4 Easy Resolutions for Success in Marketing Your Small Business throughout 2017

Already having trouble keeping focused on your 2017 New Year’s Resolutions? Setting resolutions is the norm at this time of year. Of course, we often get overzealous and set goals that are unrealistic. This year I want to suggest four simple marketing resolutions for your small business that are easily achievable and some tips and techniques on making them a reality.

Resolution #1: Update Your Website Content More Frequently

If you only change the content on your website randomly or once a year, then make a resolution to update some of the content at least quarterly. If your business solves different problems at different times of the year, this is a great thing to highlight. You could highlight the benefits to different targeted prospects and change them up on a quarterly basis, or maybe put a featured product, service, or employee at the forefront on a rotating basis.

It is important to show not only your prospects that you regularly update your website, but also the search engines come back and look for new content. When the search engines find new content that is one of the factors they use to move you higher in the rankings (because they know you are still in business and looking to share timely information.) If you already have a consistent plan on updating your web content, simply increase the frequency in your system and make sure you are promoting these changes or new info through social media.

Resolution #2: Increase Your Social Media Influence

Most small business owners don’t have much time to dedicate towards these platforms, so make the best use of your time by connecting with the top influencers related to your industry. Social Media has the word social in it for a good reason. Social Media is meant to be conversational and build relationships online.

Find the platform or platforms where your clients tend to go (if you don’t know ask them). For example, if you are B2B that may be LinkedIn, if you are focused on consumers maybe it is Twitter. Establish yourself on that platform by adding valuable information of your own (not a sales pitch but info helpful to your prospects).

Look for the top 5-10 influencers in your industry or region, follow them on the platform that you know your clients to be on. Keep an eye out for ways to join in on conversations that these top influencers are involved in, make sure you are adding value as well as complimenting the influencer. You might be surprised how often these top influencers will engage with you and not only do you start to build a relationship with them but establish yourself as an additional authority to their followers.

Resolution #3: Grow Your E-Mail Marketing List

While social media is great at increasing exposure to new prospects, you should remember that those prospects in effect belong to the platform. You may not be able to control if and when they see your updates, and what happens if that platform goes out of favor? When you get a signup to your email marketing list, these are people who have agreed to hear from you directly and if a specific platform changes how they display your info or disappears entirely you still retain contact with your email prospects. You may need to get creative with your promotions and newsletters to gain an audience through your own email marketing list, but getting these highly-qualified leads into your own email list can be invaluable.

Resolution #4: Add Videos To Your Marketing (‘Live’ if possible)

As I have mentioned previously live videos are currently a large focus of Facebook and can help you be found more easily. Overall adding videos to your marketing whether it is live or recorded can add the storytelling feature that many prospects are looking for.

Resolved: I Will Keep My Resolutions in 2017!

It’s easy to say you are going to do something different this year, but the trick is to establish the new habit or remind yourself frequently enough to keep these resolutions top of mind. Whatever CRM or To-Do list you use add recurring tasks for these resolutions for a frequency that is realistic, whether that is weekly, monthly, or quarterly. If you miss a to-do for the resolution don’t give it up, success is about perseverance. Don’t spend time worrying that you missed one of these new resolutions on your to do list just make sure you do it the next time and pat yourself on the back for doing it more than the previous year. For most businesses, success is achieved as a marathon and not as a sprint.

We encourage all Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners to make at least one of these resolutions for 2017. While we would ideally like to work with you on these resolutions to help Make Your Business Bloom online, we mainly want to encourage your continued success with this article.

Please let us know if these resolutions have inspired you to improve upon your small business marketing for 2017, and join our conversation with any feedback or how you applied the suggestions above to Make Your Business Bloom!

Stop and Smell the Roses…Remember to Enjoy being an Entrepreneur!