Top 5 Marketing Resolutions Every Business Should Make for 2013

Now that it’s officially 2013, have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet?  Are you planning to travel more, lose weight or try a new hobby?

I’d be the first person to admit that personal New Year’s resolutions are tough to keep; but I’m a huge believer in making professional resolutions for continual growth, new business opportunities and networks.

If you work for a business, own a business or are interested in starting your own business, now is the time to create new goals in marketing to help your business succeed and thrive.  If you’re stuck on what to focus on first when it comes to your marketing plan, here are top 5 resolutions in marketing that can help you get started:

• Think More Strategically: In marketing, it’s vital that everything you do, all of your tactics and campaigns are tied together by a strategic thread. If you’re working on a print ad, does it advertise your website and your social media presence? If you’re running a promotion or contest, is it linked to your website, your print collateral and your social media platforms? Any and all decisions that you make in marketing should have a rationale behind them and be connected to one another to create one cohesive marketing strategy.

• Write More!- The key to getting any audience engaged into a conversation is content. Not just fluffy content for the sake of having content on your blog, but well-written, fresh and relevant content.  This is exactly what your audience is looking for when they want to get to know a company. Content is what will increase traffic and provide more leads as more and more people are drawn to your website and social media platforms.

• Give For the Sake of Giving:  A lot of marketing plans operate on the premise of giving to get something out of it, such as asking prospective customers to fill out a form in order to download a new e-book. But, try giving your prospective customers something and asking for nothing in return-even using the same piece of content. There’s a lot you could do with the same content-leverage it on your blog, tweet tips on Twitter or create infographics and reference them in customer conversations. When you focus you marketing efforts on social education as well as lead generation, the brand loyalty, audience engagement and ultimately business it generates is usually higher than anything else you could ever ‘not’ ask for.

• Build Rapport & Be An Engager: Too often in the fast-paced business world, people’s interactions with each other end with the exchange of business cards or a “Thanks for the follow” on Twitter without any real relationship or rapport being built. Spend some time building and maintain your social relationships, through leaving notes to your community, a well-thought out blog response or a private message to say thanks. It’s so easy to read or listen without saying anything. You wouldn’t leave a party without saying goodbye to your host and thanking them for having you, would you? Try leaving a personalized message to build rapport, it’ll go miles.

• Effective Promotion-Commit yourself to regularly promoting and sharing your website and/or blog across multiple platforms. Syndicate your content on sites like Business 2 Community and Social Media Today and share your content on all the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Leverage your content with your own professional network of contacts and start communicating with the top influencers and thought leaders in your industry, making sure that all your content is interlinked to encourage your audience to explore your presence across all platforms.