Your Comprehensive Guide to Annual Marketing Planning

Annual planning can feel like a balancing act for most small to mid-sized businesses. On one hand, small business owners and marketers recognize its necessity for long-term success and sustainable growth. On the other hand, developing an annual marketing plan can seem like an obstacle course (at best) or an exercise in futility (at worst). Can we develop an annual marketing plan that works? More than that, is it possible to enjoy the process of creating one?

After more than a decade of walking businesses through our approach to building a marketing strategy, our team has learned several valuable lessons regarding annual planning. We’ve discovered how to ensure your yearly plan is aligned with other critical areas of your business—from supporting business development efforts to coordinating with operations. We know the common pitfalls that prevent businesses from gaining traction. 

As we prepare for the new year, we wanted to offer helpful insights for annual planning and ideas for businesses requiring a more needs-based approach to marketing planning. In this article, we’re highlighting some of the principles for effective yearly marketing planning and a few essential questions that your strategy should be able to answer.

5 Principles for Effective Annual Marketing Planning

Here are a few essential principles we utilize when developing annual marketing plans: 

Embrace proactive planning.

Effective annual marketing planning requires ample time and consideration. This keeps you from feeling rushed and avoids the obstacles created by the hustle and bustle of the holidays. 

At Green Apple, we typically initiate the planning process for clients in Q4, but the ideal timing may vary depending on the client’s industry and specific needs. For some clients, an earlier start may be necessary based on the scope of planning requirements and implementation deadlines.

Align long-term vision with short-term execution.

One of the temptations of developing an annual plan is that you may come up with dozens of great ideas but need help implementing them. While it’s essential to incorporate a long-term vision, you also want to be realistic.

Balancing long-term vision with execution helps you evaluate your brand holistically and get a clear picture of where you’re headed. Then, you can break those goals down into more manageable steps. For example, your company might know where you want to be in three years. By balancing that vision with short-term execution, you can create an annual marketing strategy that fits into your overarching company goals. 

Collaborate with various departments and key stakeholders as needed. 

Effective annual marketing planning requires buy-in and participation from all relevant departments, including sales, operations, and customer service. This collaborative approach ensures that marketing efforts are aligned with the broader business strategy and contribute to achieving common goals.

For instance, at Green Apple, we want to make sure we know our clients’ sales and operational goals for the next year. With this information, we can ensure their marketing and advertising plans for the next year can help them reach those objectives. When objectives and departments are overly siloed, your marketing strategy won’t be as successful. 

Start with a comprehensive understanding of your current marketing plan. 

The foundation of effective annual marketing planning lies in a thorough assessment of current marketing efforts. This includes identifying successes, challenges, and areas for improvement.

During annual planning with our clients, we ask insightful questions that help us evaluate their marketing efforts from the previous year. This includes identifying everything the client needs to be doing. All of this information is used to help us determine what strategies are working, what can be improved, and what efforts aren’t providing sufficient ROI. 

Use data to inform your strategy.

Developing a data-driven approach to marketing is essential. Data analytics can help you identify the most effective channels and messaging for reaching your target audience. Continuously refining your understanding of that target audience is also essential for deploying effective marketing campaigns. By understanding your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviors, your marketing efforts can be tailored to resonate effectively and achieve your desired outcomes.

7 Questions Every Annual Marketing Plan Should Answer

Once you’ve developed your annual marketing plan, here are seven critical questions you should be able to answer. Recognizing these before you get started can help you as you go: 

  1. What is your overall marketing budget for the year? How will you allocate your budget across different marketing channels and tactics?
  2. What are your marketing goals, and how will you track and measure your progress toward them on an annual, quarterly, and monthly basis?
  3. Is every marketing tactic connected to a goal, and do you clearly understand how each strategy will help you achieve that goal?
  4. What specific tactics and content will you create for each marketing area of marketing, including email, paid advertising, social media, and PR?
  5. What new marketing initiatives do you plan to launch in the next year? How will you promote and launch each new initiative?
  6. Do you understand what’s being implemented monthly and who executes each marketing initiative?
  7. How will you adapt your marketing plan based on insights you discover through data or changing market conditions?

By answering these questions, you can develop a comprehensive marketing plan to help you achieve your marketing goals.

Let Green Apple Strategy Help You Develop Your Annual Plan

Need some help getting started on developing your annual marketing plan? 

Our team can help you build an effective strategy to help your business achieve its goals—and actually enjoy the process! Learn more about our approach or connect with our team to start a conversation.

Sleighing Social Media: How to Keep the Spirit Alive During the Holidays 

The holiday season is a time when social media comes alive with festive cheer. Businesses are vying for attention while also trying to capture the holiday spirit. If done well, holiday marketing on social media can be some of the most valuable content you produce. 

We’re here to guide you through some simple yet highly effective ways to enhance your social media efforts during the holidays. Read on for some tips to capture the festive spirit and give your brand a competitive edge in your social media posts. 

Create a Holiday-Themed Content Calendar

Planning in advance is key to successful holiday marketing. Create a holiday-themed content calendar for the days, weeks, or months you want to focus on, and plan a number of posts to celebrate the season. Not only does a content calendar help you stay organized and consistent, but it’s particularly helpful in planning ahead during a season when many of your employees are taking time off. 

Ensure you’re utilizing the right social media marketing tools to help guide your strategy toward success. 

Drop the Hard Sell Approach

We know the holiday season is an opportunity for many businesses to boost sales, but there’s more to it than just pushing products. Take a step back to think about how you can soft-sell your product during this season. Here are a few ideas:

  • Share user-generated content 
  • Share stories about your team members or any holiday traditions at your company
  • Share customer stories, testimonials, and reviews
  • Take a conversational approach

By focusing on meaningful non-sales content, you can make an impact and build a deeper connection with your audience, giving your brand greater resonance even after the holidays.

Be Inclusive of All Holidays 

There are billions of people on social media, all with different beliefs, traditions, and customs. By showcasing your awareness of this fact, you can appeal to a much larger audience and show current and potential customers that you’re an inclusive company. Add all of the upcoming holidays to your content calendar and embrace the spirit of the season through the beauty of diversity and inclusivity!

Design Gift Guides and Highlight Gift Ideas

Instagram is a popular social media platform for holiday marketing because of its visual nature. You can enhance the visibility of your best deals, promos, and events by showcasing them in your bio links and highlighting them in shoppable posts. Create content that focuses on gift ideas or holiday shopping guides relevant to your products or services. 

Showcase a Charity or Nonprofit Organization

Share the love this holiday season and showcase a cause you and your audience care about. Shine the spotlight on the nonprofits you support by sharing photos and videos of your team volunteering and infographics about the organization’s impact. Don’t forget to tag the nonprofit on all platforms for additional organic reach! 

Engage Your Audience

Social media platforms offer a variety of engagement features you can use to help show your brand’s personality. Organize fun and engaging contests or giveaways, or schedule holiday-themed polls, questions, and quizzes on your stories to encourage user participation. Infuse a little joy, playfulness, and holiday spirit into your content, and your audience will respond positively. 

Share User Generated Content

User-generated content is a great tool to boost interaction and build an authentic connection with your audience. It also doesn’t take much legwork. Repost or retweet user-generated content that showcases your product or service being used during the holidays. If you don’t have much user-generated content to choose from, ask followers to share their holiday stories, photos, or ideas related to your product or service. This is a great way to build a library of content that you can use all year long! 

Collaborate with Influencers

Incorporating influencers in a planned holiday campaign could help you reach a wider or even untapped audience. Influencer marketing is a proven and reliable method for generating brand awareness year-round. According to a Q3 Sprout pulse survey, 89% of marketers agree influencer marketing impacts their brand awareness. The authentic content micro-influencers (influencers with 10,000–100,000 followers) are known to produce is just one benefit of working with them.  

Analyze and Adjust 

Take a step back and look at the analytics. Your data from the previous holiday season can equip you with meaningful insights that guide your future content. Understand what performed best and adjust your strategy accordingly. A thorough analysis can help you plan for seasonal content for next year and beyond. 

Let Us Help You Reach Your Goals

At Green Apple, we help our clients build effective campaigns for the holiday season and all year round. If you need some guidance and support from marketing and PR experts, we’d love to discuss your goals and figure out how we can help you reach them. Contact us anytime to start the conversation. You can also subscribe to The Core, our monthly newsletter, to get the latest marketing insights and inspiration delivered directly to your inbox. Happy holidays and happy social media marketing!

How to Create a Marketing Moat 

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, businesses are constantly searching for ways to stand out from the competition to achieve long-term growth. Just as castles were fortified with moats to protect against attacks, today’s business owners can create their own “marketing moats” to maintain a competitive edge and better protect their market share.

Build a Strong Brand Identity

The impression that your brand makes on a customer can help you stand out from competitors. Develop a memorable brand story. Brand storytelling explains your differentiators and humanizes your brand. It helps customers understand who you are and why your business exists. Building a strong brand or achieving brand recognition can create a marketing moat that keeps customers returning because people prefer brands they recognize. 

Another impact of building a compelling brand story is creating a bond with your customers. This connection can foster trust and loyalty, which can turn into positive feedback and testimonials. You can use this feedback to promote the strong relationships you build with customers, which strengthens your marketing moat. 

Clearly Define Your Unique Value Proposition

Identify what sets your brand apart from competitors and communicate why customers should choose your products or services. Here are a few ways to identify your unique value proposition:

1. Understand your target audience. 

2. Analyze the competition and identify gaps in what they offer. Capitalize on these gaps.

3. Determine what makes your business unique and highlight those aspects.

Be sure to integrate your unique value proposition into all of your marketing and messaging consistently. Check out Green Apple’s approach to building a marketing strategy for tips to ensure your strategy is set up for success from the start. 

Invest in Consistent Content Creation

Produce relevant and engaging content that resonates with your target audience. This can include blog posts, videos, curated social media content, paid media efforts, email marketing, and more. Establish credibility by positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry and offer valuable insight through white papers, webinars, online courses or trainings, and free consultations. All these resources can be promoted on social media and through email marketing. A well-executed content calendar and email marketing strategy can help you plan and organize your content so it remains relevant and consistent.

Work With Us To Build Your Marketing Moat 

At Green Apple, we help business owners execute ideas with a solid strategy behind our approach. Let us help you build a marketing moat that will lead to long-term success by establishing a presence that stands out from the competition. To learn more about our process and discuss how we can help, contact Green Apple Strategy. 

From Chaos to Clarity: How Process-driven Operations Keeps Marketing on Track

Everyone who’s worked in marketing knows what it’s like when things don’t go according to plan. It could come in the form of a last-minute request from a client or realizing you need to rush ship an important resource to an upcoming industry tradeshow. There are days — sometimes seasons — that feel like your marketing job description should include being a part-time firefighter. While you may not be able to completely prevent chaotic moments, having a process-driven approach to putting out fires and staying on track with responsibilities can ensure you (and your marketing team) can keep moving forward with clarity and confidence.  

Recognizing there will be chaotic moments and proactively developing a plan to address them is one of the most important lessons we’ve learned over the past decade at Green Apple.  

The Most Common Chaos Creators for Marketing Teams

Here are a few of the most common disruptors that marketing teams and agencies must learn how to navigate: 

1. Last-Minute Requests

Every company has sudden requests from other departments or higher-ups that require immediate attention. These can obviously disrupt planned marketing activities and require an extra measure of attention and focus. To navigate last-minute requests, it is helpful to have a system in place for prioritizing and tracking them and to be clear with stakeholders about expectations and deadlines.

2. Lack of Clear Objectives or Change in Direction

When marketing teams lack clear goals and objectives, they may struggle to prioritize tasks and may get sidetracked by less important activities. That’s why it’s essential to establish clear marketing goals that align with your overall business objectives. In some cases, new opportunities may arise or your company might change directions on a particular product or go-to-market strategy. In these cases, there may be opportunities to pivot your marketing without abandoning your entire strategy. 

3. Technology Issues

Technology difficulties can create an enormous amount of disruption in your day-to-day activities. Technical glitches or failures with marketing tools and platforms can disrupt campaigns and lead to chaos. As a hybrid marketing agency, we’ve had the opportunity to learn how to manage our workload virtually to stay connected and productive. Every person on the team knows what to do if technology issues occur and how to implement a backup plan if communication tools aren’t working. 

4. Human Error

Even the best-laid plans can go awry due to human error. It could be anything from a typo in a press release to a missed deadline. That’s why it’s important to have clear processes and procedures in place for catching and correcting errors. It is also important to create a culture of accountability and transparency, where team members feel comfortable admitting their mistakes and learning from them.

Process-Driven Best Practices to Keep Marketing on Track 

Here are some helpful best practices that a marketing agency could implement to create a process-oriented approach. Implementing some of these approaches can help keep things running smoothly.

1. Create your marketing plan with involvement from key stakeholders.

Every good marketer starts with strategy. But one of the ways to prevent many of the stressful back-and-forth or navigating changes of direction is to involve key stakeholders to shape your marketing strategy as you build it. This has become an essential part of our approach to building marketing strategies for our clients over the years.

2. Establish clear workflows for status meetings and specific deliverables.

One of the most important factors for a successful business and agency partnership is defining clear and documented workflows for different marketing activities. This includes outlining roles, responsibilities, and timelines for expected deliverables. It’s important to ensure everyone on the team understands and follows these processes.

3. Set realistic deadlines.

Saying “yes” to every request is one of the quickest ways to derail your marketing efforts. As you identify new marketing ideas and make a plan to execute them, you want to ensure that deadlines are reasonable and achievable. Managers should avoid overloading the team with too many tasks within a short time frame.

4. Implement a foolproof quality control system.

An important part of marketing project management is implementing thorough quality control processes to catch and rectify errors before campaigns or projects go live. One of the benefits of working with a marketing agency is that they often have proven quality control measures in place — primarily because of the volume of campaigns we’re running at any given time. 

5. Have a backup plan for emergencies.

There will always be situations or scenarios that are completely out of your control. It could be a major PR crisis or a single social media comment that needs to be addressed. Whatever the scenario, it’s crucial to develop clear protocols for handling last-minute crises before they occur. You should also designate a point person who is responsible for evaluating the appropriate action plan and prioritizing the next steps. 

6. Use project management tools.

Technology provides a variety of tools that enhance our communication and collaboration. At Green Apple, most of our days are spent collaborating in Google, Basecamp, and Airtable. These tools can help our team track progress, manage deadlines, and communicate with team members.

7. Maintain documentation of your processes.

Well-documented processes can help to prevent errors by ensuring that all of the necessary steps are taken. It also helps when onboarding new team members and provides a reference point for resolving issues. Based on our experience, we’ve learned that it’s essential to document your processes for areas like campaign planning, content creation, social media management, email marketing, campaign evaluation, and website management.

8. Be flexible.

While processes are essential, it’s also important to cultivate flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances or seize unexpected opportunities. Things don’t always go according to plan, so be prepared to make adjustments as needed. 

Minimize the Marketing Chaos with Green Apple Strategy

At Green Apple, we’re proud of our track record for helping clients take advantage of new opportunities while minimizing chaos and disruption to their daily operations. We have a deep understanding of the changing marketing landscape and know how to help our clients stay ahead of the curve. We also have a team of experienced and dedicated professionals who are passionate about helping our clients succeed.

If you’re ready to build momentum through an effective marketing approach, you can learn more about our process or schedule a consultation with our team.

Managing Virtual Teams to Stay Connected & Productive Remotely

Today’s work landscape looks very different from even a few years ago. The traditional office setup has given way to a new era of remote work. Green Apple transitioned into a remote office when the pandemic hit in 2020, and we have thrived as a virtual team. Our core team members currently live in Nashville, Tennessee and Charlotte, North Carolina. We have a large group of freelancers who we lovingly refer to as “The Orchard” and the majority of them live outside of our home base in Nashville, including a few in other countries outside of the U.S.

Despite the distance that separates us, we’ve found ways to stay connected. This blog post highlights some of the practices we’ve put in place that not only keep our team cohesive but allow us to flourish in an evolving work environment.

Tools for Productivity and Connection

We use several tools that are critical to helping us communicate seamlessly while also organizing our workflow and processes. Basecamp is a great collaboration tool that includes several essential communication features. Features we find helpful in Basecamp include message boards, to-do lists, file storage, scheduling, and real-time chat. We use BC to streamline workflows, track projects, and communicate with each other regarding specific projects. 

We find it most helpful to have tools that allow our team to collaborate in real-time, and Google Workspace is great for this. We use Google Drive for blog writing, Google Sheets for social content, and Gmail to communicate with our team and our clients. Google Workspace tools make it possible for us to work together with a colleague or a client even if we’re not near them. To keep the memes and gifs flowing, we keep in touch on a team Discord, and our Content Marketing Specialist recently began experimenting with Airtable for social media planning and deployment.

Zoom is our go-to video conferencing tool and we use it daily. While remote work offers incredible flexibility, it can be so helpful to meet for the occasional check in meeting to ensure our team is on track. The platform offers several membership plans tailored to different user needs so you can choose what will work best for your team and budget.

Twice-a-Week Huddles

Keeping your team connected and communicating is crucial when working remotely. The core team at Green Apple meets twice a week on Zoom for an hour to check in and strategize about the days, weeks, and months to come for our clients. We typically start off each call with some personal catch-up and stories, then dive into business. It’s not unusual for someone to toss out a “thank you” to a fellow team member or give kudos for a job well done. Our twice a week Zoom meetings also provide us with an opportunity to check in with each other to ensure everyone is feeling balanced and supported in their role. (By the way: if you’ve been feeling like your Zoom meetings run too long or feel disorganized, we gathered a few tips to help make them even more effective.)

In-Person Connection

Since most of us work and live in Nashville, we also schedule times to work together in person. We have a corporate membership at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, a dynamic, collaborative space where we can gather together in person. Whether it’s meeting up with the whole team or a quick face-to-face with just a few of us, having a designated place where we can work side by side is incredibly helpful. 

Our team also volunteers together! We’ve built a connection to our community through our volunteer partnership with Thistle Farms, an organization that supports women in need of housing, employment, and support. Our volunteer sessions there have also helped strengthen our bond as a virtual team. CEO Samantha Pyle also recently implemented Volunteer Time Off. VTO incentivizes giving back to the community by setting aside time and financial compensation for working at local nonprofits. When coupled with a company’s mission to create a thoughtful work environment, VTO can boost an organization’s reputation and culture. It’s certainly made an impact on all of us at Green Apple and continues to serve as a great bonding experience for our team.

Developing and Evolving As A Team

Green Apple’s partnership approach allows us to adapt our services for clients as their businesses evolve, and we’ve taken the same approach with our team. As the work landscape continues to change, we will continue to evolve alongside it. Being part of a virtual team provides all of us with an opportunity to redefine what it means to be cohesive and productive in the digital age. Remote work doesn’t have to be a barrier to success, it just needs the right strategies and tools in place. If you want a strong and connected team to audit your website, social media presence, or marketing approach, reach out to us. We’ll develop a bespoke strategy to highlight your brand and help grow your audience. 

It’s A Numbers Game: How Quantitative Data Drives Successful PR Efforts

Numbers don’t lie. For better or for worse, this rings true across brands and entire industries. At Green Apple Strategy, we rely on hard and fast data to tell us what’s working for our clients and show us opportunities for improvement. 

When it comes to small business public relations, finding relevant, quantitative data can take some work. After all, how do you measure feelings about your brand?

This post explores five ways numbers can help you build a favorable brand reputation while working toward increasing your small business’s chances of being featured in news and media outlets. 

What’s the difference between Public Relations and Marketing?

Public relations and marketing can often be confused by the general public. But as professionals, you and I know better. If you need a crash course in understanding the differences—and how public relations (PR) is great for business—stay tuned, and I’ll fill you in! 

Marketing typically involves some type of paid effort. Think advertisements, special events to get the word out about a particular product or service, promotional merch, and more. Whereas PR is exactly what it sounds like; building relationships with the public. In most cases, that will be your customers, community members, and decision-makers. 

Five Ways to Use Data to Get Noticed

The first step to getting noticed by media outlets is to actively make a name for your small business. PR tactics like posting on social media, authoring a blog or white paper, and speaking publicly about your business or industry create a connection with your audience and position your brand as a go-to industry leader. Here are five steps to grow your audience and improve your chances of being seriously considered when reaching out to news and media outlets.  

1. Grow Your Email List

Email can be a numbers game. The more high-quality email subscribers you have, the higher your open rates. What do I mean by “high quality?” Simply put, people who have opted in and have good email addresses. Strike a balance between staying top of mind and sending emails too frequently, which can lead to members of your audience unsubscribing.

Quantitative data can be helpful here, providing hard and fast numbers regarding open rates, bounces, and how many subscribers enjoyed your email messaging enough to click through.

2. Think Social

When planning your PR strategy for social media content, pay attention to your reach and engagement. Note how many followers are seeing your content as compared to how many followers you have. Next, note the percentage of likes, comments, and shares your content receives. Higher impressions and engagement rates will help your brand become better known within your community.

3. React Publicly

Is there a newsworthy or trending topic that relates to your industry? Establish yourself as a subject matter expert by sharing your thoughts and relevant experiences with your email list and on your social media accounts. The key is to remain professional, no matter how passionate you are about the topic.

Share your thoughts at times when your audience is already on social media to increase your reach and potential engagement.

4. Get Published

We’ve established that you have ideas, thoughts, and opinions to share on newsworthy content related to your field. So, why not craft that narrative into a story? But, instead of sharing it with as many print and digital newspapers and magazines as possible, cast a very intentional, strategic net. Yes, this is a situation where higher numbers will not do you any favors.

Think about who you know in the media business and start there. Or research publications relevant to your field and send them a well-thought-out email sharing your story idea. In this case, a narrow focus on the right outlets will drive more results than a mass approach. 

Another viable option is to self-publish by starting a blog. There are SEO benefits here too. Plus, you can get a solid count of clicks on a blog post to see how your content resonates with readers. 

5. Start Local

Here is where numbers and location can be on your side. You’ve done the work of building a social media following and a high-quality email list. You’ve shared valuable content with your digital community. Now, pitch your ideas to local media outlets. Be sure to share the numbers of followers you have and where you have already been published. Again, this helps to establish your brand as the subject matter expert, making it clear that you are THE best choice to speak on specific topics related to your field. 

Starting with local channels is a great way to gain experience with media appearances. Plus, there’s usually less competition when compared to larger, national outlets – a bonus when you’re getting started. 

Partner with a Professional Agency

Thankfully, it’s a myth that only large corporations can afford to bring on a professional agency. Our team is well-versed in understanding the needs and budgets of small businesses. We’d love to help you create a data-backed public relations plan that enables you to grow and connect with your audience. Contact us today to start the conversation!

5 Questions to Consider Before You Start Planning for 2024

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from building hundreds of annual marketing plans, it’s that proper planning requires a disciplined approach that evaluates the past and looks toward the future. This approach enables you to learn from past successes and failures, understand the changing market landscape, and align marketing strategies with your overall business objectives.

Setting aside time to consider these questions can enhance every part of your annual marketing plan — from setting more attainable goals to thinking more strategically about your annual budget.
 

5 Questions to Consider Before You Start Planning for 2024

Here are a few questions we ask our clients to help develop their annual marketing plan: 

1. What lessons were learned from the successes and failures of the current year’s marketing efforts?

Developing a marketing plan can be challenging for a variety of reasons. You can’t expect to implement the same ineffective tactics and strategies and generate different results. On the other hand, what worked last year isn’t guaranteed to work again. 

That’s why it’s helpful to truly dig into what worked and what didn’t. For example, let’s say that you ran a marketing campaign last year that was very successful. What made the campaign so successful? Was it the target audience? The messaging? The timing? Once you know what worked, you can replicate or change those elements in future marketing campaigns.

2. What are the overall business goals and objectives for the upcoming year?

As a business owner or marketer, you know that your marketing plan should be aligned with your overall business goals and objectives. That’s why it’s so important to ask yourself this question before you start building your plan. 

This is where getting insights and perspectives from stakeholders across the company can be valuable. For example, if your company has a goal to launch a new division or product, you’ll need to invest significant marketing resources toward that effort. If you’re interested in building your team and hiring more employees, you could incorporate that goal into your marketing efforts. 
  

3. What are the main challenges and opportunities in the market that you need to address?

New technologies are emerging, new competitors are entering the market, and customer expectations are evolving. Discover what your potential customers might be thinking as time goes on before you start building your marketing plan.

By understanding these challenges and opportunities, you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. You might focus on developing more personalized marketing campaigns, or you might invest in new service offerings that can help you stay ahead of the competition.

4. How can you improve and ensure alignment between marketing and other departments within the organization?

In order for your marketing plan to be successful, you need to have alignment between marketing and other departments within your organization. Improving alignment between sales and marketing is an essential step. As you develop your plan for next year, be sure that your marketing and operations departments are working together to address any scalability issues. When everyone is working together in the same direction, you’re more likely to achieve your marketing goals and objectives.

5. How will you evaluate your efforts and pivot if needed? 

What are you going to do if your tactics fail or another opportunity arises? Knowing the answer to this question before you build your marketing plan can be incredibly helpful. It’s difficult to fix the plane if you have to build the instruction manual while it’s crashing. By building mechanisms for evaluation and adjustment, you create the opportunity to pivot your marketing efforts without abandoning your entire strategy.

Let Green Apple Strategy Help You Plan 

Need some help getting started on next year’s marketing goals? Check out this Green Apple guide to start planning!

Our team can help you build an effective strategy to help your brand achieve its business goals. Learn more about our process or connect with our team to start a conversation.

Marketing Outside of the Office: 5 Ways to Be A Successful Marketer Without Being Stuck at a Desk

Can you be a marketer without working a traditional 9-5? The answer is a resounding “YES!” Today, more and more marketers are finding success—for their careers and for the brands they represent—without spending all day behind a desk. 

Modern, untraditional marketing initiatives take many forms, including influencer, affiliate, guerilla, stealth, and street. I’ll unpack each of those in this blog post so you can learn more about how the marketing landscape is changing to include new techniques that largely occur outside of the office.

Influencer Marketing

If you’ve spent time on social media, you’ve encountered influencer marketing. This type of marketing is highly effective, relying on endorsements and product mentions from individuals with a dedicated social following who are viewed as experts within their niche.

For example, a popular fitness vlogger may be asked to post a video on TikTok promoting certain supplements or athletic gear. She then creates content around the product and shares it with thousands or even millions of followers. Because they already trust her expertise, they will be more likely to purchase the product she is advertising. 

Influencer marketing is effective because it relies on the relationships the influencer has previously established with her audience. Instead of the brand building trust with the audience directly, the influencer’s endorsement does that for them, quickly creating a bridge between the audience and the brand. 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to sharing a link to a good or service on your website or blog and earning a commission each time someone purchases the product from that shared link. 

This type of marketing involves little to no startup costs, as most affiliate programs are free to join. Plus, there are several different paths to choose from as you’re getting started, including promoting your link in search results or through email marketing, developing your own influencer program, or creating a website based on product reviews or coupons.
 

Guerilla Marketing

Less intense than its namesake guerilla warfare, guerilla marketing relies on the element of surprise to create wonder and awe in the day-to-day lives of potential consumers, both in person or online. It requires less upfront costs than many traditional marketing methods. But, what guerilla marketing lacks in costs, it makes up for in hands-on execution and creativity. 

Consider Bounty’s surprise gigantic messes in the streets of New York City – think an oversized popsicle and a huge spilled coffee cup – to advertise the effectiveness of the paper towels. Out-of-the-box ideas like this are noticeable and thought-provoking, meeting potential buyers where they are and leaving a memorable and positive impression. 

Stealth Marketing

In contrast to guerilla marketing’s eye-catching techniques, stealth marketing aims to fly under the radar. Brands want to showcase a product or service, but in a more indirect campaign that drives awareness more than sales. 

A popular form of stealth marketing is product placement (i.e. when a product is strategically placed in a T.V. show or movie). However, it can also occur via reviews, company partnerships, and web content produced or endorsed by a third party. The most important part of a stealth marketing campaign, or any marketing campaign, is to be genuine or risk ruining your reputation. 

When done well, stealth marketing can create excitement and conversation around a brand. It can make a brand more memorable and help potential customers feel empowered in purchasing decisions. 

Street Marketing

Street marketing is the close cousin of guerilla marketing. Like guerilla marketing, effective street marketing can be accomplished on a low budget if it’s big on creativity. 

A key difference is that while guerilla marketing occurs in person and online, street marketing is limited to just that: the street and other public places like sidewalks and transit stations. 

Street marketing includes tactics like placing static ads in unexpected places, such as an ad for Roto-Rooter on a manhole cover or using enthusiastic brand ambassadors to pass out product samples. 

Develop the Best Marketing Strategy

Our team at Green Apple has years of experience developing modern strategies for brands throughout the United States. If you’re ready to move your marketing outside of the office, reach out and let our team put together a plan that will stop your audience in their tracks.

5 Tools to Manage Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media has become the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy in an increasingly digital world. But with the ever-evolving landscape of platforms, algorithms, and user behaviors, staying on top of the trends is overwhelming. At the same time, managing requests from team members and finding the right balance between helpful and sales-oriented content can feel like an unwinnable battle. The good news? There are dozens of social media marketing tools that can help you organize ideas, strategize, create images, post content, and measure results. The challenge is identifying the right mix of tools without wasting time or resources.
 

5 Tools to Manage Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

How can you embrace the right content marketing tools that will help you guide your social media strategy toward success, efficiency, and meaningful connections with your target audience? After simultaneously managing social media for numerous clients over the years, here are a few of the tools we rely on daily:
   

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social has been our go-to social media management platform for years because it offers a wide range of functionalities that empower us to optimize social media strategies for our clients. Its intuitive scheduling and publishing capabilities allow users to plan, create, and schedule content across multiple platforms, saving valuable time and ensuring consistent messaging. The platform’s robust analytics and reporting features provide in-depth insights into audience engagement, allowing businesses to track their performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. It also offers social listening capabilities that let you monitor brand mentions, engage with your audience, and stay on top of industry conversations.

2. Airtable

Planning is a critical part of social media success. Airtable is a tool that has enhanced our ability to organize ideas and collaborate around social media campaigns. From content calendars and campaign planning to tracking engagement metrics and influencer partnerships, Airtable enables you to centralize all of your ideas and streamline workflows.
 

3. Canva

Images and visuals have become increasingly important in social media content. Social infographics are one of the most effective types of social content we create for our clients. Canva is a content marketing tool that allows us to create compelling, professional graphics in a short amount of time. With its vast library of templates, graphics, fonts, and images, Canva offers endless creative possibilities to design captivating posts, banners, infographics, and more. It also allows you to build consistent branding across your social media platforms — which is incredibly valuable for brands who don’t have the budget to hire a professional designer.
  

4. Neontools Hashtag Analyzer

Using hashtags in your social media posts is a proven way to increase engagement. In fact, including just one hashtag on a post on Instagram can generate 29% more interactions. LinkedIn also has a feature where you can see which hashtags are trending in your network. But how do you know which hashtags will generate the most impressions and engagement? Neontool’s Hashtag Analyzer offers in-depth analysis and evaluation of hashtags, providing users with valuable information such as popularity, competition, and reach potential. By understanding these metrics, businesses can make informed decisions when selecting the most relevant and effective hashtags for their content, increasing visibility and reach among their target audience.

5. CapCut

For the past several years, we’ve been actively exploring how businesses can use TikTok for marketing after the platform’s meteoric rise in popularity. Keeping up with the demand to create engaging videos is a challenge many businesses face with the platform. With its powerful video editing capabilities, CapCut provides a way to create compelling video content that stands out, drives engagement, and boosts your overall social media strategy. The tool offers a wide range of editing options and an extensive library of royalty-free music and sound effects, enabling businesses to add a personalized touch to their videos.

Let Us Help You Stay Informed About the Tools You Need 

At Green Apple, we recognize you don’t have the time (or even the interest) to keep up-to-date on the latest marketing tools. We believe part of our responsibility as a marketing agency is to equip you with the essential information you should know. The Core, our monthly newsletter, is the best way to stay informed about the latest essential marketing insights. You can sign up here!

How to Audit Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Our analytical approach shapes everything we do at Green Apple. Regularly scheduled marketing audits are an essential component of any good marketing strategy. No matter how small or big your brand is, or how robust your returns are, you should regularly test and assess your strategy because marketing is always changing and evolving. While one approach may work for a particular quarter, that approach may need to change as you collect more data. Taking time in the middle of the fiscal year to audit your digital marketing strategy is a good practice. Here’s how to dive in: 


What is a Digital Marketing Audit?

A digital marketing audit is simply an analysis of all the practices, strategies, and outcomes of a brand’s online presence. The purpose of a digital marketing audit is to get an overarching view of your digital marketing campaigns and learn how (and if) your digital marketing strategy is meeting your business goals.


Why Are Audits Important?

In this ever-changing digital world, trends and updates are as frequent as a fast-paced TikTok routine. That’s why we run monthly audits to keep our clients’ strategies aligned with the latest developments. By assessing our progress, we can also make necessary adjustments to stay ahead of the curve.

A comprehensive audit helps to benchmark baseline metrics, identify opportunities, outperform competitors, and drive more business. 

“Conducting mid-year audits helps us stay ahead and be proactive for our clients. One example I have is when we conducted a mid-year audit and decided to change the size and type of graphics we did for a client’s social media content. We saw an uptick in engagement because we were adapting to the changing social media algorithms,” explains Katie Shayotovich, Green Apple Content Marketing Specialist. 

These digital audits not only help us fine-tune our clients’ strategies but also enhance the overall customer experience.


Digital Marketing Channels to Audit 

A digital marketing audit will examine several channels, depending on your goals. You can follow these steps to get started:

  • Review your website 
    • 75% of your website’s credibility comes from its design. An audit will ensure your website is designed to catch the eye of any potential customers.
  • Audit your SEO
    • Auditing your site for SEO helps boost your website’s ability to rank in the top three positions on the first page of a search engine. Since search algorithms are always changing, it’s important to perform an SEO audit multiple times throughout the year. 
  • Run a content marketing audit
    • Content marketing is a strategy used to attract, engage and retain potential customers and helps build brand loyalty. Start your content audit by pulling data for your website to determine what content is performing the best. Look for what is working and what’s not, then optimize your content moving forward based on those results. 
  • Run a social media audit 
    • Social media is an integral part of content marketing, so you’ll want to audit all of your social media profiles. 
  • Perform an email marketing audit 
    • Despite being one of the oldest email marketing channels, email remains very relevant. Be sure to audit email performance metrics such as your click-through rate and open rate to optimize your overall engagement.

Who Conducts the Audit?

At Green Apple, a marketing audit typically involves multiple team members and is a collaborative effort. To ensure comprehensive and specialized insights, our approach involves not only our dedicated full-time team but also a network of skilled freelancers known as “The Orchard.” Each member of The Orchard possesses expertise in a specific area related to the audit, contributing valuable perspectives and knowledge to the process. Our team reviews the audit findings and offers actionable feedback to enhance our clients’ marketing strategies. 

By leveraging the expertise of a team with specialized skills and a commitment to delivering actionable insights, we strive to ensure that our clients receive a comprehensive and high-quality marketing audit. This approach allows us to address various facets of marketing and provide our clients with the guidance they need to refine their strategies and achieve optimal results.

Looking to grow your business with an effective digital marketing strategy? Schedule a consultation with us today.