Marketing isn’t a “set it and forget it” game. It’s a responsive, evolving discipline that should reflect not only your business goals but also real-time performance, customer behaviour, and economic shifts. Your mid-year marketing plan check-in is essential to stay competitive. 

If you’re feeling unsure where to start, don’t worry. Here’s how to run a mid-year review that gives you clarity, helps you shift gears, and energizes your team for the back half of the year. 

For the purposes of these exercises, we’ll use examples pretending you are in the manufacturing industry. Let’s get to it! 

1. Revisit Your Purpose and Desired Outcomes 

At Everbrave, we emphasize building a marketing plan with purpose – one that aligns with business objectives and isn’t just a wishlist of tactics. As we wrote in Creating a Powerful Marketing Plan, “A marketing plan is only as strong as the clarity of its goals and alignment with business strategy.” 

When considering a plan, project, or meeting, to make sure it’s valuable and worthwhile, ask yourself these two questions: 

What should the purpose be? 

What are my desired outcomes? 

With that in mind, consider the 2025 marketing plans and goals you set months ago. Has your team’s work been in line with the original purpose, producing your desired outcomes? If not, consider, with your team, to what degree your goals are out of your control (according to the A – Achievable – of SMART goal framework). Below we give you steps to adjust those goals that aren’t achievable. If your team’s work is in line with your purpose and desired outcomes, the following steps will help you identify the successes you should amplify. 

2. Reflect on Your Marketing Priorities 

Every organization juggles multiple priorities, but your people should have a North Star Metric tattooed in their mind. This is the one metric that, when improved, makes the biggest difference for your revenue or customer growth goals. For Amazon it’s Number of Purchases per Month per Customer, Airbnb: Nights Booked, Facebook: Daily Active Users.  

If you’re not a mega tech company, but a manufacturer, a good North Star Metric could be Revenue per Order per Customer. Growth, in this example, allows the manufacturer to conclude that customers are getting increasing value from your product line and keep coming back for more. 

Next, reflect on those priorities and desired outcomes under your North Star metric. Were you focused on boosting web traffic or increasing social engagement? These priorities should be able to directly contribute to your goal.  

If your goal is Lifetime Value or retention related – keep in mind these are long-term goals. They’re good metrics to measure, so work with your team to keep them attainable within your annual timeline. It’s unreasonable to expect you’ll hit your overarching LTV target with just a couple of campaigns. Instead, focus on indicators like repeat visits, referral actions, and engagement with loyalty offers. 

If you’re off pace, don’t panic. Long-term goals require incremental wins. Consider whether you’ve laid the groundwork or need to revisit the fundamentals (e.g. onboarding experience or email nurture sequences). 

3. Evaluate Your Growth Motion 

Every organization has a primary growth motion that out ways any other channel. 

• Sales-led: Then marketing needs to feed the funnel with qualified leads. 

• Word-of-mouth: Time to double down on client referrals, testimonials, and loyalty programs. 

• Product-led/self-serve: Your digital presence and user experience are your top priorities. 

As a manufacturer, if word of mouth is your biggest growth lever, consider increasing budget for your account managers to reward clients with gift cards or golf games who refer you the most business. 

As we’ve highlighted in How to Set Your 2025 Marketing Budget, “When you understand your primary growth motion, you can align your investments accordingly.” Your mid-year adjustment should reflect this understanding. 

4. Develop a Progress Report 

If you haven’t yet measured your performance against your annual SMART goals, now’s the time. Break your annual goals in half to gauge where you should be at the six-month mark. For example: 

• Annual Goal: Increase website leads by 30% 

• Mid-Year Target: 15% lead increase from January–June 

• Actual Performance: 8% increase 

Make accommodations for seasonality: As a manufacturer for industrial components, you’re probably busiest in spring and summer as clients ramp up construction and maintenance projects in the warmer months. A slow Q1 doesn’t mean you’re failing – it means your planning should account for seasonal trends. Plot KPIs on a timeline and see if performance lines up with expected activity spikes. 

5. Analyze What’s Working (and What’s Not) 

This is where the real insight happens. Take a critical look at your initiatives: 

• What did you do? (e.g. social ads targeting sub-contractors) 

• What didn’t you try? (e.g. conference event sponsorship, which could work well for making new industry relationships) 

• What did you do differently? (e.g. weekly manufacturing videos on social media of your cool machines machining!) 

• What was the impact? 

Analyze your data to determine what represents a: 

• Blip (one poor-performing email) 

• Trend (steady decline in leads quarter over quarter over quarter) 

• Significant change (10% lift in web traffic after launching a new blog series) 

For example, if your manufacturing company launched a new blog featuring installation and maintenance tips and saw increased SEO traffic and newsletter signups, double down on that content. If you ran Google Ads with little traction, dig into targeting or landing page design before pulling the plug. 

Asking these questions allows you to employ aspects of the scientific method, resulting in conclusions that pinpoint insights, guiding your strategy. 

6. Stay Close to Your Customers 

This isn’t just good practice – it’s a survival tactic. Ask yourself and your team: “What problem are we solving that no one else can?” Use customer feedback and insights to find answers. 

Try these: 

• Run a short survey with clients post-service 

• Set up brief interviews with past customers 

• Monitor reviews for recurring themes 

Your manufacturing plant might learn that clients love your transparency during the quoting process – a great angle for marketing. Or you might discover pain points you didn’t know existed, like delays in delivery. 

Customer insight should shape marketing strategy – not the other way around. Better alignment here leads to better performance. 

7. Have Open, Productive Conversations About Underperformance 

Campaigns usually don’t perform according to plan. What matters most is how you respond. When reviewing underperformance with your team or marketing lead: 

• Own the misses without blame. If your social campaign didn’t generate leads because you misjudged the audience, be real about that – don’t hide it. 

• Provide solutions. After being honest and analyzing the data, provide ideas without bias for leadership and the team to wrestle with. Sharing ideas before deciding on direction increases team buy-in on the direction that is eventually chosen. 

• Invite participation. Ask your team for ideas –those closest to the work often have the best insights. 

By approaching this with transparency and collaboration, you foster a growth mindset and a culture that values learning over perfection. 

Final Thoughts 

A mid-year marketing review isn’t just about fixing what’s broken – it’s about amplifying what’s working and being agile enough to adapt. By taking a structured, honest look at your performance, goals, and customer feedback, you empower your team to make the second half of your year filled with confidence and over performance. 

Need help making sense of your data or reworking your plan? Reach out to Everbrave – we’re here to bring clarity, creativity, and strategy to your brand’s growth journey.