Do a Mid-Year Check-Up for your Marketing Content Plan

As I’m writing this, the windows in my home office are wide open for one of the first times this year. I can feel the breeze, listen to the birds, and look forward to all the possibilities of warm Wisconsin summer days. It feels amazing.

That is until I realize that the spring weather means we’re well into the year, and my team has a lot of big plans for 2024 that we haven’t even really started on yet.

Before I cave under the pressure of existential dread, I’m going to pull out our content plan and see where we’re at.

Now, okay, I’ll admit that it’s been a little while (don’t ask how long) since I looked at my plans, and I’m a little afraid that we’ve gone WAY off track. But if you’re not going to be perfectly disciplined (which history has taught me I am not, sorry, boss), you do at least owe it to yourself to re-center when you need to.

And how do you do that? By asking yourself three questions*.

Question #1: Are you on track?

If you have a written content plan, even one that’s pretty high-level, this time of the year can be the sweet spot to review and check off what you’ve already accomplished, update what you chose not to do, review results, and reflect on what that means for the rest of the year.

(If you don’t have a written content plan, go here to grab our handy template before you do anything else.)

If we haven’t put out the EXACT piece of content we planned, but we did create something timely and could help advance our strategic objectives, I’ll still count that as a win and update the plan to reflect it. Too many things like that, though, and it’s time to get serious about whether the plan needs an update.

Your review will not only tell you if you’re on track but also give you enough data to consider whether your plan was S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Oriented, and Time-Bound) or if it needs some refinement to get there.

This is all good information, friend, so be gentle with yourself and make the changes you need now to be ready for success for the rest of the year.

Question #2: Can you get on track?

Listen, friend, I’ve been on too many smart, competent, capable teams that have lost their way by mid-year, every year, to believe it’ll never happen, so I know this next question is important.

And the answer could also leave you with a lot to consider.

If, in your review, you see a clear path to finishing anything you’re missing and getting back on schedule for the rest of the year, you’ll be tempted to move on without much thought, but hear me out.

You were off track for a reason, and that means something has to change. It can be as “simple” (in quotes because NOTHING is simple here) as not having developed a good habit of making time to follow through, or it can be more complex, like a lack of buy-in from the people around you or confusion on their priorities.

None of this is fatal, but it’s not productive to move forward assuming you can suddenly do something you couldn’t before. The best move here is to examine why you’ve lost your way and what you can do to change that and get that done before you scrap your content plan entirely.

Which leads us to…

Question #3: Should you change tracks entirely?

Finding out your plans won’t work mid-year can be a serious blow to your ego, but it can also happen to anyone. Even the best-laid plans are subject to the whims of the economy, changes in the industry, new technology, or sudden turnover on your team.

And it’s tempting, once the weather starts to get warmer, to say, “We’re halfway through the year already; let’s just do something different NEXT year.”

If your organization seems to be on the right path – your key performance indicators (KPIs) are where you want them to be, growth is steady, and there’s no sign of that changing – you might feel like you can abandon your content plan altogether without missing a beat.

This is a good time for me to remind you that the success you see today has its roots in the work you were doing 6 – 18 months ago or longer. And if you start phoning it in now, you’re setting yourself up for trouble in the next 6 -18 months (or more).

So, instead of just white-knuckling it through the rest of this year with a flawed plan, take the time to stop and reassess.

Ask yourself if you need to:

• Pivot what you’re focused on to make more of an impact on an economic downturn.
• Shift some budget to leverage new platforms and reach those early adopters.
• Right-size your goals for the year to make the most of a smaller staff.
• Or make whatever changes it takes for your content plan to meet the moment you’re in.

Let me be clear: you don’t fail when your plan doesn’t work the way you thought it would, only when you fail to change it so it will.

* I know that I’m pitching this as just three questions, but once you read on, you realize that you could be asking yourself a lot of little questions that go with those three questions. It’s not a trick; it’s just the way things are in Marketing… and life.

About the Author: Suzanne Campbell is the Lead Creative & Brand Champion on the Exclamation Marketing team and the self-proclaimed evangelist for Brand Voice. She’s picked up a lot of smart ideas from a lot of amazing people in her nearly 25 years of experience, and you can frequently hear them on the Awsomology podcast.