How often should you review your business and marketing plans?

As someone busy running a business, you may think that your business plan is done once it’s in motion. The same may be true for your marketing plan. You may feel that what you have set up is working for you well enough and not see the real value in reviewing those plans again.Truthfully, it can be helpful to go back over your business and marketing plans regularly. It’s not a bad idea to do this annually, though you may want to review your plans more or less frequently depending on changes with the market, your vendors and other influences.

Reviewing your business plan annually is a good start

While many people won’t review their business plans very often, reviewing yours annually is a good way to determine if you have missed anything that could help your business grow or if you want to adjust your goals based on your original plan. If you need to add in edits, like new external forces impacting your business or legal issues that you’ve come across, you should do that as soon as possible.

Updating your marketing plan to improve your marketing strategy

While a business plan may not need to be updated or adjusted very often, a marketing plan is different. The way you need to market your business may change over time because marketing is always in a state of flux.You or someone on your team should be monitoring your marketing campaigns, sales, conversions, profits and costs. Tweaks should be made if a marketing campaign is costing you more than it’s bringing in in sales or revenue.It’s smart to take a look at your marketing plan each time you revise or launch a new product. You may want to review it quarterly or semiannually, too, even if everything seems to be going well. This will help you stay on top of new trends and potential marketing ideas to help your company grow.Your business and marketing plans are just two of the plans you should keep updated. These, as well as business contracts and other documents you have in place, should always be kept up to date.