As 2023 approaches, many businesses and companies are preparing their plans for the new year. In fact, many have already started their planning, so they can hit the ground running in January. 

A good business plan is key to starting the new year off on the right foot. With a clear view of the year ahead, it is much easier to set realistic goals and plans on how to get there. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and not sure how to start planning for 2023, here’s our tip: hindsight is 20/20. The best way to prepare your business strategy for 2023 is to start reviewing 2022. By looking at what went well and what can be improved on, you will be able to formulate a better plan moving forward. 

Here are the three key aspects of your business that you should look at: 

Past marketing strategies

It’s important to look back at marketing campaigns throughout the year and to measure your numbers against your target, whether it be conversion rates, engagement, ROI, etc. By reviewing these numbers, you can measure the completion of your goals and determine the effectiveness of your overall marketing strategy. 

You can also identify successful and unsuccessful channels within your marketing mix, to decide what you need to focus on and improve to do better next year. 

Here are some questions you can ask yourself: 

  • By how much did your engagements/visits/conversions improve? 
  • Where should you focus your efforts to improve your past performance?

Budget

Every business needs a well-planned budget. Looking at the cash flow and profit margins for the year will help you set better targets and goals for the future. When reviewing your budget, there are two main areas to look at: income and expenditure. 

For your income, you can review:

  • High turnovers, when targets were hit
  • Shortfalls where they were not
  • Any reason behind them

For expenditure, you should look at the fixed and variable costs and how you can use them to predict future costs with greater reliability. You can also compare the budgets for your marketing campaigns and use them to justify success.

Customer experience

For customer experience, the first step of the sales funnel, which is how you engage with potential customers, is very important. Good or bad interactions with potential customers can make or break your sale. 

For B2B, how you approach lead generation and where you communicate with potential clients is vital. Lead generation is a crucial part of marketing goals, according to 85% of B2B businesses. While there are many platforms for lead generation such as email marketing and event marketing, social media is a new and upcoming method for lead generation. 

Especially for B2B companies, LinkedIn is the best platform for generating leads, with over 80% of social media leads for B2B being generated on LinkedIn. Not sure where to begin with LinkedIn? Reach out to us by email or call us to discuss the best lead generation tactics for your B2B business for 2023. Or check out our blog to find out more about LinkedIn and how LinkedIn is the platform to utilise.