We made it. Beyond mask mandates and widespread availability of COVID vaccines, 2021 gave us a new president, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos rocketing into space, and “cancel culture,” in what may be the most turbulent year of our lives. Now that we’ve taken a moment to appreciate all we’ve been through together in the past year, it’s time to get back to work.To help you ramp up your marketing efforts and start off the year on the right foot, here are some ideas (some easy, some more involved) to tackle this month:
1. Update or create your Google Business Profile
Begin with a simple task. A robust Google Business Profile allows you to share what products and services you offer, connect to your website, showcase positive reviews, and even discover how customers are finding your business. But most importantly, a Google Business profile page makes your company more searchable on the world’s most powerful search engine. It’s easy to claim and optimize your business page with keywords, photos, videos and frequently asked questions. If you need more convincing, according to Ipsos Research, an up-to-date Google Business Profile:
- Is 2.7 times more likely to be considered more reputable
- Gets 7 times more clicks
- Is 50 percent more likely to lead to a purchase.
2. Start with a clean inbox
Here’s another easy one. An overstuffed inbox can bring anxiety to even the most organized professionals. With a clean and organized inbox, you will declutter your workspace, be able to better prioritize tasks, improve your productivity and keep assignments from falling through the cracks. Start the new year with a clean inbox by following these tips:
- Go through old emails you haven’t acted upon and either follow up or delete them
- Unsubscribe from senders whose emails you aren’t reading
- Delete emails that you never read and won’t need to access in the future
- Use your system’s sorting or filtering service to send bulk emails to a “promotional,” “other” or “read later” inbox
- Create folders in your mailbox to organize emails by topic, project, teammate, client or other category
- Take advantage of reminder tools to set alerts and prevent action items from falling off your radar.
3. Read up on industry and marketing trends
Turn to the experts. With the new year comes plenty of predictions about what to expect in the year to come. Seek out articles, blog posts and studies that reveal what the experts predict will impact marketing, your industry and business in general. To get you started, here are a few resources:
- Hubspot’s Marketing Trends of 2022 (The Ultimate Guide)
- Inc’s Marketing Trends to Prepare for in 2022
- Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends for 2022.
4. Revisit what worked and what didn’t
Look back on last year’s work. With an entire year of data at your fingertips, take some time to evaluate what worked in your marketing efforts last year and what didn’t. Here are some areas to consider:
- What content or pages on your websites performed best?
- Which social media posts resonated best (top posts, most shared, etc.) with your audiences?
- What email subject lines got the best open rates?
- Which marketing tactics, campaigns or channels drove the most leads?
- What programs didn’t perform as well as you had hoped—and what can you do to improve?
5. Solidify your marketing plan
Time to get serious. Now that you know what worked and what didn’t, if you haven’t already done so, you are ready to outline your marketing plan for the year. Yes, this one takes some time, but operating without a written plan is a sure-fire path to failure. We suggest a plan that is just a few pages long, well-communicated throughout your organization and kept in a place where you see it daily. Our simple-to-follow marketing plan template includes eight areas:
- Vision and mission—why are you in business?
- Quantifiable goals—what do you want to accomplish?
- Strategies—how will you get there?
- Tactics—what activities will you implement?
- Budget—how much will you spend?
- Schedule—when will you do it?
- Responsibilities—who does what?
- Monitoring and evaluation—how will you monitor performance?
Commit to innovation
In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, same old, same old just doesn’t cut it. We all know the importance of innovation in keeping a business competitive. The same goes for marketing. Resolve to try something new in your marketing efforts. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone or expertise. To be most successful, try a new tactic alongside something that’s already working. Measure the results of your experiment and evaluate its effectiveness before committing additional resources. Often, the longer you are in business, the more reluctant you are to change what is already working. Your industry and marketing are always changing. If you are ready to try something new to enhance your current efforts, let Trade Press Services help. To get started, schedule a call with one of our experts.
