In today’s Two-Minute Tip video, we’re talking about 2 things you should do after your project is finished. Click below to watch the video, or keep scrolling to read the transcript. 

As a busy business owner, your marketing projects probably look a lot like this … 

Step 1: Have genius idea

Step 2: Get team started on genius idea

Step 3: Finish project and launch genius idea

Step 4: Start working on next genius idea

Sound familiar? 

It’s not wrong, and I promise I’m not trying to scold you for keeping the momentum going. But you’re missing an important step in your process. Let’s call it Step 3.5. It’s the step where you pause after you finish a project and you reflect and regroup before you move onto Step 4. 

Oftentimes, especially as business owners, we focus so much on the planning, and the meat of the project that when it’s done, we exhale, and then we’re instantly moving on to the next thing. 

But, there are two things that I think are really important to do for any project after it has wrapped up to make sure that you’re maximizing everything you can learn, and do, in your upcoming projects. 

1. Measure + Optimize

Ok, so the first thing is to measure. 

I can’t say it loud enough, or often enough, measure your marketing. It’s the best thing that you can have to help inform your upcoming planning. 

So, make sure that you have a way to easily access your data, and make sure you or a team member takes the time to set up your tracking, tagging, or anything you possibly can to measure the performance of that specific marketing piece. 

Then after the project is done, set your baseline, so you can see where you’re starting. And then continuously check that data and those analytics and use that to help inform your upcoming planning. 

And, don’t forget to also share that data with your team so your team also knows how things are performing, what’s working, and what’s not. That way you collectively as a whole team can collaborate and brainstorm on what you can learn from that data. 

• Do you have a way to easily access performance or tracking data?
• Do a baseline report at the start
• Check analytics regularly
• Measure and optimize against your goals
• Share the performance data with your team

2. Reflect + Learn

The second thing is to reflect and learn. 

Again, oftentimes, I think we move so fast, going from one project to the next, (which isn’t inherently bad), that we don’t take the time to stop and reflect for a moment. Make sure you take the time to just pause, and reflect on how the project went — good, bad, ugly, whatever it might be. Ask your team for feedback, discuss the good and the bad, and see what you can learn from each project to make sure that you can continue to optimize your marketing, correct the things that maybe didn’t go well or weren’t as efficient, and continue to build on everything you learned moving forward. 

• Are you jumping straight from one project to the next?
• Allow time to reflect after a project is complete
• Ask your team for feedback
• Discuss the good AND the bad
• Use your reflections + analytics to plan

So to recap … 

• Measure
  • Check your analytics
  • Share the data
  • Optimize accordingly

• And reflect
  • Pause to really think about the projects
  • Invite that feedback good and bad
  • Learn from it and plan ahead