For example, do they plan on improving their retention rate so that they don’t have to go after net new clients, or will they be trying to cross-sell more in the new year? Once they decide on a strategy, they can ‘back their way’ into 2021 by examining what they’ve done in 2020. Schroeder recommends that agency leaders determine where their leads came from over the past 12 months and how much they sold from each main lead source. One agency may be getting 30% of its leads from referrals, 25% from marketing, and 10% from cold calling, with the rest coming from purchased leads and miscellaneous sources. That agency then needs to analyze how much its producers are actually selling from each of those lead sources, and how the team wants to move forward. For instance, should they aim to get more referrals since it’s this agency’s biggest source of leads, and if so, how does the agency plan to achieve this, or does the agency focus on growing its marketing channels to boost that lead source? When approaching this planning, agencies should avoid looking at vanity metrics, such as the likes on social media, or the opens and clicks in email campaigns. Marketing is, after all, tied to sales, so they have to look at what sales they’re getting from marketing channels to know what’s working. Schroeder suggests agencies pull reports out of their comparative raters or agency management systems to understand sales by source and get to those really important numbers. Read more: Agencies can make use of geo-targeting on social media to optimize engagement Crafting a digital marketing strategy for 2021 will differ watch this video between agencies who are new to the game and those who already have a well-developed strategy in place. Schroeder cautions that those who are just entering the digital marketing world should resist the urge to “do everything.” “I would advise those agencies … to choose the one or two things that you want to try and focus on first, because [otherwise], you’re going to be doing too much and spreading yourself too thin,” she said.