Marketing Goals for the New Year

Even if you’re anti-new years resolution (we get it), it’s pretty hard to resist the urge to set *some* version of goals in the new year – if not for yourself, for your business!

Whether you’re just beginning to develop your company’s marketing or you’re revamping an existing strategy, here are some small ways you can refocus and create actionable goals for your marketing in the new year. 

1. Focus on your audience

   Your audience is the reason you have a business in the first place, the reason you need to create a high quality offering, and the reason you need to market it well. 

   It’s minimally helpful to say “my customer is a design lady who lives in Atlanta ”, but it’s exponentially helpful to say “my customer is a 25-35 year old woman who buys and flips homes in the metro-Atlanta area. She favors a mid-century modern design style, loves watching Yellowstone, and shops at Trader Joes on the weekends.” 

   Is it frivolous to go into so much detail talking about a made up persona? Why do we need to know what her favorite tv show is?
   The short answer is no, because our real-life clients don’t exist in a vacuum. Their experiences are defined by more than the specific need they have for your service. Putting in the work to determine who your ideal client is will help you think about and talk to them with a greater understanding of who they actually are, which will help you relate to them better. 

   Maybe that means considering whether your client persona likes Yellowstone or the Great British Baking Show better – because the more you understand about those quirks, the more you’ll understand why you’re selling them your product in the first place. 

   Today, you can simply set a timer for 5-10 minutes and brainstorm all the details about your audience that you’ve never thought of before. Use what you come up with as a template for how you think about that client, and keep building on it throughout the year!

2. Evaluate *why* you want your audience to have what you’re offering

   Knowing who your ideal customer is will set you up for a lot of success, but now you have to think about why they care about you. Based on who you know they are, what reasons do they have or not have for listening to and buying from you? And why do they need your product?
   Take this as an opportunity to figure out why you believe your client should use your product or service in the first place. We think you’ll find that your answer will come from a place of empathy and a desire to serve that audience above all else. 

   Sit with these thoughts for a while, and see how it might shift the way you do business and think about your offerings.

3. What didn’t work last year?

   It’s a great time to evaluate both what did and didn’t work in the previous year. There are so many ways to measure your success in marketing, but there are also a lot of ways that marketing failures can fly under the radar. Look at your data and evaluate where there could be improvements, and take inventory of whether you’re paying big bucks for marketing that just isn’t paying off. 

4. Create a small freebie
   Now is a great time to create or update your business’s lead generator! If you’ve ever given your email address to a businesses’ website in exchange for an interesting pdf or quiz results, that’s exactly what a lead generator is. This is a great way to get new potential customers on your email list, so that you can provide value for them even before they make a purchase. 

   Think about what advice or information would be a really valuable starting point for your customer before they work with you, and consider using that as your next lead generator! 

   Creating new marketing goals is a huge deal, whether big or small. We’re cheering you on, and we’re here if you need guidance through the process! 

   We can help by: 

   1. Clarifying your message and businesses’ purpose through brand message copywriting 

   2. Writing compelling lead generators 

   3. Creating engaging and thoughtful email campaigns