Most people set New Years resolutions for their personal lives, but don’t give much thought to making them for their small business. And while 2011 wasn’t the best year for small business owners, the new year brings a hope and promise for better business.A survey done by Intuit reveals that 73% of small business owners agree that marketing and advertising is the most integral component that will help their business to grow in 2012. We’ve compiled the top 5 New Years resolutions for you to implement in your marketing and advertising campaigns so that 2012 will be a year of success and growth.
- Experiment – This year, try something different. If you’ve been hesitant to join a particular social media site, jump on board. Create an account and get yourself used to the platform. Track website and newsletter click-through rates to see what appeals to your audience. The benefit of having a smaller business is that you can do all of this marketing research on your own, with little effort.
- Get Social in Real Life – While social media is all the rage, don’t forget about real life communication. Build relationships with people who will help you grow your business- like industry leaders, and local reporters. Attend industry conferences and get yourself out there.
- Be Ad Savvy – Many small businesses rely on pay-per-click advertising, but don’t necessarily understand what keywords and techniques to use to maximize their efforts. To truly get the most of your ads, you need them to be super targeted. Also, don’t underestimate the power of free ads on classified sites like Craigslist and Ebay Classifieds.
- A Website Makeover – Your website is usually the first impression a customer gets of who you are and if you would fit their needs. By keeping your website fresh with new content, SEO rich keywords, blog posts, photos and more your website will be able to keep up with the constantly evolving online world. If your website is need of a real overhaul, don’t hesitate to contact a professional web designer who can tailor your website to attract your target customer.
- Be Mobile – With the increase of web activity on mobile phones, it would be smart to ensure that your website is mobile device compatible. Your emails and other web communication should also be tested to see how they look on a mobile phone. Many businesses are even having apps created especially for them, through services like AppStack. All of these things will help you to better connect with customers on mobile devices.
Will you be adopting any of these business New Years resolutions, or have you already made your own? Let us know in a comment below!
About Us: Graphic Design Needs is a Miami Design and Marketing company specializing in logos, branding, graphic design, website design, direct mail and online marketing, commercial printing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing (SMM). We are located in South Florida and serve Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach locally. Other cities we work in are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.