Photo credit: mukumbura
No predictions here this year but what I do want to talk about is positioning for 2010. Resolutions don’t work, so lets not set those just to watch them fall to the wayside by February.
The problem with resolutions is they are usually set too generally. The problem with a lot of goals is they are also set too high and too generally, even website and internet marketing goals:
- I want to make more money
- More ecommerce Sales
- More traffic
- Have 2,500 Twitter followers
- Have thousands of blog subscribers
- Rank #1 in Google, Bing and Yahoo
Goals are great but you need to set smaller milestones to map out how you are going to reach those goals.
Map Out the How
Knowing what you want to achieve is great but how you are going to get there is more important. Map out and measure ‘the How’ or the process to make sure you are working towards your milestones. This could mean setting goals in Google Analytics, tracking your email newsletter opens and click thrus better, listening to how many times your company is mentioned on social networking sites and blogs, tracking the number of calls you are getting with customer service questions et al.
Some Businesses are Leaders and Others are Followers
Either you took social media by the horns in ’09 or you watched other companies try to figure it out. Social Media is not going away. Instead, social media is going to become more of just how we do business. If you are waiting, you are missing out on potentially reserving your name or business name on social networks and you could be playing a serious game of catch up pretty soon. If you are waiting, you could be missing out on connecting with your current and potential customers and they could be forming that relationship with someone else.
What Do Your Customers Want to Hear from You?
If you can figure out what your customers want to hear from you and using which channels (email, blog, direct mail, Facebook, Twitter, television ad), then you will have success in 2010. Honestly ask yourself and your customers (if you can) what types of things they want to know more about from you. You may be surprised at their answers. Changing our mindset from old outbound marketing and pushing our message out to as many people as possible is proving itself ineffective.
Just Try it for Three Weeks
One of my favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk, wrote a nice post on how to keep a New Year’s resolution. One of her tips was to think in terms of the next three weeks. If working social media into your business day is on your list of to do’s, make an effort to participate at least once a day for three weeks. Not just post something, but reply to someone’s content too. According to Penelope and scientific research, after three weeks your brain will take over this behavior and make the time to participate.
Leading into next year, let’s not set resolutions or make silly predictions but let’s realign our marketing objectives, tactics, milestones and tools for measuring results. I think 2010 is going to be a very interesting year for the internet and the things businesses can do to connect to their customers.