As we cross the finish line and prepare to enter into a new year, it’s worth pausing to reflect on how far we’ve come, and where we’re all headed—particularly where content marketing is concerned.
For the small business owners out there, we hope that you’ve had a productive 2014, expanding your online marketing knowledge and efficacy; similarly, we hope you’re ready to step up your game and make even more of an impact in the months to come.
To ensure that you hit the ground running in 2015, it’s important to take some time now, in the waning days of December, to think strategically about what it is you’d like to accomplish—and how.
Setting the Right Goals
As the Grammar Chic team has noted before, content marketing works best when the goals are clearly defined.
Setting some specific goals for 2015 is helpful. It will provide your content marketing endeavors with some direction, and help you better measure your ROI. The question is, what sorts of goals should you be setting?
Some specific metrics will help. Perhaps you want to grow your e-mail subscription list by 2,500 names. Perhaps you want to increase website traffic by 30 percent. Perhaps you want to hit a certain number of Facebook likes. Such goals are helpful because they are actionable and measurable.
However, we would also recommend setting some goals more specific to the various facets of your company. Maybe you have a certain product or service you really want to push on Twitter, or members of your marketing team whose gifts you’d like to better utilize. These, too, are supremely helpful goals, even if they may be a bit harder to directly quantify.
Reflecting on the Past
Even as you look to the future, it might prove helpful to ponder the past. Have you been content marketing in 2014? If so, how has it gone? Which strategies should you hold on to, and which should you discard?
Did you have a particular post, blog entry, or promotion that did exceedingly well? Any content that just sort of flopped?
What would you say was your biggest content marketing success in 2014? What was your biggest challenge? What was the most important lesson you learned about your customers, fans, and followers?
And critically: What have your competitors been doing with their content marketing?
All of these are important considerations as you set the stage for a successful 2015.
Pulling it All Together
By reflecting on what you’ve accomplished and what you’d like to accomplish, you can clarify the tools and strategies you need to implement in 2015. You might also come to the conclusion that you need some help, either with strategy or with content creation—and if so, then the Grammar Chic, Inc. team can help.
Reach out to us today: www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.
The Red Ink 