Helen Dowling from Exceptional Thinking gives you her top 10 marketing resolutions for 2008!

Happy New Year! It’s that time again, when we all put our New Year’s Resolutions into place and try our best to achieve them before the end of the year. As you’ve probably got ideas of things you want to achieve in your business in 2008, I thought that some top 10 marketing resolutions would be of benefit, so here goes…

1. Listen. If you’re not committed to doing some marketing and doing marketing constantly in 2008, it’s never going to happen. You need to decide whether you’re going to spend at least half a day a week, each and every week to achieve your goals or not. If so, great…carry on reading the rest of my tips. If not, that’s fine too – give me a call (or using another marketing person) and we’ll do it for you. At least then, it will get done and you won’t have to worry about it.

2. If you are committed to doing some marketing, decide what your goal is for each activity you do. In other words, if you’re attending a networking, decide that you want to meet at least 2 people who are interested in discussing your product or service in more detail after the event. Then measure how well you did against your targets. If you’re meeting or exceeding your targets, carry on with that marketing activity. If not, drop that activity and try something else.

3. Team up with a friend or colleague and have a challenge of who can get the most amount of business by the end of June. Meet on a regular basis to see how you’re getting on and help each other.

4. Make it your priority to keep your eyes open for new marketing opportunities. Opportunities are all around us and sometimes we just need to pay attention. For instance, just before Christmas, the local radio station ran an auction allowing you to donate an item and receive 1 hour’s free publicity on the radio during the day. Try to find 1 new marketing opportunity a month and get involved with it.

5. Your current customer database is the easiest place to go if you want quick marketing hits. Why not call or email all your past contacts to see how things are going for them. You never know what might turn up.

6. Look back at where you got your previous customers from to see what marketing activities have worked for you in the past. Be specific – if the customer came from a referral, who sent it over to you? If they came from a networking event – which one? Once you know which marketing activities are working, go and do them again.

7. 2008 should be the year of building relationships. If you want your contacts to send you referrals or the press to publish your stories, don’t expect to meet with that person once and have done with it. You wouldn’t refer to someone you didn’t know, so you can’t expect them to. Think of ways to build your relationships with people i.e. swapping website links; doing some marketing together; referring someone over to them – if you do something for them, you’re likely to get it back ten-fold.

8. Have a strategy to follow-up with each and every single person you come into contact with. You don’t know how interested they are in your product or service until you ask them. Having an effective follow-up strategy improved my marketing significantly and it can do the same for you if you spend some time putting one in place.

9. Why not come up with one new marketing activity per week? Get a bit creative and have some fun with it. The inspiration of two heads is often better than one, so get together with contacts you know and see how many different activities you can come up with.

10. If you achieve your targets, make sure that you reward yourself. Too often, small business owners are excellent at celebrating failure – why not turn it around and write down 10 things that have gone right each day. It can really help keep you motivated.

I hope you’ve found these ideas useful. Here’s to a prosperous 2008!!