or graphic updates yourself and a lack of mobile responsiveness. Click here for more indicators you may need a new website.

Start a Consumer Database

Don’t have a way to collect consumer email addresses so that you can continue to communicate with them on behalf of your brand? Then starting a consumer database should be high on your 2019 to-do list. Your website should be able to gather data on your visitors and you should have forms to collect consumer contact info that will allow you to make more strategic decisions about your marketing activity based on who is visiting your website and engaging with you. While maintaining and nurturing a database isn’t a one-time project and requires continual upkeep, you have to start somewhere! Without this, the consumers that visit your website will remain simply visitors vs. brand evangelists who have a relationship with you and consistently seek out your products.

Obtain More Visual Assets

Visual content, including photos, video and infographics, are powerful tools to help you tell your brand story. You may have invested in photography or video content in the past, but if those assets are outdated or are no longer representing your brand at its best, you may want to consider booking a few photo or video shoots in 2019. If you’ve noticed a decline in social media engagement or ad performance, that could be one very good indicator that you need a visual content upgrade.

Update Your Tradeshow Booth

When is the last time you got a new tradeshow booth? If you’re still using the same booth and assets from 5+ years ago, it’s probably time to invest in something new. Having a tradeshow booth that presents the same look and feel as your website (if it’s an updated website!) will allow your company to put its best foot forward during a crucial time when customers are present. We attend several major fresh produce industry shows each year, and can’t help but notice the array of booths that are exactly the same year after year. Wouldn’t your customers be more excited to visit your booth if they knew it was going to offer something new or different from when they visited last year? Consider this as you plan for 2019 and 2020 tradeshows.

Imagine it’s December 31, 2019, and you can say that you’ve successfully completed one of the projects on this list. How would that make you feel? No matter where your company is on its marketing journey, progressing your brand forward step by step should be a high priority on any marketer’s mind., and any of these 6 projects could contribute to the “next level” for your brand. What are you waiting for? Reach out to us, and let’s get started!

Need a handy guide to the 2019 tradeshow line-up? Download our 2019 Produce Marketers Calendar!