With the end of 2013 nearly upon us, many marketing specialists are already looking towards the new year and how they wish to best approach it. Every good business person knows each new year brings with it a whole new set of trends, customers, and demands. How should you best approach this? Take a look at our simple marketing tips to utilize in 2014 for some very good ideas on what to expect, plan, and execute.
Make Good Use Of The Pareto Rule
This is also known as the 80:20 rules. The idea behind this rule, in terms of marketing, is that eighty percent of sales come from twenty percent of customers. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses you should assess which marketing strategies are creating the most profit. Anything that isn’t creating a considerable amount of profit should be gotten rid. This means the funds previously being applied towards those less profiting marketing strategies can be applied to those which are more viable.
Don’t Veer Off Course
One you come up with your plan for the new year you should stick with it. Don’t be sidetracked with too many new ideas or strategies because it only stretches your budget. If that budget is already thin this is especially important. While there may always be new ideas introduced over the course of the year which were not originally part of your plan, you should use great care when choosing which to adapt. You have come up with your yearly business plan for a reason, after all.
Keep Moving Forward
There never comes a time when it is okay to stop researching. You should be researching on a steady basis in order to come up with the newest ideas. You need to know the latest trending keywords, the way people are currently connecting, and what marketing ideas have now gone stale. Without all of this information you are unable to come up with any kind of marketing plan whatsoever. Never allow your company to become stale or stagnant. If you keep moving forward, you will never find yourself left behind by the competition.
Use Proven Tactics & Strategies
If something has worked well for you in the past and is continuing to work well, keep it around. There is no reason to get rid of something that isn’t broke. One good example of a proven tactic is social media marketing. Although the sites with the most engagement may change, the basic idea does not. You may need to alter the way you go about something a little, but don’t forget to use proven tactics and strategies when revamping your plan for the upcoming year.
Update Your Email List
Take a little bit of time to go through and update your email list. Any bounced or unresponsive emails need to go. This helps in multiple ways. First, it makes your list more manageable. Second, it enables you to have a more realistic idea of how many people you are reaching. Third, it makes your life much easier by seeding out annoying return emails saying that the server could not be connected.
Go Mobile
More and more people are accessing content via their mobile devices. If they are unable to easily access your content in this format then you are missing out on a lot. In 2014 you should ensure that all of your websites are mobile friendly so that you can take advantage of this newest access point.
