New Year’s Marketing Resolutions

Ah, the first full week of January. For many, this means the start of a new diet, exercise regime, time management plan or some other means of personal improvement. Businesses would be wise to kick off a similar improvement-focused marketing effort for their brands.

Keep It Real

Like a personal resolution, resolutions for your brand will have greater chances of success if you make them realistic. Make them attainable by not tackling too much at once. Break big-picture goals down into smaller, actionable ones. Start with fewer resolutions knowing you can add new ones throughout the year. Share them with your team and get them involved. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Think Mobile

Look at your website on multiple devices. Give yourself some basic tasks – like finding a piece of recent news, the sales territory of a certain director, or whatever. Do you encounter barriers? How many clicks did it take to find what you were hunting for? Is it as easy to navigate your site on a mobile phone as a desktop computer or tablet? If not, consider allocating more of your 2015 marketing budget to fixing this.

Measure Then Adjust

Get your arms around your marketing metrics and use them to fine-tune your efforts. Experiment. Play around. See how a tweak here and there can improve the performance of that online ad, AdWord, behaviorial targeting campaign or email blast. We’re all having to do more with less. Use the power of metrics to boost your efforts.

Walk Your Talk

Create and share content that offers real value. Make it useful, engaging and sharable. Hook readers by speaking to their concerns. Content marketing boosts SEO, helping people find and connect with your services/products. Share your thought leadership on issues and events affecting your business specifically and the aviation industry overall. Be consistent and keep out there.

Tell the World

Issue press releases regularly to the media – not just before big trade shows when your news can get lost in the mix. Editors and reporters want to know about recent innovations, expansion plans, shifts in focus and more. If it’s of interest to your customers, it warrants sharing with the media.

Don’t rely solely on the traditional media, but publish your news through channels you control: newsletters, email, blogs, social media. Include visuals. Photos, video, illustrations, charts and graphs ramp up readership and retention. And remember to listen as well as talk. Enter into two-way conversations to build understanding and relationships. Your customers want to interact with you.

Make It Great

Whatever you resolve for your 2015 marketing efforts, best of luck. Don’t get discouraged or give up. Resolutions should challenge you. Which is all the more reason to celebrate your successes. Build in rewards to keep you and your team motivated. And just watch what happens.

This column ran in the January 8 issue of BlueSky Business Aviation News.