What a Difference a Year Makes

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

So said noted author Edith Lovejoy Pierce. Her point is well taken. The New Year brings two types of people: those who lament what they view as the disaster of the year previous and those who look expectantly at the promise the new year brings.

At corecubed, we hope that your business belongs squarely in the second group.

Whether 2009 was a stellar landmark in your company's history or an unimpressive obstacle that had to be overcome, a new year levels the playing field and gives everyone a chance to start over again. Was your marketing system everything you thought it should be? Did you see a decent return-on-investment from all those spent marketing/advertising dollars? If not, now's the time to retool and revamp to get real results.

Even if you feel like your marketing department ran like a well-oiled machine, there's always room for improvement in the big 1-0.

So how can this be done? It can be fairly simple. Just take a look at these tips which are sure to help your company make 2010 a landmark year.

Develop your resolutions

If you're not growing as a company and improving your strategic position, then you're falling behind. But how can you go about selecting goals that are reasonable, yet aggressive, attainable and sustainable? Here are some tips from eHow.com:

Be realistic by setting achievable goals.

Reasonable and attainable revenue increases reasonable and attainable new business.

Be specific.

Creating SMART objectives is the way to accomplish them: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.

Break down large goals into small components.

It is easier to reach goals if the first step is reasonable and attainable.

Find alternatives.

Change is hard for all. In order to make changes, we have to be realistic about what will replace the desired change in behavior.

Aim for what is most important.

Think of what is THE most important to accomplish and work towards that. Focus and narrow the scope so there is no question about what needs to be accomplished.

Read more about setting attainable and reasonable resolutions here.

Plan and implement NEW two-way communication this YEAR

It's no secret now that social media is changing how products and services are found and purchased. Some say it is changing the landscape of marketing altogether. Why not make it part of your company's overall marketing strategy by jumping on the bandwagon and rolling towards a wider, more attentive audience? You won't be alone – according to eMarketer, marketers will spend nearly $2 billion in 2010 to increase their online presence through social media campaigns. The power and importance of this ongoing, two-way communication cannot be understated. Seth Godin, bestselling author and respected marketing blogger, puts it best:

"Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations."

Track Your Progress

It's not enough to simply have goals and hope you achieve them. To implement true improvement, you have to monitor your efforts and adjust as necessary. That means using a system of managing the projects associated with meeting your goals. Write out specific individual tasks that must be completed to achieve each goal. Develop timelines during which those tasks must be completed. Lastly, delegate each task to employees who can be held accountable for their completion.

Use Outside Expertise

Accomplishing business growth cannot be done without solid marketing strategy that is implemented regularly, tracked, measured, and refined. The Internet component of marketing is one factor that is growing exponentially in results. And understanding SEO and social media is an art and a science. Getting a view through experienced and talented eyes from the outside is an invaluable asset to making progress that leads to eventual success. Using corecubed as their marketing partner, St. Louis home care agency, Continuum, has been placed squarely at the forefront of the competition. Placing their media clips on the company Web site and marrying their blog to the site are just two ways corecubed is helping to propel Continuum into that number one slot coveted by so many.

Hamilton Wright Mabie once said:

"New Year's Eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights."

The new year of 2010 is a clean slate: a new year and a new decade. You can fill it with whatever you wish. At corecubed, we know you want to be on the road to success. Should you need a helping hand as you march onward and upward, feel free to give us a call. We'd love to be your marketing partner in 2010.

Interesting Quotes

"Social media isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it offers marketers unparalleled opportunity to participate in relevant ways. It also provides a launchpad for other marketing tactics. Social media is not an island. It’s a high-power engine on the larger marketing ship."
- Matt Dickman

"Ninety percent of the success of any product or service is its promotion and marketing."
- Mark Victor Hansen

"The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move."
- Brian Tracy

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