Ah, the end-of-year hustle—when your calendar is bursting with back-to-back meetings for 2025 strategic planning. It can often feel overwhelming, but here’s the good news, there are amazing frameworks that can make goal planning less stressful.
To help you out, we’ve created this checklist designed to make this process less "panic mode" and more "I’ve got this!" We’ll take you through a to-do list that every marketer and business owner should use when planning their marketing strategy for 2025.
Why Setting Marketing Goals is Essential
Setting clear marketing goals is more than just a best practice – it’s the foundation of a successful strategy.
Too often, people either jump straight to granular tasks or get stuck in the big-idea phase. Well-defined goals act as the bridge between visionary ideas and actionable steps, ensuring that objectives are broken down into manageable tasks. They provide a roadmap that keeps efforts aligned and consistent, while also allowing you to track progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.
Checklist for Planning Your 2025 Marketing Strategy
1. Retrospective Review
Before diving into future plans, take a moment to reflect on 2024. Often overlooked, this step is vital to understanding how your 2025 should look.
What went well? Identify successful initiatives and consider building upon them.
What needs improvement? Look at areas that performed okay but have room for growth.
What didn’t go so well? Be honest about what didn’t work and consider outsourcing or cutting these efforts.
2. Define Your Top 3 Marketing Goals
Once you’ve reviewed your past performance, it’s time to set your goals for 2025. Use your retrospective as inspiration and consider these examples:
Increase sales by X% (e.g., "Increase sales by 10% by the end of Q2").
Build a stronger online presence (e.g., "Grow social media followers by 7% by mid-year").
Launch new services or products (e.g., "Introduce a new product line by Q3").
3. Action Plan for Each Goal
For each of your top three goals, you’ll need a detailed action plan:
Break down the goal into smaller tasks. What steps do you need to take? The more granular the better!
Set a timeline. When will each task be completed?
Assign responsibilities. Who will be accountable for each task?
4. Identify Potential Barriers
Planning is great, but you also need to prepare for the challenges that will inevitably arise. Consider the following:
What are the barriers? Are these real obstacles or mental barriers?
How will you overcome them? Create a strategy for handling challenges.
5. Allocate Your Marketing Resources
Now that your goals and action plans are in place, it’s time to allocate your resources. Consider your budget, team, and tools for each initiative.
Budget for each goal. What resources will you need, and where will you get them? (Want to know more about marketing budgets, check out our articles on how much you should spend on marketing or marketing budget allocation best practices.)
Assign your team. Ensure everyone knows their roles.
Invest in the right tools. Use data-driven marketing platforms, automation tools, and other technologies to help streamline your efforts. (Interested in our favorite tools, check out this article.)
6. Regularly Reassess Your Plan
Marketing is an ongoing process. Revisit your goals and plan each quarter to assess your progress and make any necessary adjustments.
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
So, is planning for 2025 still giving you a case of the cold sweats? We hope not!
Creating a solid marketing plan for 2025 starts with setting clear, actionable goals and backing them up with detailed plans. Using this checklist ensures you’re on track to meet your objectives while staying agile enough to pivot when needed.
Ready to dive deeper? This checklist is a high-level recap from our Marketing Goal Planning Workbook.
With a solid action plan in place, you’ll be well-prepared to make 2025 your best year yet!
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