Now is the time when you’re probably thinking about a lot of New Year’s resolutions. There’s no better time than now to start talking about resolutions to improve business!
Let’s get started with a brief list of some things you might want to work on…
1. Automate Your Business
Start exploring and checking out ways to make things easier for yourself.
I recommend (and use) Infusionsoft. It handles your email marketing, customer relationship management, and sales processes with ease. Almost all of which you can setup to work on autopilot so you aren’t having to keep track of everything!
2. Build Your List
Make it a point to start building your email list.
Emails are the most personal touch point that you can have with your users (at least digitally). So it only makes sense that you make more effort to get them.
Try adding pop ups on your site, make use of your sidebar, adjust your offers—do what you can to capture your users attention and get them to trust you enough to give their emails. If you need a handy way to handle all the emails (and aren’t ready for something as robust as Infusionsoft), check out Aweber.
3. Start Using Paid Traffic
Free traffic is great… but it’s unreliable. If you haven’t at least dipped a toe in the wide wonderful world of pad traffic… THIS IS YOUR YEAR! Create a Facebook For Business account or setup an AdWords campaign. These don’t require a ton of money and if you’re super savvy, you can search the web for some coupon codes to get you started.
The point here is to start. Chances are, you won’t make money right away from paid media, but it’s something that every business needs to learn in order to grow and scale.
4. Track Your Results
As a marketer, you need to know…
- Who is visiting your site,
- Where they are coming from,
- What actions they are taking, and
- What the results of those actions are.
Fortunately, Google has given us Google Analytics. It’s completely free to setup and use, AND it tells you everything you need to know to make better marketing decisions. (If you need help learning Google Analytics, please check our course called SeriouslySimpleAnalytics.)
5. Test, Test, Test!
VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) is still my go-to for split tests. Trust me, you’re going to learn more as a marketer when you test, and in fact, produce better results when you test to find out what your market wants.
6. Build Your Team
You may have started your business as a solopreneur, but as your business grows, so will your to-do list. It might be time to start exploring the possibility of building your team.
First, exploring options from sites like Fiverr or Growth Geeks. They’re great for one-off projects. If you find you need more, you may want to think about hiring internally or finding a full-time virtual assistant to help you out.
7. Repurpose Content
Consider offering a video supplement, a free PDF download, live chats with an expert… maybe even starting a podcast. Whatever you can do to help your visitors grow their skills (and have YOU to thank for it).
In Conclusion….
Before I end this, let me leave you with this final tip—
The fastest way to overwhelm is taking on too much at the same time. Start with just ONE idea from this list (the one you think will have the greatest impact on your bottom line) and go from there.
What’s my New Year’s Resolution?
Podcasting. (I’m pretty excited to explore this source of connection and traffic!)
What’s yours? Please take a moment to share it in the comments below and if you found this post helpful, take a moment to like, +1, or otherwise share!
– Mercer
