We do it every year. We make promises to ourselves and come up with endless To Do lists, which seem to disappear within a few weeks of the new year. For many businesses, some of these “to do’s” include improvements to their marketing strategies.
In 2015, keep it simple. Make a list of 5 things you want to do to improve your marketing strategy and focus on tackling those. Don’t overwhelm yourself with a long list. Otherwise, some tactics are sure to be kept on the back burner.
Not sure what you want to accomplish? We have some recommendations for 2015 New Year’s resolutions that will ensure your small business starts the year on the right foot. Check out our suggestions below.
1) Update your Passwords
We all have that one password we seem to use for everything, but it might be time to change it up. It’s possible that one of your accounts has already been hacked, so be aware if you have received emails alerting you to suspicious login activity.
Hackers have the ability to try out 8.2 billion password combinations per second, which is wildly impressive. In addition, even big businesses weren’t able to escape hackers in 2014, as companies like Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Neiman Marcus, and Sony Pictures were all victims of security breaches.
Not good at remembering passwords? Use tools like Last Pass to manage all of your account passwords.
Read more about password protection.
2) Refresh Your Photos
Did you take a picture recently and think, “I’m going to add this to my Facebook page,” but you still haven’t uploaded it? Take some time in 2015 to sort through your collection of photos from the past year. Create some new Facebook albums highlighting some of your favorite photos from the year, update your Houzz profile with recent jobs, or update your website with some new images.
If you have the ability to manage your website, it’s a good idea to go through every year and decide if you have some new and improved photos. If you work with a website company, it might be helpful to send over your new photos and share some suggestions on where you would like to see the new pictures.
3) Get Reviews
It’s one thing to have a customer tell you what a great experience they had with your business, but it’s another thing to receive a public review. This year, make an effort to focus on getting online reviews on third-party websites. You want to make a great first impression on any potential lead that Googles your business name.
Learn more about setting up a reviews program.
4) Plan for a Redesign
If it’s been more than 5 years since your website was designed, it might be time to think about getting a new one. In some cases, a website may still look good, but it’s good to have a plan in place. If you think your business is close to needing a new design, ask the staff at your business what they think. You’ll want to start setting aside a budget for the project and coming up with a timeline for when you would like the site to be completed.
If your site isn’t currently mobile-friendly, then it’s especially important to think about a redesign now. More and more people are viewing your website from their phones and tablets. If the site is not easy to navigate, it might give off a bad impression about your business and make it more difficult for a potential new customer to contact you.
Learn more about the aspects of pricing a website design.
5) Update the Blog
Just like you’ve been putting off going through photos, you probably failed to realize that the company fundraiser you held last week was blog-worthy. Make a conscious effort this year to blog about any company or industry news. Sharing a new blog post on social media is a great way to engage your customers.
In addition, take the time to go through some of your old blog content. If you think some of the topics you wrote about last year are still relevant, spend some time cleaning up those old posts by adding new information and photos, and then post it again as a new post so it appears at the top of the blog.
What are you putting on your To Do list this year?
