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It’s the most wonderful time of the year: annual planning.
It’s Q4, and everyone is scrambling to create their plans for 2019. Annual planning can feel like creating New Year’s resolutions. If you wait until January to start going to the gym, you’re missing out on 11 other months of opportunity to make a positive change.
It’s a great starting point, but it shouldn’t be the only time you stop and evaluate, and if that’s how you operate, you’re doing it wrong.
Planning is important, but end-of-year planning is especially important. PR pros tend to put so much pressure on this year-end work that it becomes overwhelming and time-consuming. Many executives are seeing the metrics for the first time and will probably have questions about performance.
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You want to be ahead of the game, anticipate questions and have solutions.
Understand your goals
What questions are you asked most frequently? What are you reporting on?
Your team might be in charge of acquiring new leads or achieving a conversion rate, but what is the overall business goal?
Some companies aren’t forthcoming with this information. Many companies don’t set goals at all. However, almost every organization is looking to boost revenue.
Tracking
Have you set up Google Analytics and Tag Manager so you can measure conversions? Do you have access to your customer relationship management metrics to know how many net new leads you acquire?
At a minimum, you should