Don’t Let This Memo Be Yours!
To: Board of Directors and CEO
From: Director of Marketing
Date: December 28, 2020
Subject: Annual Marketing Review
We fell short of our primary marketing goals in 2020. In summary:
- SEO
- Goal: 10% increase in organic leads
- Result: 5% drop in organic leads
- PPC
- Goal: 5% increase in ROAS
- Result: 3% drop in ROAS
- Email
- Goal: 5% increase in conversion rate
- Result: No change in conversion rate
In reviewing performance with the marketing team, I have identified these items as the main reasons we fell short of our goals.
- Goals were not firmly set until March 2020, and not fully communicated internally and to our agency until mid-April. This caused considerable delay in making important modifications to our campaigns.
- The SEO budget was cut by 15% in February 2020, which forced our agency to scale back link building activities, which in turn caused our organic rankings to deteriorate. Unless the SEO budget is restored (or as I recommend, increased), the negative trend is likely to continue.
- We were not aware until June 2020 that our main PPC competitor drastically increased its ad spend and initiated a completely new strategy. This put us at a serious disadvantage to which we could not fully adjust until October. We need to stress internally and with our agency that competitive research must be an ongoing priority, not a “one-and-done” exercise that occurs prior to launching a new campaign.
- Our email campaign was essentially a repeat of 2019 in terms of content and offers. The team feels an investment in developing updated creative (design and text) along with fresh, imaginative offers will enable us to meet goals in 2021.
If you want to end 2020 with a positive report, please contact us now!