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The new year brings on the opportunity to get rid of the old
and begin the new, i.e. new goals, new plan, new actions, new thought
process. Reviewing what worked, what
didn’t work, where improvements are needed and what new ideas and strategies we
need to put in place. Get rid of the
notion, well I tried that and it didn’t work.
Sometimes it’s not that it didn’t work, maybe we didn’t implement
correctly and with a little tweaking, it becomes a great idea/strategy/action.
One of the things I tell my clients is, you have to be persistent
and consistent. Oftentimes I see
business owners try something new, but because it didn’t have instant results,
the idea/action was dropped and they were on to something else or gave up all
together. Relationship marketing takes
time. Yes, sometimes there is ‘Love at
First Sight,’ but it’s rare.
Relationships whether personal or business take time. It takes time to get to know, like, and trust
someone before you refer to them or buy from them. In being persistent and consistent in our
marketing, we are saying to our clients as well as our prospects that we are
reliable and trustworthy. That we are
going to be around awhile.
One of the best ways to get organized with our marketing is
to write everything down, especially if we have a million ideas running through
our mind. Make a list of ideas, evaluate
how much time and money each with take. Whether
you can do it yourself, or would it make more sense to outsource. Keep all ideas in one place and as you take
action, record the results, i.e. what worked, what didn’t, etc. Does the idea/action need more time, does it
need to be changed, tweaked, etc.
Remember the saying the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same
actions over and over and expecting different results.
Now is a good time to devise a marketing plan for the
year.
Here are some ideas to consider. These can be used for social media, blogs,
newsletters, special offers, etc.
- Depending on your business, you might think about a theme a month. Refer to an online calendar like Brownielocks.com to find ideas that are appropriate for your business. For example: January is ‘Get Organized Month.’
- Write down all your ideas and organize as appropriate. Use a notebook and/or online document like Evernote, but keep everything together in one place in order to reference when needed.
- Go ahead and research and write your content for your blogs and newsletters. Oftentimes when I start writing about one subject, several others seem to spawn. Rather than trying to do a brain dump with one article, divide the material into smaller ‘bite size’ pieces. If you’re doing video, 3 to 5 minute segments are suggested. Same with written articles.
- Schedule posts to social media when possible. Link social media accounts to cut down on time spent posting. There are also social media scheduling tools where all social media posting can be done from one place, i.e. Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialOomph, etc.
- Be prepared to be flexible. You may have something come up that is more relevant. Something may happen or be trending in the news that triggers an idea. Adjust your plan and actions accordingly.
- Track your progress and results against your plan, re-evaluate and keep moving forward being persistent and consistent.
How do we achieve our resolutions and goals?
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- Get organized
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- Make a Plan
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- Take Action
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- Be Persistent and Consistent
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- Be Flexible
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- Track our results
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- Rinse and Repeat
We would love to hear about your plans for marketing for the new year. Your feedback and comments are welcomed and appreciated.
Happy Marketing,
Annette
Virtual Assistant
