It’s that time of year again; Time to reflect on 2009; Time to pat yourself on the back for things done well; Time to assess what you can improve upon in 2010; Time to make your New Year’s resolutions.
Here are a few practical New Year Resolution ideas that can help your business in 2010:
Set specific, lofty and attainable goals for business and professional growth.
I forget the exact stat but you are much more likely to succeed if you write down goals and review them often. Take some time to think about what you want to accomplish in 2010. Dream about what you really want in life to help create goals with meaning. Write them out. Hang them in a spot where you see them every day. Take a few minutes each day to read them.
Develop and implement a plan to achieve your goals
Below each goal write down 2-3 strategies that will help you achieve your goals. After you have clear strategies think about the specific tactics you will use. Make sure your tactics are in line with your strategies and goals.
Leverage the power of Internet Marketing
The Internet is a powerful, measurable and cost-effective tool that can be leveraged to grow your business. Consider Internet marketing tactics as you think about your goals and strategies. For example if your goal is to generate 50 more leads for your business each month, a strategy might be to increase qualified traffic to your website. Tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC) campaigns could help you reach your goal.
Track and measure all marketing and advertising initiatives
Do you know what each of your advertising dollars returned in 2009? If not, why not? Advertising effectiveness is easily tracked and measured with call tracking numbers and they are very affordable. Imagine the improvements in your marketing ROI if you knew exactly how many calls and customers each ad type generated. You could cut waste and increase spending in strong areas.
Keep these New Year’s resolutions
Set your resolutions and stick to them. If you stop after one month they won’t do you much good.
Too many websites are built on a project basis. The website is built and little to no marketing is included. In most cases project based websites become an expense to the business. A website should not be an expense. Instead a business website should be an asset and the cog of all offline and Internet marketing activities. Without an Internet marketing strategy your website will just sit there, invisible on the Internet.
TV advertisers would never spend thousands of dollars to develop a commercial and then not buy airtime. So why do so many businesses build websites and then not implement strategies to drive targeted traffic to their site?
It happens because many website developers are not Internet marketing specialists. Typically a website designer will work on a website until it is launched and they are not concerned with how the website performs in terms of generating leads and customers. The website might look great but it doesn’t contribute to achieving business goals. It becomes a liability.
To prevent your website from becoming a liability make sure it is being built as part of a planned Internet marketing solution. Internet marketing needs to be a continuous process designed to maximize your business results. An Internet marketing system uses a variety of powerful marketing tools to drive targeted traffic, convert visitors into leads and customers and to track, measure and improve results.
LinkedIn provides excellent resources for >keyword rich SEO link building>. Unfortunately few companies leverage this tool on their employees LinkedIn pages. Many employees leave the link blank and completely waste the opportunity to build high-value search engine optimization (SEO) friendly company links.
Even when the link is added many leave the link text as “Our Company.” It’s a start. At least you have the link to your company. However, search engines love keyword rich links. For example on my LinkedIn account (>http://www.linkedin.com/in/doncrouse>) I have links titled “WSI – Internet Marketing” and “Pay-Per-Click Search Marketing.” Both text links have keywords important to my industry,
Here are directions you can pass to company employees to build keyword rich links to your business website:
