2019 MARKETING STRATEGY PLANNING: 5 Things to Do This January

At the start of every January, most small business owners take stock of the previous year and look ahead to what's coming down the pike in the new year. Or at least they try to. If you're by the book, January is the perfect time for reflection and to really spend time thinking about your future and upcoming goals for the New Year. However for most small business owners who are hitting the ground so hard, they rarely take a break, January is straight back to the grind stone if they dared to take a short vacation during the December holiday season. Who has time for planning and reflection?

Personally, I'm typically super guilty of this. I always mean to take a day, or even a few hours - heck, even one hour to put pen to paper and think through the previous year as well as the upcoming year goals. 2019 is going to be different (as shown by even starting this blog post!), so I'm sharing a few quick and easy ways for small business owners to look ahead to their 2019 marketing strategy that will make a big impact long term..

Assess Your Google and Social Media Analytics 
You might be one of those people that constantly is looking at your Google analytics and also social media analytics to check out the audience growth, engagement numbers website traffic numbers, etc. But if you're not, then make this a priority in January. And, even if you do look at it monthly, take a look over the entire year. From this snapshot, you'll learn who your customers are, where they are coming from, how they find you, which ones are actually your target market (ie buying your product) and so much more - depending on your industry. You'll likely see several trends emerge and certainly learn a lot. Perhaps you'll find that one social media channel out-performs the others so that you can spend your time on that channel in 2019. Or, perhaps you'll find that one specific media mention or influencer generated a HUGE number of new leads for you in 2018 so that you can re-engage them in the New Year to keep that momentum going and build even more traffic. Or perhaps you'll see that your organic traffic is going down. Which leads you to do more SEO work. Whatever you find, you'll certainly learn which marketing tactics are working, which could improve and help you better align your marketing vision and goals to your business growth. 

Track Your Time
 As an entrepreneur, you want to ensure you have the utmost control over your time. The best way to do that is to understand where your time is actually being spent. Laura Vanderkam, a productivity and time management expert is a huge proponent of time tracking and has templates and tips and ideas to get you started. Take a week or two in January and log where your time is being spent so that you can better understand the time sucks, when you are most productive, or what you could potentially outsource so you can spend more time on your priorities. Another factor here to consider is what brings you joy? How can you engineer your days/weeks/life to do more of what brings you happy and less of the stuff you hate? Is there a few things you could outsource? Or perhaps shift your working hours?

Don't Keep Doing the Same Thing You've Been Doing
Your business will never grow if you continue to do the same thing you've been doing year over year. Yes, see what's worked and continue to do that - even better, but try something new this year that you haven't done before. That could mean starting a blog for your business to improve SEO, add a new social media channel to your business repertoire to see if it increases website traffic or try a new PR tactic such as an influencer campaign to determine ROI and future use. Try a new marketing channel - and also I'll note that there's no need go ALL in. Dip your toe in, by all means, to see if it's catching on and working for your business and if it does, then keep it going. If it starts to tank, pull back and no harm done, but you never know if you don't try. One tip here - don't go in blind. Make sure you get advice or input from an expert (or two or three) before trying something new!

Make a Plan
Time slips by so quickly that pretty soon you'll find the calendar reading February 2019 before you actually put your marketing strategy down on paper. As an entrepreneur, deadlines are mostly self-imposed, so technically you may not NEED to get your marketing strategy calendar or budget done by a specific date. However, you don't want to go into 2019 blind without a plan or taking it month by month and all of the sudden realize that you don't have your marketing budget aligned with business expenses.  January is the perfect time to identify monthly budget, marketing tactics and goals - even if it's quarterly. Even if it changes and your plan is somewhat fluid, at least you have a year-long plan ahead to align with your business goals that will help get your business to where you want it to be by....dare we say it 2010!!! 

Invest In Your Goals 
Sure, growing your website traffic by 400% or new customers by 200% is an easy lofty goal to aspire to. However, consider investing in your goals to help grow your business. If you can understand the return that you'll get on that investment, it's an easy decision to make. For example, when new clients come on board, I try to get a sense of how many new customers/buyers/clients will need to come on board from my marketing efforts in order for them to have a positive ROI. My goal is to save them money, not have them spend money. So, if I can increase their bottom line by an extra X dollars per month, my retainer fee is well worth the investment! It's easy to invest in something for your business when you can understand the ROI behind it, so just make sure you are able to break it down.

So, there you have it! As a business owner myself, I am fully committed to doing these 5 things myself in January! I'm particularly excited about tracking my time! One other tip to note is that it is SOO easy to get overwhelmed quickly, so don't feel stressed about making big changes or big decisions in January. If you make small incremental changes or even learn a little something new every week, those will pay off in your business in the long term. Another final thought - don't limit yourself. If you are so inclined, put down 5 or even 10 year goals. Sure, they'll probably change over the course of 2019, but go ahead and think big!!

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2019!