Step One: Make The Full Investment Visible
List every marketing commitment from the past twelve months in one place: contracts, invoices, retainers, media spend, production, sponsorships, subscriptions and website costs. Most businesses find commitments they had stopped reviewing.
Step Two: Attach Evidence To Each Line
Beside each commitment, record what evidence exists — enquiries, calls, form submissions, bookings, quotes, sales, or only supplier-reported activity. A line with no evidence is not automatically a failure, but it is a gap in accountability that should be closed or accepted deliberately.
Step Three: Sort Every Line Into Four Decisions
- Continue as is — the evidence supports it
- Change the audience, offer or creative before renewing
- Renegotiate the rate, term or deliverables
- Stop and redeploy the budget
Step Four: Check Capacity Before Increasing Anything
If the plan grows, confirm the business can answer, quote and fulfil the additional demand. Response time and follow-up often limit results more than media budget does.
Step Five: Review Early Enough To Negotiate
Run the review before notice periods and auto-renewal dates arrive. Leverage comes from having time and alternatives, not from the conversation itself.
A year-end review should end with decisions and renegotiations — not another folder of reports.