Online Marketing Resolutions: 2010
Posted on | December 31, 2009 | 2 Comments
It’s that time of the year when many reflect on the past 12 months and focus on the year to come. Yes, it’s New Year’s Resolution time.
As a result, I’ve had the opportunity to read quite a few blog posts about business resolutions for the coming year. So I thought that I’d pick a few favorites to share and offer a brief comment; most are online marketing-centric, but they all apply to business in general too:
- Improve Results Tracking and Measurement – Many businesses track metrics like sales, leads generated and cost per sale, but rarely tie them directly to marketing activities. Tracking results is great, but what do they mean to the business? Make an effort to understand what marketing activities are productive and which are less so.
- Increase Planning – Planning is perhaps the most influential step in marketing success. Often requiring estimation and guess work, many feel that marketing planning ranks up there with a root canal. This doesn’t have to be the case; understanding that plans are not set in stone and can change is important to overcome this perception. A quarterly performance and planning session can do wonders to help stay focuses on marketing success.
- Perform a Website Review – Too many businesses spend the time and effort to develop a good web presence, only to let it whither on the vine. What do dead Links, dated material and a broken layout say to users interested in your business? “I don’t care,” “I’m not professional,” “Don’t buy from me.” A quick internal website review is good; having an online marketing company offer a more complete review would be even better.
- Monitor Online Brand Mentions – Regardless of whether a business actively participates in social media, they should at least listen to what others are saying. Free / low cost tools like Google Alerts or Trackur are a good place to start.
- Integrate Marketing Efforts – Communicating a consistent message across all platforms is low-hanging fruit. Strong, cohesive messaging gives prospects a much better feeling for a company and its products. Examples could include:a. Including a website URL in printed advertising
b. Referencing a social media presence in an email
c. Mentioning an online presence in a telephone voicemail system
- Reevaluate Goals, Strategies & Tactics – Online marketing planning is a continuous process and requires regular review. Stepping back to review progress and make necessary adjustments only makes sense.
- Experiment – The tried and true marketing activities are proven, but the continually changing nature of business makes it necessary to keep an eye out for emerging opportunities. Every productive marketing activity was new and experimental at one time. Consider several low risk, high reward marketing experiments.
Ok. So 7 is a bit more than “a few,” but I think that these all apply. I could have popped out at least a dozen more, but these are some of the high points. What do you think about these resolutions? Do they make sense? What do you need to do going into 2010?
Bill Rowland
Tags: analytics > business planning > new years resolution > online marketing > online reputation management
Comments
2 Responses to “Online Marketing Resolutions: 2010”
Leave a Reply
About
Dinkum Interactive is a full-service Internet Marketing company based in Philadelphia, with clients around the world. Visit our website for all your Dinkum goodness.
January 16th, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
I really have to agree with the planning part. It takes a lot of planning with your marketing, and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning can be quite difficult, but in the end it can really increase your efficiency, and improve the results that you get.
January 16th, 2010 @ 6:14 pm
Thanks for your comment. Planning is important, but it aa healthy dose of action is required too.