Review and Restart: Your Annual Marketing Reset

Most micro-business owners dread the annual marketing review. It gets postponed until February, rushed through in an afternoon, or worse—skipped entirely because "we're too busy doing the work." Then another year passes doing the same activities that didn't convert last time, because no one stopped to ask: "Should we still be doing this?"

This guide takes a different approach. Instead of a sprawling audit that takes days and produces a 40-page report no one reads, you'll complete a focused 3-part review that answers one critical question: What should we stop doing?

You'll use the Keep, Kill, Improve methodology to categorize every major marketing activity, then set just 3 prioritized goals for the next 90 days based on what actually worked. The result? A documented "Stop Doing" list that immediately frees up time and budget, plus a clear action plan that focuses your energy where it matters.

Caption: Download the Annual Marketing Reset Worksheet (Keep, Kill, Improve).

In this guide:

• •Quick Start: The 45-Minute "Kill List"
• •Complete Step-by-Step Annual Marketing Audit
• •Troubleshooting
• •What's Next

Quick Start: The 45-Minute "Kill List"

If you only have 45 minutes, focus exclusively on identifying what to stop. This alone will transform your marketing efficiency.

The 5-Step Kill List Process

Step 1: Filter for Low Converters

Open your analytics and identify your 3 lowest-converting marketing activities from the past year. Look specifically at:

• •Traffic sources that sent visitors but generated zero leads
• •Content pieces that consumed hours but attracted minimal engagement
• •Paid campaigns with cost per lead above your profitable threshold

Don't overthink this. If something consistently underperformed for 12 months, it's a candidate for the kill list.

Step 2: Identify Time-Sinks

Separate from performance data, list 3 marketing activities you genuinely hated doing or that consumed disproportionate time relative to results. Common examples:

• •Daily social media posting that generated no enquiries
• •Monthly newsletters with 8% open rates
• •Networking events that cost £200 and produced one business card

Be honest. If you dreaded it and it didn't convert, it goes on the list.

Step 3: Finalize Your "Stop Doing" List

Cross-reference your low converters with your time-sinks. You're looking for activities that appear on both lists—these are your definite kills. Aim for 3-5 items.

Write them explicitly: "Stop posting daily on Instagram," not "reduce social media." Vague commitments don't stick.

Step 4: Choose ONE High-Impact Goal

Based on the time and budget you've just freed up, identify one marketing activity that did work last year. Set one specific goal to do more of it in the next 90 days.

For example: "Our Google Business Profile generated 40% of our leads. Goal: Publish 2 posts per week and respond to all reviews within 24 hours."

One goal. Measurable. Based on proven performance.

Step 5: Document and Communicate

Add your kill list and single goal to the Annual Reset Worksheet. If you have a team or work with contractors, send them a one-paragraph email: "We're stopping X, Y, Z. We're focusing on A instead. Here's why."

Documentation prevents backsliding. Communication prevents confusion.

✅ Completed the quick version? You've already stopped wasting time and clarified your focus. Move on to Double Down: How to Scale What's Working or continue below for the detailed walkthrough that covers channel audit, budget analysis, and goal-setting methodology.

Complete Step-by-Step Annual Marketing Audit

The complete reset takes approximately 2 hours and produces a comprehensive view of what worked, what didn't, and exactly where to focus next. You'll work through 6 steps using the Annual Reset Worksheet.

Step 1: The Scorecard Review

Start by comparing your actual 12-month performance against the initial goals you set at the beginning of the year (or when you started tracking).

Open your analytics and record:

• •Total website traffic: Actual vs. goal
• •Total leads generated: Actual vs. goal
• •Total customers/sales: Actual vs. goal
• •Revenue from marketing: Actual vs. goal (if tracked)

Don't judge the numbers yet. Just document the gap.

Key question to answer: Which metric had the biggest gap between goal and reality? That's your primary focus area for the next 90 days.

If you exceeded your goals, identify which specific channel or tactic drove the overperformance. That's what you'll scale.

Step 2: Channel Audit (Keep, Improve, Kill)

List every marketing channel you used in the past 12 months. For each one, categorize it using the Keep, Kill, Improve framework:

Keep: High ROI, sustainable effort, you'd do more of it if you had time

Improve: Moderate results, clear opportunity to optimize, worth continued investment

Kill: Low ROI, high effort, no clear path to profitability

Caption: Visualizing the Keep, Kill, Improve decision framework.

For each channel, document:

• •Approximate leads generated
• •Approximate cost (time + money)
• •Rough cost per lead
• •Your honest assessment of effort required

Use your monthly channel performance data to inform these decisions. If you haven't been tracking monthly, estimate based on your best recollection—imperfect data is better than no decision.

Common channel examples:

Keep: "Google Business Profile generated 35 leads at roughly £8 per lead, takes 2 hours per week, we enjoy it."

Improve: "Email newsletter generated 12 leads but open rate dropped from 28% to 15%—needs better subject lines and segmentation."

Kill: "Twitter posting consumed 4 hours per week, generated 2 leads in 12 months, we hate doing it."

Be ruthless with the "Kill" category. If something has been mediocre for 12 months, it's unlikely to suddenly transform without significant new investment.

Step 3: Content & Website Health Check

Review your website's conversion performance by identifying:

Your top 5 pages by traffic: Which ones converted visitors to leads? Which ones didn't?

Content age: How much of your content is over 2 years old? Outdated content damages trust and SEO performance. Flag anything that needs to be updated or removed.

Technical barriers: Are there obvious conversion blockers? Slow load times, broken forms, confusing navigation, missing calls-to-action?

This step typically takes the longest because it requires manual inspection. However, the technical components—site speed, mobile responsiveness, broken links, SEO fundamentals—can be automated.

Caption: NetNav highlights technical issues that drag down conversion—these are automatic items for your "Improve" list.

For content that's outdated or underperforming, follow the process in Update Old Content to Perform Better to decide whether to refresh, redirect, or remove it.

Step 4: Financial Reality Check

This is where you confront the actual cost of your marketing activities. For each channel in your "Keep" and "Improve" categories, calculate:

Cost Per Lead (CPL): Total cost (including your time at a reasonable hourly rate) divided by leads generated

Cost Per Customer (CPC): Total cost divided by actual customers acquired

If you don't track time precisely, estimate conservatively. If you spent 3 hours per week on LinkedIn for 50 weeks, that's 150 hours. Value your time at minimum £20/hour (£3,000), then add any direct costs.

Use the methodology in Calculate Your Cost Per Lead and Cost Per Customer to ensure your calculations are accurate.

Budget black holes are activities where your CPL exceeds the lifetime value of a customer. These move from "Improve" to "Kill" immediately.

Example:

• •LinkedIn posting: 150 hours (£3,000) + £0 direct cost = £3,000 total
• •Leads generated: 8
• •CPL: £375
• •If your average customer value is £500, this channel is unprofitable

Document these numbers honestly. They're the foundation of your restart decisions.

Step 5: Creating the Restart Focus

Now you'll set 3 specific, measurable, time-bound goals for the next 90 days. These goals must focus exclusively on channels categorized as "Keep" or "Improve."

Caption: Focus your new goals on one area of the funnel (Traffic, Leads, or Retention).

Goal-setting framework:

Each goal needs:

• •One channel (e.g., Google Business Profile, email, SEO)
• •One metric (e.g., leads, conversion rate, traffic)
• •One target (e.g., increase by 25%, generate 15 leads, publish 12 posts)
• •One timeframe (90 days)

Example goals:

Goal 1 (Keep): "Generate 20 leads from Google Business Profile by publishing 2 posts per week and responding to all reviews within 24 hours for 90 days."

Goal 2 (Improve): "Increase email open rate from 15% to 22% by testing 3 new subject line formats and segmenting list by customer type within 90 days."

Goal 3 (Keep): "Publish 8 SEO-optimized blog posts targeting our top 3 service keywords to increase organic traffic by 30% in 90 days."

Notice: No goals for "Kill" channels. You've stopped doing those entirely.

Use the structure in Create a 90-Day Marketing Focus Plan to break these goals into weekly actions.

Step 6: Documenting the 1-Page Summary

The final step is to distill the focus into a 1-Page Marketing Plan summary that you can reference weekly.

Your one-page summary should include:

Section 1: Stop Doing (Kill List)

• •3-5 specific activities you're stopping
• •Brief reason for each (e.g., "£375 CPL, unprofitable")

Section 2: 90-Day Focus (3 Goals)

• •Your 3 goals from Step 5, written exactly as above
• •Primary channel for each goal

Section 3: Key Metrics to Track

• •The 3-5 numbers you'll check weekly (leads, CPL, conversion rate, etc.)
• •Current baseline and 90-day target for each

Section 4: Monthly Check-In Date

• •Specific date you'll review progress (e.g., last Friday of each month)

This document lives on your desk, in your project management tool, or pinned to your wall. It's your marketing compass for the next 90 days.

🎉 Completed? You've successfully closed the books on the previous cycle and have a clear, focused plan for the next 90 days. You're ready to move to Double Down: How to Scale What's Working and systematically grow the channels that proved their value.

Troubleshooting

What's Next

You've completed your annual reset and have a focused 90-day plan. The next step is to systematically scale the channels that proved their value.

Immediate next action: Double Down: How to Scale What's Working

Learn how to increase investment in your "Keep" channels without losing efficiency, when to hire help, and how to avoid the common trap of scaling too fast and destroying your ROI.

Go Deeper

Ready to move beyond annual reviews into more sophisticated optimization?

Build a Quarterly Business Review Process

For businesses ready to move beyond the annual review into structured quarterly planning and deep analysis. Covers cross-functional reviews, leading vs. lagging indicators, and scenario planning.

Conversion Rate Optimization Framework

If your review highlighted low conversion as the biggest bottleneck, use this advanced framework to systematically fix it. Covers hypothesis testing, A/B testing basics, and prioritization matrices.

Other Optimise Guides

• •Pick a Handful of Numbers That Matter
• •Use NetNav for a Monthly Website Health Check
• •Document Simple Processes So You're Not the Bottleneck
• •When to Kill a Marketing Channel
• •When to Hire Help (and How Not to Get Burned)