Don’t Miss Out On Easily Increasing Your 2019 Marketing ROI
January 2017 – Revenue Marketing’s Most Important Month
I may not even know you but I am confident that January will be your organization’s best month for marketing. In my 20+ years in acquisition and retention marketing, in multiple industries, one thing is almost universally true. Whether it is for credit cards, payroll marketing, flowers, health, or auto insurance your marketing investment will perform better in January than any other month. Sure, you may get more sales in other months. For example, retail is obviously going to do it’s best in December. However, if you take a close look you will see that the ROI for a marketing dollar invested in December will pale compared to the ROI of a marketing dollar invested in January.
What Makes January So Special?
What makes January so special you ask? Well in the month of January the optimism of the American consumer is unparalleled. This month, more than any other month, people plan to:
Lose Weight
Stop Smoking
Stop Drinking
Make More Money
Start Saving
Find Love
and of course, Be a Better Person.
In addition, we will start learning a new language, ask for a raise, buy a home, lower our golf handicap, so on, and so forth.
With all this unbridled optimism one can understand why it’s a great month for marketing. January is about change and so is great marketing. January and marketing, two peas in a pod, a match made in heaven. But take note, not all days in January are the same. The best day is Tuesday after New Years’ day. Yikes, you just missed it. Why not Monday? Because all the smart marketers are inundating everyone with marketing on Monday when all the consumers want to do is get through their inbox. As the month progresses marketing ROI diminishes as our consumers realize that change is very difficult. However, an average day in January is better than a great day in July. So the message is that in January you should be in the market in a strong way. If you aren’t already you’ve got time to still make something happen in your more nimble channels.
Seasonality – Swim With The Tide
January represents the best of opportunities to take advantage of seasonality. Americans have a behavior trail that is pretty consistent. Marketers are always trying to cut through the clutter to get their message to resonate. However, if you pick the wrong month to invest your marketing dollars you may find yourself swimming against the tide. To help you swim with the tide below is my guide to what you should expect from seasonality for revenue marketing. As always, you need to establish the best practices for your individual product category However, this is a good general overview of marketing seasonality.
January – the absolute best. Invest heavily.
February – still a lot of momentum from the start of a new year.
March – probably the third best month for marketing investments. This is a good month to leverage what you learned from tests in the first two months.
April – a noticeable drop in marketing ROI. It may be that many Americans are focused on taxes and reducing spending.
May – maybe a little better than April at the beginning but as we approach Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer Marketing ROI starts to drop.
June – usually lower activity than May, particularly near the end when the summer months are on the horizon.
July – the beginning of the dog days of summer for Marketing ROI. This is usually the worst month, particularly for B2B marketing.
August – please make it stop! The numbers aren’t good but it is a great time to plan for the 3rd and 4th quarters.
September – the first two weeks resemble the summer months but it starts to noticeably pick up in the second half of the month, particularly for B2B.
October – the planning begins which leads to the best month in the second half of the year for marketing ROI.
November – the first couple of weeks are the best for the second half of the year but the last two look more like December, not good.
December – It’s a crowded field full of distractions and the worst month for most to invest in marketing.
