As 2014 draws to a close, your digital marketing team should be celebrating the successes of the year and learning from the things that didn’t go quite so well. However, what is also crucial is to look ahead for digital marketing in 2015 and to start planning a marketing strategy for the year. What do you want to achieve? Which goals can you realistically tick off, and what do you need to do in order to get there?
A good place to start can be to set yourself some good old-fashioned New Year’s Resolutions. And once you’ve made them, you need to make sure you can keep your 2015 marketing resolutions. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
Clean up your social media accounts and rethink the way you use them
Your social media accounts need to show focus, not be cluttered with irrelevant content. Start the New Year by removing anything irrelevant and planning out your social media strategy for the next few months. Brands are starting to realise that customers don’t want to be bombarded with advertising on social media, and now that Facebook is changing its rules on unpaid marketing on the platform, digital marketers are going to have to be more creative with their efforts.
Come up with a strategy, and put the customer at the heart of it
According to http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239272 statistics published on Entrepreneur.com, around 51% of marketers believed that strategy issues stopped them from achieving their goals in 2014. Not having a clearly defined plan of action for the year could seriously hamper your efforts, so you need to lay down a strategy at the very start of the year. Ideally, you’ll already have an idea of what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there – this is the way to stay a step ahead of your competitors.
With so many goals to shoot for and so many different directions to take, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to do it all. However, the key to a successful strategy is to understand your customer. Start planning your strategy with your target market in mind. Think about how to reach and engage them, and how you can gain a greater insight into your customer base. Putting the customer at the heart of your digital marketing strategy is a fantastic New Year’s resolution to start out 2015 with.
Really get to grips with mobile
As advised by iMedia Connection, mobile is a strategy, not just a campaign, and it’s one you really need to embrace and understand if you want to keep up with your competition. If your site is not optimised for mobile, now is definitely the time to do it. And that’s not all, as customers are increasingly demanding engaging content that is not only accessible via smartphones and tablets but that is specially crafted for these devices – if you can’t deliver, your rivals will be happy to oblige.
What are your brand’s New Year’s resolutions for 2015? Realistically, how do you plan to keep them? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
