6 Actions To Amp Up Your Online Marketing In The New Year
The New Year offers brands and businesses of all shapes and sizes a priceless gift: infinite opportunity. The start of another year gives you the chance to take the reins and do all the things you wanted to do last year (but didn’t quite get around to achieving). The slate is clean. The time is yours. Let’s get to work.
Take Action to Bring Your Marketing Up to Speed
Marketing goals have the misfortune of getting backburnered more than most organizational aspirations. Last year you may have said “we need to establish a strong social media presence” or “we’re going to get our business blog up and running” or “we have to start making videos to post on our site” and watched as those initiatives got pushed further and further down the priority list.
But a New Year is here. That means it’s time for action. If you don’t take action today, those same marketing goals will quickly fall victim to circumstance and procrastination (or both) once again. Strike now while the iron is hot, excuses are minimal, and optimism and momentum are still on your side.
Six Ways to Improve Your Marketing This Year
Need a starting point? Make an effort to bring your marketing up to speed by taking these actions:
1. Give Your Website a Checkup
Does your site look and sound a little old and creaky? Does it draw people in or scare them off? Your organization’s website should be your central hub on the Web, so make sure it represents you well. If it’s been a few years since you reviewed the design, images and copy, you probably want to check it out and fix it up as needed. Every site needs maintenance to perform at a top level. How long would you let your car go without changing the oil?
2. Establish a Solid Social Media Presence
Are you fully invested in presenting and managing your brand via social media? If not, now is the time. The “is social media here to stay?” question has been answered. It’s not going anywhere. So make sure you have – at bare minimum – active Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages. Add LinkedIn and Pinterest to the list if you can. Remember, a “social presence” is more than just making pages. You need to represent your brand consistently, reinforce your key messages, and regularly provide your audience with useful and engaging information. Also, make sure you respond to all comments and inquiries.
3. Start Cranking Out The Content
The phrase content marketing became a hot buzzword in 2012. With good reason: The benefits of organizations publishing valuable content include increased brand exposure, greater search engine optimization (SEO), and positioning your organization as an industry expert. All very good things. So how do you get started? Launch and regularly post to a blog where you provide people useful information pertaining to your field or industry. More and more companies and nonprofits are raising the bar for brand-published content, so make sure your content is well crafted, easy to read and valuable.
4. Mobilize Your Brand
Not sure if you noticed but everyone is glued to their mobile devices these days. And if that’s where their eyes are, that’s where your brand should be. Take steps to optimize all your websites for mobile devices and tablets (especially if you’re a retailer or in some way selling a product or service directly online). Also, consider developing a mobile application (or app) to give people access to relevant aspects of your business – whether it’s a quick way to login and manage accounts, order or reorder your products, or socially connect with customer communities. The world is increasingly mobile, make sure you are too.
5. Begin Producing & Sharing Videos
Online video has developed into a fun, easy and effective way for brands to engage and connect with audiences. More and more, people are watching videos on their computers, smartphones and tablets – and, more importantly, sharing them with friends through social media. These days, producing video doesn’t have to be a complex task. HD cameras are pretty easy to come by and a plethora of simple editing tools and applications are available. The key is a good concept, engaging delivery, and shareability. When your video goes viral and traffic to your website soars, you’ll understand the mighty power of video.
6. Get Creative With Your Communications
You don’t have to limit your marketing efforts to the usual suspects. Think of creative ways to connect with people on the Web. But don’t just develop an idea – push it forward. At MONSTERS, we tossed around the idea of a new podcast for almost a year. It kept getting backburnered for the classic reason: “we’re too busy right now”. Finally, we said “let’s just do this”. And we’re glad we did (check out our Speaking Human podcast here). We’re not any less busy; in fact, we’re busier than ever. But where there’s a will, there’s always a way. Exert your will to get your creative passion project off the ground in 2013.
Don’t waste the infinite opportunities the New Year offers for you to accomplish your marketing goals and grow your business. We guarantee you won’t regret it. Happy New Year from MONSTERS Unlimited.
