How to use this article for your business
Reading about websites or local SEO is useful when it connects to a plan. The Michigan Business Initiative exists so Michigan owners do not have to assemble hosting, design, email, and creative help from separate vendors. Review the full program, compare the single monthly price on pricing, and browse other posts on the blog index after you finish this one.
When you are ready to move forward, use the application or read the FAQ for timelines, ownership, and what happens after launch.
Three hours in December that change next year's plan
Most Michigan small business owners skip the year-end marketing review because they do not know what to look at, and because the year-end calendar is already crowded. Three focused hours in mid-December is enough to do this well. The owners who do it walk into January with a real plan. The owners who skip it spend Q1 reacting.
Block the time. Print the worksheets. Close the laptop tabs. The point is reflection and decisions, not generating more data.
Hour one: where did the leads actually come from
Pull the lead source data from the past 12 months. If you have call tracking set up, this is fast. If you do not, estimate from memory and from any lead source notes you have.
Categorize by channel: organic Google, paid Google, Facebook, Instagram, referrals, repeat customers, truck wrap and offline, other. Total leads, booked jobs, and revenue by channel. Most owners are surprised by which channel is actually number one.
Hour two: spend vs return by channel
Map the marketing spend to each channel. Website hosting, Google Ads spend, Facebook Ads spend, email tool, GBP optimization time, content production time, agency or contractor fees. Add it up by channel.
Now divide. Cost per booked job by channel. Revenue per dollar spent by channel. Two or three channels will look great. One or two will look terrible. The terrible ones are the budget cut for January. The great ones are the budget increase.
Hour three: the content and the website
Pull the website analytics for the year. Top 10 pages by traffic. Top 10 pages by leads. Notice which ones overlap and which do not. The pages with traffic but no leads are conversion problems. The pages with leads but no traffic are SEO opportunities.
Look at the blog. How many posts did you publish? How many do you wish you had published? Was the content actually useful or was it filler? The content marketing guide covers the planning side for next year.
The honest questions
Was the website updated this year? When was the last GBP post? Did the email list grow or shrink? Did the review count grow or shrink? Was the brand presence on social consistent or sporadic?
The owners who answer those honestly find the gaps for next year fast. The ones who skim past produce the same year again.
Writing the January plan
By the end of the three hours, you should have a one-page January plan. The plan answers: which channel gets more budget, which gets less, what one or two new things will we try, what is the goal for total leads per month in Q1.
Skip the 17-point strategic plan. The one-page plan is the one that gets executed.
Hire or not hire
Year-end is also the right time to decide on the marketing hire question. If the previous year produced gaps that an in-house or contracted marketer would have prevented, January is the moment to act. The first marketing hire guide covers the decision criteria.
The hiring decision should be made now, not in March when the pain is acute. Hiring under pressure produces bad hires.
Where MBI fits
Many owners use the year-end review as the moment to decide whether to keep the marketing stitched together themselves or move it to a productized program. The Michigan Business Initiative handles the website, GBP, and ongoing content work for a single monthly cost. Review the program page, the pricing, and the FAQ before January.