2025 Marketing Strategy -

My Marketing Strategy for 2025 - 15 Essential Steps

In this episode of Content Catalyst, marketing strategist and video coach Deb Szabo shares a comprehensive 15-point checklist for developing a robust marketing strategy for 2025. Deb provides valuable insights on everything from reviewing past performance to setting clear goals, analysing your audience, and leveraging AI and automation.

Key Points:
• The importance of reviewing and reflecting on past performance before planning for the future
• Setting clear, measurable goals that align with business, marketing, and content objectives
• Conducting thorough audience analysis to ensure you're attracting the right clients
• Leveraging AI and automation to optimise your marketing efforts

⏰ Timecodes ⏰
0:00 Introduction to 2025 Marketing Strategy Planning
1:15 Review and Reflect on Past Performance
2:30 Set Clear Goals and KPIs
3:45 Audience Analysis
5:20 Competitor Landscape Analysis
6:40 Product Mix Review
7:55 Channel Strategy Evaluation
9:10 Content Strategy Development
11:30 Brand Positioning Review
12:45 Technology and Tools Assessment
14:00 Budget Allocation
15:15 Measurement and Analytics
16:30 Team Structure and Skills Evaluation
18:00 Risk Assessment and Contingency Planning
19:30 Milestone Creation and Time Blocking
21:00 Process Review and Optimization
22:30 Joy Factor Consideration

What to do next: Download the free annual planning template mentioned in the show notes to start mapping out your 2025 marketing strategy

Resources Mentioned:
• Content Catalyst Blueprint https://www.debszabo.com/blueprint
• Download Annual Planning Calendar Template https://www.debszabo.com/resource

• Book a call to discuss your marketing planning day and video content day options https://calendly.com/connect-rtq/discovery-call

This video/podcast is for you if you're interested in:
• Marketing strategy development
• Business planning for 2025
• Content marketing
• AI and automation in marketing
• Personal branding
• Business growth strategies

About Deb Szabo:

Content Catalyst Membership
Content Catalyst Membership is an online marketing hub designed to help you create content marketing to promote your business, position your brand, and scale revenue. This comprehensive resource provides tools and strategies to enhance your content marketing efforts.

Content Catalyst Blueprint
The Content Catalyst Blueprint is an online practical course that equips businesses with a Content Marketing Strategy and Plan. This program offers a toolbox for easily creating a content strategy, including developing content themes, planning, and leveraging AI to streamline the process.

Connect with Deb Szabo:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debszabo_video/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@debszabovideo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-szabo/
Email: [email protected]
Website: debszabo.com

Episode Transcript

have you begun planning for 2025
as we approach the end of the year
many of us begin to wind down for the festive season however
in business
this is the prime time that we need to be planning for the following
year and in this episode of Content Catalyst
I'm going to share with you my checklist
so you can develop a solid marketing strategy for 2025
and here are 15 things to consider when you're doing that okay
so number one is we want to review and reflect before we plan forward
we have to know where we've been and I did this over the weekend
I sat down I looked at everything I've done throughout the whole year
I looked at all of my um data points
my metrics and my offers my audience
everything and it gave me so much insight as to uh
what I have done and the results of that
and also how I'm going to move forward with uh
my business for 2025
so the question that I'm going to get you to ask of going uh
once you've identified your key learnings
and the areas for improvement
the question to ask is what worked and what can I do better
so No. 2 is to set clear goals and KPIs
the biggest thing with metrics is that we are always
want to be looking at measurable goals
and align those business goals with our marketing goals
and then our content marketing goals
because every single one of those influences the other
so we need to be making sure that we are aligning those three uh
points
now the question to ask is what do I want my business to look like
uh for 2025 James clear in Atomic Habits
he um
he has this uh quote that's goals are good for setting direction
but systems are best for making progress
and that is one of the things that I'll be looking at for my business
as well so No. 3 is audience analysis
now I have just released um
a Content Colours Blueprint
which is to help business with a uh
content marketing strategy and plan
and one of the things that we look at it is our uh
goals and then our offer and then our audience
so audience analysis
gives us so much information about the activities that we've done uh
throughout the year attracts a certain audience
and they can either be our ideal audience
or they could be the wrong audience uh
that we want and they might be they might be high maintenance
they might be you know not good payers
they might be all of those things
and then you gotta consider
is that the type of person or they like might be a low spending uh
buyer and so you need to ask yourself
all the activities
that you've done throughout the year has attracted that audience
and are they the type of people that I want to work with
moving forward the other opportunity is identifying any emerging
audiences that you need to tap into
so in the Blueprint exercise we look at with our audience
we have our cohorts which is the um
segments that we want to look at
and then we identify and profile our buyer persona
so the question to ask is
what type of clients or customers do I want to attract
the No. 4 thing is competitor landscape
so we want to look at what is happening out there in the market
so customers is internally uh
and and I'll just sort of point out as well
the other data point to look at with your audience is really profile
your mailing list your customer database and look at where do they
look at their demographic and psychographic okay
look at where they live uh look at their gender
look at their um
age because these data points help us when we are working out uh
in person events for example
if you're going to be doing workshops and also for your Facebook ads
if you're planning ad campaigns
this information is so so powerful
um so we want to look at uh profiling that with our audience
so just on to No. 4 with competitor landscape
is that we want to do a complete competitor analysis
now that is our direct and indirect customers
so direct customers could be someone that's doing exactly
the same as you but then the other type of competitor could be um
you know things like AI for example have
have replaced many many jobs
but they've also created jobs as well
so we want to be looking at um
what is the indirect um
you know competitor that I'm not actually seeing
that could jeopardize my business
but you could also identify market gaps and opportunities as well
so the question to ask yourself
how can I be first or different um
in the um
in your business
okay No. 5 is our product mix
we want to look at reviewing our products and our services
and our pricing as well so when we do that
then we can review the customer journey of how they find us
how we nurture them and then how we convert them from a uh
essentially a follower into a customer
and then if we have them as a customer
how come
then we continue to work with them or get referral business from them
so this is one of the um
biggest things that I look at when it comes to the product mix
is the question to ask is um
what does my customer journey look like
alright No. 6 is our channel strategy
so we want to look at where we are currently um
promoting our business and then we want to look at
are there any new platforms or technologies
that we can take advantage of
and then also look at the optimum channel mix for you um
and the question to here to ask is where do I like to hang out
now you want to obviously be hanging out where your audience um
is but I had this conversation with somebody recently in our session
and they were like
my audience is like potentially actually over on TikTok
but I just don't like hanging out there
and I'm like don't hang out there
get your scheduler to schedule in content out there
and then you just continue to hang out in Instagram
if that's where you like to hang out over here
um the other opportunity that I always see coming out of this is uh
you know can I
how can I um
fall in love with the platform where my audience is
and I think about I'm talking about Instagram
it's like years ago
I was a Facebook girl and I just didn't get Instagram
I just didn't get it and I was like
right obviously this is where our clients are
our customers are I need to understand this platform better
so I did I did a deep dive
I did some training in Instagram and I really like went into it
and then I was like this is actually a cool place
this is it where the conversation happens in DMS and things like that
so how can you um
maybe look at understanding the platform better and the
you know the nuances of the platform better
okay No. 7 is content strategy
now this is probably one of the
biggest things that will help move the needle in your business
when you get the other things clarified and um
and on point is your content strategy
content marketing is free and
and it's an incredible resource available to us
and it's not just social media
content marketing is uh all the things you know
it's booklets I did a booklet a couple of weeks ago for a client um
and it can be um you know long form content such as YouTube
it can be your podcast it can be your blog
it can be your newsletters
it can be all of these things that are for free
it takes your time and that's all your investment is however
your time is precious and what we want to do is work smarter not harder
that was the reason why I actually created
the Content Catalyst Blueprint as a program
for people because I wanted to give them a
the toolbox uh
to be able to create a content strategy easily
for them and their team because here are the things
you need to develop your content themes and topics that uh
relate to your audience and also um
showcases what you do the value that you offer
you need a content planner so you're not coming into the month going
I don't know what to create and you're making content on the ad
ad hoc um
and that also aligns with your customer journey as well
and then how can you leverage AI to shortcut this process
you know like you can save between 10 and 20 hours a week
um by using AI when you are uh got a system and a workflow
which is what I share with you in the Blueprint
now with the content strategy as well
it's it's not just about making one piece of content
you want to be able to optimize and maximize
the time that you're creating
because you don't need to be doing everything
by the way you know
you need to turn up to do the YouTube video
and connect with your audience
so you've got a hero piece of long form content
but then if you've got the right systems and workflow
you can be outsourcing that to your team
to be able to repurpose that across all the channels
and get the results um
so if you do
want to know more about how to get a content marketing strategy
then check out the Blueprint
uh program because it is uh available now
uh on demand
so the question to ask yourself in this point is
have I got a content strategy
am I leveraging AI automations
and am I optimizing my content to repurpose
and the key thing here as well as
am I optimizing my content for AI search engine discoverability
because this is going to be a big thing in 2025
I'm going to do a whole separate episode on uh
AI search engine discoverability
but I really want you to um
put that little feather in your cap and really consider uh
the activities that you do
and that is again why I created the Blueprint
it's all about um the AI search engine discoverability
alright so the next thing in No. 7 is brand positioning
I really want you to reflect on your brand as it is right now
your personal and your business brand
I want you to look at
remember brand is more than just your logo and your colours okay
it's the reputation that you've positioned in the marketplace
based on all those activities that you've done
and it's what other people perceive you to be
so I really want you to review your branding
and have a look at it across all channels
sometimes it's good to do that uh
with an outsider looking in
because often we can't read the label from inside the jam jar
so get a brand audit um
and do a brand audit on your business and really evaluate
what do you stand for and are you aligned with that
um with what you put out there
alright so No. 8 is technology and tools
assess what your current marketing tech stack is
and then identify AI and automation opportunities
I can't stress that enough for 2025
you need to be thinking about all the things to do with um
you know one of the things and again I'll do a separate episode of um
you know data privacy and um data strategies and things like that
so the question to ask for No. 8 is
am I optimizing AI and the tech that I have
is there a better way and uh to do things
alright number nine is budget allocation
so have you allocated a budget for 2025
um and that might just be for running Facebook ads
or it could be for your collateral or maybe you need to do a rebrand
um maybe you want to set up a new location whatever that is
have you allocated a budget for that
um
uh and then again look at the activities that you've done for the year
what gave you the best ROI
and um and look at really um you know doubling down on that
so the question to ask is
what gave me the biggest ROI and what do I need to scrap
alright number ten
it was it was staying with numbers for a minute is measurement and
and analytics okay
so we want to look at our key metrics now again
inside the Blueprint
I have a whole lesson dedicated to uh metrics and whole lesson
it's three minutes like literally
but the reason why
is that
a lot of people get overwhelmed of not looking at their metrics
and the thing is when you look at your metrics
you can see what's working and you do more of that
you can um pivot when things aren't uh moving along as you need to
so it's really crucial to be looking at your um
metrics each month I have a calendar uh
reminder on the 1st of each month to do that
so the question to ask is
do I have a reporting system
and it's just as simple as a spreadsheet
like literally alright
so No. 11 is team structure and their skills uh
look at uh
what are what is my team now
what are their skill set
what is any gaps that I need to upskill them on
um and also consider outsourcing how
what can you outsource now
um any partnerships that you can do with collaborations
okay so this is a big thing for me
I got an assistant on this year and you know um uh
she needs some upskilling still because you know
it's a it's a work in progress
you know I can't expect her to just
you know jump in and know my business inside and out
so I'm just going to allocate each month and dedicate some um
time to in my calendar to be able to getting her skilled up
and she's come so far I'm so
so grateful of where she's come
and let me tell you is that if you are a solo entrepreneur
and you've been working on your own
getting a an assistant
a VA in is one of the best investments
I know people say it all the time
but it's one of the best things um
to just move you to that next level
and
I'll be looking at a couple of people that I'll be getting on board
uh for the next year especially with editing and things like that
so I want to be able to uh do more content here
so to do that I need to um
recruit the right people to help with those things
and it couldn't just be you know
if I want to double down on my YouTube content
I need somebody to help me perhaps with um writing
uh designing the thumbnails and um and editing there
and if I get somebody to support me with that
then how much more content
how much more valuable content can I make to help people
that's the question that I ask
so the question that I ask you is
what's the one thing that you would love to outsource now
and um and can you do it how can you do that
because it's funny when we go
I can't afford to outsource anything at the moment
but ironically when you outsource it
you think how did I ever do with that out with do without that person
alright so No. 12 is um risk assessment and having a contingency plan
this is a big thing when it comes to uh
we don't really think about this until thing things go south and I
and I'm just going to say if like just have a little think about this
you don't need to spend much time on this
but I really want you to think about this of going remember in 2020
you know what happened in 2020
it was the businesses that were agile that pivoted quickly
that thrived and the businesses that didn't shut down okay
so I want you to think about what is any potential
and I always think about technology at the moment of like
that is probably what I considered to be the biggest threat um
with technology of like if everything shut down tomorrow
how would I how would I so um
the other thing is that I recently got sick
and I wasn't able to worked my full capacity for a few weeks
and how did that affect my business
what contingency plan can I put in place for next year
so that doesn't happen
the other thing is that I always get to the end of the year
and I had like clockwork and I don't like to put the juju out there
but you know I get to October
November my body's tired and if ever I'm going to get sick
it's around that time and sure enough
it happened this year so I am actually building in um uh
next year uh to have uh some really scheduled um time
um to make sure that doesn't happen so yeah
have a think about that um
the other threat that can happen as well
is what would happen if my main account on my
social media got hacked um
this is something that I see so much with um creators
content creators that have built all their following on one platform
and they lose it they get shut down
they get shadowbanned
and then all of a sudden their main income source uh
is gone so I really want you to think about uh
what um is it you need to have a secondary uh Instagram account
have you got two factor verification on all of your accounts
just things like that have a think about it alright No. 13 milestones
create quarterly so here's the thing
when you do your annual plan
put your annual plan in then break it down into quarterly chunks
and then monthly chunks and then weeklys okay
so when you do that and you start time blocking things
it becomes really powerful
now if you um are part of an accountability group
this is what I want you to come into the accountability group with
each week I want you to look at what is my quarterly goal
what is my weekly monthly goal rather and my weekly goal
when you go into that accountability group each
you know week I want you to take in what are the
what are the things that I have to do this week
if I want to achieve that monthly goal or that quarterly goal
really be um mindful of that
um break down the activity
so I always work backwards
what's the goal and work backwards
how do I get there what are the checkpoints
what are the milestones so I've got a content shoot this week
and I have milestone set in there
so I've got to do that by that date
I got that by that date
and it's broken up into phases at what can you do
so the question to ask is have I allocated time to plan and evaluate
uh and if you haven't go into your calendar and do that now alright
so No. 14 again
we're just about reviewing and optimizing your processes okay
so if you schedule time to do this
then you can come in and go I'm in the middle of a launch and and
and I'm I'm it's crickets
no one's biting no one's turning up to my webinars no one's um
coming to my event that I booked
how can I review and optimize
so I don't get to the end of the campaign and go well
that was a failure
and I've done this for years when I worked in um wine marketing
you know
we would put out an event a wine lunch or a wine dinner or whatever
and if the tickets were slow in selling
I always knew whether an event was going to sell out um
and whether I would have to work really hard for it
because the instant I put out something
and this applies to webinars again
these days if I
put out something and I just like tease a little bit of it
and I have people like initially jump on it
then I know I'm onto something okay
if by Week 1 I'm into it and it's crickets
then I know I need to change things and evaluate things straight away
and it could just be I need to rename it
I need to put in a new header image
whatever it is
I want you to do it sooner rather than later and tweak it
testing a B testing is the other thing to do now most emails
um uh YouTube everything allows you to a B test these days
and I really want you to optimize those um
those things with your subject lines
with your thumbnails
everything so schedule regular reviews for that as well
the question to ask here is am I agile to pivot
and that is one of the things that you will if you are agile to pivot
you will do well if um things aren't going as fast as you like
um
it could also work in the case of a friend of mine's got a business
and um
she sells out of her product
she can't keep up demand at the time
so again it's like optimizing those processes so she uh
can have stock for those key selling times
like Black Friday and Christmas and things like that alright
so No. 15 the last one here for a solid marketing
strategy for 2025 is your joy factor
we spend so much time at work and working on our businesses
especially if we're like self employed
we're doing all the things
we're juggling all the roles and what we do want to do is work
uh doing what lights us up
are we aligned with our mission and our values of going
what a what a
what am I doing this for why am I getting out of bed today
and because when things are dark
and every business will go through that point of darkness of going
if I hold focus of going this is my why
this is what I do um uh
am I in alignment with that
it will help you get through when the pendulum swings the other way
so I really want you to think about
am I in alignment with what am I doing
um and this is one of the things that I see a lot of people
when they merge from their um
full time jobs into their um
new business ventures and I went through this myself of going
just because I can do this doesn't mean that I should do this
um I really want you to think about
and that can just be sitting down and doing and again a
a review on what you love to do
and in all of this um
you don't need to do all of these things alone
you can get somebody to do this
this is what I'm doing at the moment
I've got um uh
members and clients that are currently booking in for a marketing
uh uh
planning day and then the following day we're doing a content day
um so they're ready for 2025
they've got their videos ready to go and
but they've also worked on the customer journey and their offers
and all of those 15 things that we've spoken about
so if you do want to know more about that
um yeah
just uh
I'll put the details in the show notes as well
but the best way to get
planning for 2025 is I just have a Google template
and the Google template is an annual planning calendar
and what I do is set the intentions by going
I want to do a workshop here
I want to do I want to launch my course here
I want to do I want to go away here
I want to do I want to do all these things here
and then if you um just even put them in there
even if it moves around and you go
I don't know what I'm going to be doing in October next year
that's okay just put it in there
and if you at least put it in there
you have a higher chance of it actually coming um
coming to pass coming to fruition
uh if you don't put anything in a planner
nothing's going to happen uh
because a um you know a dream
a goal is it a goal without a dream
it is just a wish um
was it a no a dream without a goal is just a wish
that's the saying okay
so if you I've got a free um template by the way
if you want this uh annual planning template
uh just I'll put the details in the show notes
you can download it now uh
go and grab a
a drink and sit down for a couple of hours and just map it out
put it in there and think about what do I want to do
what do I like doing what when do I want to launch
all of those kind of things if you're doing campaigns and things
alright well
they are the main things to consider when you are uh
planning for 2025 for your marketing activities
if you've got other things to think about that
you do let me know in the comments
what else do you like to do when you're planning out your year
uh and the biggest thing again with that joy factor
what's your reward
you know what what is your reward when you achieve your milestones
uh what is your reward to yourself
um
I love you know going away somewhere and having a nice reward of that
that's my you know or a nice massage
that's always good too I love that alright
well that's all for me for today again
if you want to get the annual planner uh calendar
you can download that free template
now if you do want to work on your content strategy
um
there is the Content Catalyst Blueprint as well
all the details are in the show notes
and until the next episode of Content Catalyst
I'm Deb Szabo

2025 Marketing Strategy -

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