Take the last few months of 2015 to assess your clients and marketing.

Although 2015 won’t be over until the last day of December, September always feels like the start of something new. With the temperatures starting to cool, kids going back to school, and the culmination of a year’s hard work at the annual Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference, September is a great month for reflecting on the work of the previous year and planning for things to come. Here are four points to ponder in order to revive your marketing in 2016:

• Take a hard look at the work you are doing and who you are doing it for. Is your revenue stream heavily dependent on a few big clients? Is your market or geographical area one that has shrinking possibilities or that won’t be around forever? If so, now is the time to think about diversification or expansion. If you’re already heavily diversified, now is the time to focus on your strongest capabilities and the things that are the most profitable.

• If you aren’t on social media, there’s no reason to wait any longer. It’s easy, it’s free, and it works. No, you probably won’t sell a job on Facebook, but marketing in 2016 will require you to touch prospective clients in multiple ways and at multiple times in order to win new work. You will need a strong online presence to attract the attention of the next generation of decision makers.

• Marketing lists. Your marketing is only as good as the people you reach. Are you reminding past clients of your existence and current capabilities? Have you added new capabilities that they might not know about? If you aren’t carefully keeping track of this, now is the time to start. There are a variety of client relationship management programs on the market that can help with this. Getting new clients and new names to market to will be more important than ever in 2016 (see point No. 1). Events, trade shows, contests, social media, surveys, and even purchasing lists are all good ways to get new names.

• Segment. This goes along with having good marketing lists. A key feature of marketing in 2016 will be the ability to target your audience in a personal way. Not everything you do needs to reach everyone, and not everyone wants to be reached in the same way.

With the heat of the summer cooling down, now is the perfect time to take a few simple steps forward to revive your marketing. This next year will be filled with new possibilities! CHRISTINA ZWEIG is a management and marketing consultant at Zweig Group. Contact her at christinaz@zweiggroup.com.

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