Like any good business owner, we know you’re looking forward to all the opportunities on the horizon in the upcoming year. But these opportunities are only available if you’re motivated to take advantage of them! It’s the season of New Year’s resolutions, and this year, rather than just making them personal, expand them to your business and your marketing. Here are 5 New Year’s marketing resolutions that will help your business not just survive, but thrive as we enter 2022:
Test, Test, Test
Committing to testing is the “get in shape this year” of marketing New Year’s resolutions: It’s the one just about everybody says they’re going to do every year, and this is the year that you’ll finally make it a habit. Marketing is so nebulous and it’s often so hard to know the exact impact any given campaign is having, and trusting your gut often leads to situations where a seemingly effective tool or campaign just ends up being a time- and money waster. This is why it’s important to constantly be testing different options, whether it’s tracking ROI on a new tool, monitoring CTR on email campaigns, doing A/B split testing on search ads, or whatever makes the most sense for your marketing plan. Making data-driven decisions will almost always lead to the best results, and 2022 is the year for you to start finally paying attention to that data!
Be Prepared to Kill Your Darlings
Of course, when you start looking at test data, you need to be prepared for realizations that aren’t always the most comfortable. Maybe you discover that an ad campaign you’ve dumped thousands of dollars into just isn’t paying off the way you had been assuming. Maybe that creative social campaign that’s been your pet project for all of 2021 has been flatlining with your audience. Maybe that perfect email headline copy you spent a full afternoon massaging to perfection just went down in flames in an A/B test. When these things happen, it can be hard to admit that something went wrong or that something needs to change. At the end of the day, marketing is about finding the most effective ways to promote a product or service, and for 2022, accept that difficult decisions are just part of the process of finding success.
Take Nothing for Granted
When we find tools and systems that work for our marketing needs, little in the world feels better! You’ve got your workflow and your suite of tools and you know that you’ll be getting great results and a fantastic ROI, so you keep plugging away happily. But as we’ve seen so often in the past, when it comes to marketing (and digital marketing in particular), things can change in an instant. You might check the news and see a social media platform is shutting down your favorite new feature, or that a tech giant is restricting data that was your lifeline to your target audience. Going into 2022, your new resolution is to take nothing for granted: make the most out of your best tools while they’re still here, and move forward confidently without missing a beat should they unfortunately disappear.
Don’t Be Afraid to Try New things
Whether you’re forced to try new options because your preferred tools disappeared or you’re just keeping an eye towards the future, 2022 is not the time to sit back and cling exclusively to the familiar. Obviously, hold on to what works and don’t give it up unless you have to–as the old adage goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” But at the same time, marketing moves as fast as the technology that powers it, and if you aren’t willing to take the plunge into new territory and take advantage of new opportunities, you’re leaving customers and money on the table. So for the new year, resolve to try something new: Maybe it’s getting onto a new social media platform, or finding creative new ways to track and test your marketing efforts. Whatever you choose, the experts at Skol marketing can guide you towards success.
Admit When You Need Help
The great irony about marketing is that it’s exclusively used to ensure the success of other products or services, but the marketing work itself is often a full-time job that a small business owner may not have the time to do themselves or the extra money to hire a dedicated marketing staff member. That’s why your last New Year’s marketing resolution is to admit when you need some outside assistance.
Fortunately, that’s where Skol Marketing’s talented team is here to help. We keep on top of all the trends and technical updates, and our team are experts at creating and executing a successful marketing strategy to help your small business succeed so you can focus on making a business worth supporting. If you’d prefer one-on-one guidance on small business marketing or would like to discuss how we can help handle the tasks you’re not able to do on your own, please don’t hesitate to contact the local small-business marketing experts at Skol Marketing.
