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While January may be wrapping up, it is not too late to make a list of goals for 2015. I personally like to take January to de-clutter and simplify my life before setting new aspirations anyway, so you are not alone if you have yet to think about your goals this year. Below are 5 things to consider while making your business and marketing goals for 2015.
1. SEO takes time.
Is one of your 2015 business goals to start ranking on the first page of Google search results? Jayson DeMers recently wrote a great article for Forbes about realistic expectations for SEO campaigns. You can read the entire article here. Simply put, search engine rankings do not change overnight. Gaining (and more importantly, maintaining) high search rankings takes time. If your goal is to be showing up on the first page of Google in time for the holidays this year, it is time to start planning now.
2. Set a budget and have realistic expectations.
Whether you hire a marketing company or set aside a personal budget to do marketing on your own, it is going to cost money and time. I love this quote from a blog by Angela Prilliman that states, “Developing a smart marketing strategy or plan does not mean a huge investment in money, though it does involve a significant investment of time. Arguably, at least at the beginning, as much time should be spent on marketing the business as is spent on the business itself.”
In order to avoid disappointment or false expectations, set a realistic budget to meet your goals and be ready to make an investment. If you have questions about how much time and money you should be setting aside to market your business, let us know.
3. Trust your marketing team.
If you decide to go the route of hiring marketing professionals, mentally prepare yourself to trust them. There is nothing that kills a client/company relationship faster than lack of trust. And that doesn’t mean you have to hire the first marketing team you sit down with either. Spend some time researching credible companies and then make sure the relationship is a good fit. Once you start the partnership though, it is crucial to trust them in their marketing knowledge and capabilities. To read more on this, check out Val’s latest blog post.
4. Keep an open mind.
Going off of #3, keep an open mind to suggestions and creative ideas from your marketing team. As marketing professionals, we spend all day working with various clients on their marketing plans. While you may not have thought about investing in a PR campaign, we might be seeing it succeed with other clients and suggest you give it a try. Be open to suggestions and remember that marketing is not a perfect science, but rather it is constantly changing on and offline.
5. Failure doesn’t mean failure.
This is an important one and will really determine the success of your business and its marketing goals. Understandably, business owners will often dismiss a campaign due to low ROI and statistics within the first couple of months. I get it – it’s scary to be spending money on something that doesn’t seem to be working. With marketing though, it is crucial to accept that everything takes time and effort. It also often takes multiple attempts.
A billboard may not bring in the customers you want initially, but that doesn’t mean you should take it down. Successful companies know that presence is often the first step in future business.
Additionally, don’t write off specific marketing avenues just because of disappointment in the first go around. A lot of variables contribute to the success of a marketing campaign and those variables change constantly. A great statistic to remember is that, “… it takes the average person at least five exposures to a brand name or product before he or she will make the commitment to purchase it. In addition, it usually takes more than thirty exposures to a marketing piece before the customer can remember it at will.” To read more about repetition marketing, check out this article by Barrett Niehus on Business Know How.
If you are ready to get started with your 2015 marketing plan, let us know!