Marketing best practices are always evolving. And if you want to keep up, you need to make sure you’re on top of the trends — particularly the ones designed to help you boost efficiency and spending. Enter consolidation: a marketing tactic you can apply to ensure you’re making the most of your efforts.

Here’s what to know.  

What is marketing consolidation?

Consolidation is a strategy that involves trimming excess marketing tactics and paring them down to their most impactful parts. The goal is to remove the things that don’t serve you and improve the things that do, ultimately leaving yourself with a simpler (but more efficient) overall strategy.

So, what does that look like? Hop on the consolidation trend in one or more of these key areas:

• Content: Feel like you’ve already covered every topic under the sun? Instead of constantly churning out new content, rework what you already have to create higher-quality, higher-ranking pieces. This includes taking various posts on similar topics and combining them into one piece that’s longer and more authority-driven than its predecessors.

• Data: Stop digging around for data. Consolidate all of your analytics onto one dashboard, including your CRM, content metrics, and general site metrics. You’ll save a lot of time, and you’ll also get more useful insights out of the data you track.
• Digital and print strategies: Try to avoid siloed strategies. As we head into the new year, make a point of looking at the big picture with both print and digital, focusing on the tactics that work best for both and putting everything else on the backburner. It’s a great way to stretch your budget further — and to stop wasting time on dead ends.