5 marketing resolutions to make in 2020

You’re probably thinking that I’m a little bit late to the New Year’s resolution game.  But statistically, the 12th of January is the day when most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions, so even if you’ve given up on your resolution to hit the gym every day, run 50k a week, go cold turkey on coffee, whatever it is – here are some pretty realistic resolutions you can apply to your business marketing in 2020.  

 

 

 

2020 Marketing Resolution #1: Keep it simple

Hands up who felt a little bit overwhelmed heading into December?  You can’t see me, but right now, my hand is way up in the air.  I’m guilty of overcomplicating things a bit in 2019, and I’m sure I’m not the only one here.  The thing is, marketing your business can be simple.  It doesn’t need to be this mysterious, complicated thing, especially when you’re just starting out.  It is so easy to get caught in the trap of doing all of the things: feeling the pressure to do Instagram Lives, have a Facebook group, start a YouTube channel, host a podcast, write a book – all of the things!

Do yourself a favour and commit to keeping 2019 simple.  Focus on a few things that you can consistently do well and that will bring you the best results, and if you’re not sure how the heck to simply your marketing, make sure you register here for my free, 3-day simpler marketing challenge.  

2020 Marketing Resolution #2: Don’t get caught up in the numbers

It's so easy to waste time checking the numbers on things like your website traffic, the number of your email subscribers, Instagram followers, etc.  These numbers are great and all, but while you’re checking them, your competitors are busy doing the real work.

Quick disclaimer: Some numbers do matter, mostly the ones with the dollar signs in front of them, so don’t forget to keep an eye on these.  But don’t stress about the ones that don’t matter.  You know what?  If your Instagram following isn’t growing but your bottom line is, that’s a heck of a lot better than an Instagram following that is growing and a bottom line that isn’t.  

2020 Marketing Resolution #3: Be social on social media

Social media is a two-way conversation, so treat it like one.  I think so many people forget this, and they set out as a way to post their content and a way to grow their following, but then they don’t actually spend that time engaging and having a meaningful conversation with their followers.  So, spend the time being social, whether this is replying to comments in DMs, making friends online, interacting with other accounts, whatever it is.  I’ve made a bunch of legit business friends on Instagram, and I actually hang out with these people in real life now.  And it’s been a gamechanger for my business.

2020 Marketing Resolution #4: Be consistent

Consistency breeds trust, and people need to trust you before they can hand over their hard-earned money for whatever is that you’re selling.  If you can commit to consistently posting once a week to social media and you can keep it up for the entire year, you’re doing a heck of a lot better than the person who posts every day for a week and then disappears.  Planning ahead can be really helpful because then you know exactly what to post, even on days when you don’t know what to write or don’t feel like posting anything.  You don’t have to schedule every single post for the next twelve months, but having a rough outline of maybe the next seven days, the next month, the next quarter, whatever suits you – having some content that you can run with on the days when you’re just not feeling inspired and you don’t feel like posting anything.  

2020 Marketing Resolution #5: focus on quality, not quantity

This follows on really well from the consistency resolution.  If you’re consistently creating content, it can be a real challenge to keep up the quality.  The thing is, if you can’t post high-quality content every day, then I’d rather you didn't post anything at all.  You’re better off posting one or two high-quality pieces of content each week than seven mediocre ones.  We’re at content saturation point these days.  There’s just so much content out there at the moment, and people are becoming a lot more selective about what content they will consume.  So if you’re posting high-quality content, you’re going to get a lot more people consuming your content and engaging with it.