The early summer months are the perfect time to reassess and readjust your annual marketing plan. A mid-year marketing checkup provides real-time feedback on performance, encourages marketers to reflect on overall progress and make adjustments where needed. The mid-year checkup will help you gauge how your daily, weekly and monthly efforts are working together to meet critical organizational goals.

To perform a mid-year marketing checkup, use the following checklist:

Often, marketing plans are created and then filed away, never again seeing the light of day. Take the time to review your marketing plan to determine if adjustments are necessary. Which goals and tactics have been achieved? Has anything fallen through the cracks? Do you need to perform a new SWOT analysis? Are there changes in the marketplace that need to be addressed? Has the company introduced new products or services that weren’t originally anticipated? If you haven’t already developed a plan, now is the time to create one for the remainder of the year.

Where does your marketing budget stand? Are you already in the red or are there dollars available for new projects? Many organizations have a “use it or lose it” policy when it comes to their budgets. Don’t put yourself in the position of rushing into decisions at the end of the year because you need to spend those dollars. Reallocate your budget now and you will be in good shape by December 31.

Does your home page clearly communicate your company’s value proposition? Does the content reflect what your customers or clients are looking for? Is the design dated? Does it have a logical flow? Do your calls to action need a tune-up? Are all links working properly? Is your site easily viewed and navigated on mobile devices? If you haven’t made any upgrades to your website in three years or more, it’s time. While a complete overhaul may not be a possibility by the end of the year, some simple changes can go a long way with visitors and search engines. Post fresh content in the form of blogs, white papers, case studies and customer success stories. Change out images that have been there since the site launched. Remove outdated information and fix any broken links.

Where is your website traffic coming from? Look beyond geographical regions and see how visitors are finding your site. Are they coming to website through organic search? What keywords are they using? Are visitors linking to a landing page through your email or digital marketing efforts? Are they looking at your site on their desktop computers or mobile devices? Understanding what is driving your website traffic can help to prioritize your marketing tactics and budgets to drive qualified visitors to your site.

How many newsletters, newsletters, drip campaigns and other emails have you sent this year? What is your average open rate? Which topics or messages generate the most opens and clicks? Does the day of the week and time of your send your messages affect engagement? Have you done A/B testing with subject lines and sender names? If so, what does the data tell you? How can you leverage this information in other initiatives? Email is one of the most economical ways to reach your target audiences. Be sure you are continually cultivating your email list and nurturing relationships with your subscribers.

It can be difficult to measure the ROI of social media, yet it’s a must in today’s digital-first landscape. Take a good look at engagement and determine which platforms are performing best for you. Also, the more trackable your social media marketing is, the easier it is to evaluate success. Consider using tracking links, dedicated landing pages and channel-specific promotions to determine what is working and what isn’t. It’s better to be successful on a few platforms than barely noticed on all of them.

The content audit is often overlooked (or avoided), but it can provide critical insight into the success or failures of your marketing efforts. Take an inventory of all the content used in your sales and marketing efforts and assess its strengths and weaknesses. Use data collected from your website, email and social-media reviews to determine what content is resonating with your target audiences. Can that content be repurposed on other platforms? If content isn’t performing, does it need to be updated or retired? What do your thought leaders want to share? Talk to your sales, product and customer service teams to determine the types of content they would find helpful. Identify where content holes exist and create a plan to fill those gaps.

Evaluate your content mix and determine if there are formats that you need more or less of. For example, do you need to add more video and fewer white papers or vice versa? Is it time to add or remove something, or change percentages of your content types? Review and refine calls to action (CTA) for every piece of content. Review each content channel. How are your blog, online community, video, mobile, social media and other channels performing? Who is subscribing? Why are they subscribing or unsubscribing? When done correctly, a content audit can provide the foundation for demonstrating marketing’s ROI and value to the organization.

Having great content on your website and social media channels isn’t enough. To drive new leads, it’s important to be recognized as an expert in your industry. One of the best ways to do this is through bylined articles authored by your company’s thought leaders. How many articles have you published this year? If the answer is none, it’s time to make plans for at least two by the end of the year. Bylined articles in reputable publications are an excellent tool for the sales team later in the sales funnel and fuel content marketing on multiple platforms. If you have a public relations program, evaluate its progress. Have your press releases been picked up by relevant media outlets? Were there missed opportunities? Why did some stories resonate and others didn’t generate widespread coverage?

This seems obvious, but it’s important to get back to basics by understanding your target audience’s pains and motivators, needs and wants so you can deliver content that resonates with them. Listen in on your social networks and online communities, engage with your audience and obtain market feedback from customer-facing teams. Take any new information you learned and update your buyer personas. Are your personas covering all key market segments? Always maintain a laser focus on prospects and customers so you can help solve their problems, demonstrate your value and improve overall experience.

If you haven’t done it yet, you still have time to implement the big idea you’ve been holding onto. Be willing to take a risk and gather your team to map out the steps to make it happen.

Maintaining a successful marketing program relies on continual evaluation of performance. Waiting 12 months to determine what’s working and what isn’t limits the opportunity for improvement and means critical resources are going to waste on under-performing activities.

As you go through the mid-year marketing checkup, don’t be afraid to make changes to your strategic plan. Things change. Priorities change. The strategies and tactics you developed six months ago may not be relevant today. It’s not enough to recognize that adjustments or improvements need to be made. Take a hard look at your resources and determine if your internal team has the time and skills necessary to get the job done. If not, it’s time to outsource. To build momentum and accountability, it’s also important to create a timeline for your progress and identify who is responsible for each step along the way.

As you evaluate your organization’s marketing performance during the first half of the year, focus on data that can inform your future strategy and identify opportunities to replicate success. Most of all, stay optimistic, work hard and keep marketing. You’re halfway there.

To learn more about how you can amplify your Q3 and Q4 marketing programs, schedule a call with one of our experts.