If you’re like 40% of the American public, chances are you are working on improving your relationship with your treadmill in order to keep your top New Year’s resolution. However, don’t stop with just one. With January in the rear view mirror and the rest of 2012 still in front of you, now is the perfect time to make some small business marketing resolutions that will take your brand to new heights in 2012.
Need some help with ideas? We’ve got 6 small business marketing goals that you can put into play today:
1. Revamp Your Facebook Page
If you take a look at business Facebook pages, you’ll see that many have created an obligatory business listing but haven’t even touched on what makes Facebook so successful – engagement. Does your page compel followers to act? Do you actively stay connected with those who’ve given you their thumbs up?
Find new ways to keep the conversation going. Ask for opinions with your posts, reward people for likes and shares or add videos to your pages.
2. Time Your Tweets Better
You may just be happy remembering to tweet at all but there is a method to tweeting madness.
Timing is important. But if keeping a tweet schedule interferes with your own schedule, try such tools as Buffer or Timely. These newcomers to the market help users schedule their tweets for the best time of day and when tweets will most likely be clicked or retweeted.
3. Give More Credit
The nature of social media is all about sharing information. So when you post about a topic you’ve read about somewhere else, give credit to that third party. Mention where you found the information and link to it.
You can do the same when commenting on other people’s blogs. Widen the conversation and you’ll build your sphere of influence.
4. Become More Analytical
There are myriads of statistics and pieces of data floating throughout the web world but the smart small business marketers know what to do with it all.
Go back to your marketing objectives and determine if you’re really seeing results. If not, chances are you aren’t measuring the right way. Try these analytic tools to see how well your social media channels and website are working:
- Hootsuite for Twitter
- Reinvigorate for web analytics
- PageLever for Facebook
- Vocus for all conversations on your brand
5. Stay True To Email Marketing
Of all the ways marketers can spread their messages in 2012, email has the best ROI (bringing in $40.56 for every dollar spent) according to the Direct Marketing Association.
Need some inspiration for your new campaign? Try carving up a whitepaper for an informational series or linking to video interviews that illuminate your industry.
6. Make Mobile Part of Your Strategy
Consider these stats: By 2013, analysts at research firm Gartner predict that mobile will take over PCs as the most common web access devices and in 2011, 65% of Americans owned smart phones.
With the growth of Location Based Services (Gartner says LBS will be #1 on the list of mobile growth trends), networks such as Foursquare should be part of your marketing plan.
2012 promises trends and advancements that will take small business marketing to the next level. For more help with how you can boost your marketing efforts, check our blog post Small Business Marketing, Learn From 5 Things That Could Use Good PR.
