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While we’ve probably all thought of similar ones for our personal lives (exercise more, balance work and family, get organized), have you put your resolutions together for marketing your business in the New Year?
And more importantly, have you put a plan together to make sure those business resolutions don’t fall into the same forgotten pile as the “I resolve to stop eating cookies” ones?
Here is a list to help get you started in 2009, and to make sure you stay on track throughout the year, we’ll be sending out a quarterly reminder!
 Resolution #1:
I will stay in touch with my network of contacts this year.
Making It Work:
- Carve a few hours out of one day this week and setup free profiles for yourself on LinkedIn and Facebook, if you haven’t already. Upload contacts from your address book or database, and update all profile and contact information.
- Request invites from all contacts you are not already connected to, and use this as a way to get back in touch with those you haven’t spoken to in a while.
- Schedule a time each week or month that is best for you, and use it to update your profile and contact lists, review the connections in your network, and see if there are any introductions you can ask for. Answer a few questions, join an industry group, and generally stay in touch with your community.
- Although social networking is a great way to stay in touch with your network, many of your contacts are not avid users of these sites, even if they have a profile. So in addition to keeping up with your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, it may be time to setup a regular email campaign to stay in touch. Email is the most commonly used online tool, and one that is checked consistently throughout the day by most professionals and consumers. For help setting up a great email campaign, contact George or Melissa, and we’ll be happy to get you started.
- Blogs – the latest statistic I heard is that 20,000 new blogs are created every day, and for good reason. They help you promote yourself and your products/services in the online world. Your community can sign up to receive regular updates from you automatically, they can easily tie into your social networking profiles, and they are easily indexed by the search engines to deliver increased traffic and exposure to your website. They are one of the single easiest, and most effective, ways to promote your business online, if done correctly.
Resolution #2:
I will grow my business without adding significant expenses.
Making It Work:
- Are you taking advantage of the thousands of FREE advertising opportunities available online? If not, now would be a great time to begin. From viral marketing campaigns, to search engine optimization, to PR distribution services, blogs, and forums, there are literally thousands of ways to get free, quality exposure for your business online.
- Pay Per Click Advertising is a phenomenal lead generation and sales opportunity for the savvy business owner. You only pay for the leads that come to your website, and these leads are people who are looking for you! It doesn’t get much better than that.
Resolution #3:
I will eliminate or change the advertising and marketing programs that are no longer working for me.
Making It Work:
- First, you need to know what your REAL return on investment is. If a campaign cost $10,000 and generated $13,000 in sales, then you have earned $3,000. However, if it also accumulated $5,000 worth of hours from your salaried employees to manage and track, then you really have a $2,000 loss. Try using project management software, such as Basecamp www.basecamp.org to keep track of your time, goals, expenses, and project documents; once you are accounting for all expenses, it becomes very clear where you are making and losing money.
- Once you know your ROI from work performed, you can begin to figure out which programs are delivering results, and which are costing you money. But this must be tracked as well. Online campaign tracking is easy, you can setup analytics software to determine where your website traffic came from, where prospects travelled on your site while there, and what percentage converted to complete a sale or contact you. Offline is much trickier, though, but still can be done through personalized landing pages, dedicated phone lines, and timing comparisons, or simply by asking each new prospect how they heard about your product/service. At The Discovery Communications Group, we develop advertising and marketing campaigns with custom tracking systems designed to measure the actual results of your campaign while minimizing the time spent managing them.
- When the above are completed, you should have a clear view of the campaigns that delivered revenue for your business, and those that did not. Continue developing and investing in those that generated revenue, but don’t simply eliminate those that don’t seem to be working. Many times, it is not that the medium or location is wrong, sometimes the message is wrong, or the call to action is not clear. Test different designs, messages, and mediums to find the best opportunities to advertise and grow your business.
Resolution #4:
I will find a way to streamline my work day and get home in time for dinner!
Making It Work:
- Use this list as a starting point for your 2009 calendar, and attempt to tackle one project per month. Schedule an appointment with yourself to setup these systems, and a regular time each month to review and make changes.
- Delegate, delegate, delegate! And if everyone in your organization is already too busy, consider bringing in an intern or a virtual assistant to take some work off your plate. For a minimal investment in temporary staffing, you will free up your time for projects that will contribute to the future growth of your business.
- If you realize that this is all too much for you to do on your own, or just don’t know where to start, consider talking to a professional. The Discovery Communications Group can not only put a plan and marketing strategy together for your upcoming year, we can implement that plan completely. We will design/produce all necessary elements and creative and offer ideas to increase your results, as well as measure and analyze all aspects of the campaign. All you will need to do is provide some insight into your business, and respond to all of the incoming leads and potential new customers.
There, now wasn’t that easy? It’s time to put last year's decorations away, clean up the year-end filing, and take the first step toward making 2009 your most successful year yet! |
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