People like to use January 1st as the starting line for new goals or resolutions. What better time of the year to resolve to do a better job at marketing your own business, your employer, or yourself.
Here is a list of Marketing Resolutions we think that every small business owner or marketing professional should at least consider and possibly adopt:
1. I’m going start understanding how things really work
In our experience, lots of smart business people do a poor job at tracking key performance metrics. This is not only poor business, it is poor marketing. This is because your key performance metrics, like sales revenue, gross profit margin, asset turnover ratio, etc, can be your friends in marketing your business. They help you understand how things really work. By identifying significantly high or low periods of time, your key performance metrics can tell you how well your marketing is or isn’t doing.
By resolving to understand how things really work you resolve to identify your key performance metrics. You then resolve to evaluate those metrics to see how well your marketing is working.
2. I’m going to see things from different perspectives
All of our clients have learned more about themselves when seeing themselves from many different perspectives. Your business does not exist in a vacuum – it exists in dynamic internal and external environments. There are many forces acting on your business all at once. Understanding what these forces are can help you hone your marketing message, position, branding, and overall marketing strategy.
By resolving to see things from different perspectives you resolve to see evaluate your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats through several different lenses prior to making any marketing strategy decisions. These lenses should include internal, customer (this also includes demo and psychographic analyses), competitive, and industry.
3. I resolve to be more results oriented
Sometimes many of us become too tactical or shortsighted. This limits what we can accomplish because we are too busy executing tactics with no strategy or end result in mind – we simply use a tactic or tool for the sake of using it or the hope that it might work in the long run.
By resolving to be more results oriented you resolve to take a step back from your current or future marketing plans to evaluate what you want these efforts to produce – the results – before proceeding. This will allow you to use your tactics more effectively by aiming them all at a common goal or strategy.
4. I’m going to channel my creativity
Creativity and innovation are essential to most successful marketing endeavors, but even the most creative and innovative people throughout history recognize and respect certain limits and constraints.
By resolving to channel your creativity you resolve to use known data in the creation of your creative pieces. You resolve to be avant garde and edgy only to the point that they have a concrete benefit for your company or your desired end result. This will eliminate needless guessing as to whether your creative pieces are hitting home with your target audience or driving them away.
5. I resolve to make better use of my money
Investing in your marketing shouldn’t be like paying your cable each month – pay for it and forget about it. Investing in marketing should be like any other investment – you monitor it. Monitoring your marketing means measuring ROI and re-allocating your marketing investment to the tactics that provide that further your company’s goals and provide the best positive ROI.
By resolving to make better use of your money you resolve to evaluate your marketing’s ROI and move money to the tactics that help your marketing become more efficient — helping you do more with the same amount of investment.
It’s going to be a good year, even if the Mayans and Hollywood predict that it might be one our last. By adopting one or more of these resolutions you can all but guarantee yourself to have a good year in marketing, which usually equates to a good year on the income statement.
Happy New Year!
