Successful small businesses turn each new year into a fresh start by setting smart goals. While everyone is promising to follow personal New Year’s resolutions, you should also be outlining the goal(s) you want to achieve for your business during the coming year. We have learned in the past year to pivot, adjust, go with faith, and try our best even when uncertain. Next year will be NO different as we still feel the after-effects of a rocky last 12 months.
The thing is, New Year resolutions and goals often fall apart because of a misalignment with intention and reasoning. People who want to lose 20 pounds may not succeed because they’re focused on a number, not the steps needed. How will they lose 20 pounds? A proper diet? The right amount of sleep? Working out the right way? The method is just as part as the process as the end goal. 20 pounds is a number, but feeling better and gaining confidence may be the REAL goal.
So, let’s pull a Missy Elliott and flip it and reverse it. Forget the goals that leave you giving up, feeling bad, or being unobtainable. Here’s my 5 BETTER goals to set for the new year.
get followers → increase engagement
One million followers mean nothing if those followers aren’t doing anything. A follower count means little in the grand scheme of things — the main priority you may want to focus on is improving your engagement rates. Comments, likes, saves, shares… those bring visibility and can spread like wildfire if reaching the right people! Once someone “follows” your social media account, what then? You surely want them to interact with you, believe in your brand and services… not just sit as a static number.
STOP merely focusing on the numbers and start focusing on real genuine connections through engagements. Here are some quick ways to improve your engagements:
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Ask questions that encourage your followers to answer.
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Prompt them to take a call to action: save the post, tag a friend, visit a link.
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Reply to ALL comments and start conversations.
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Give valuable information that will prompt a ‘thank you’. This is gold and can truly elevate your business to being an expert in your industry — trusted by your followers.
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Go live! Instagram and Facebook notifies your followers when you go live, this platform helps allow you to transparently connect and interact with viewers.
Engagement on your social media should be your #1 priority.
improve sales → offer expansive services
Sales are always a goal, but should it be the number one goal? If you’re finding your sales lacking, setting a goal for higher volume of sales isn’t the answer. Understanding where your services or goods can improve and adding value to your brand by utilizing storytelling and clarity practices helps sales come in organically.
Setting numbers are good, don’t get me wrong, but when we get closer to the deadline… panic mode hits. Think of new ways to meet a flexible number for yourself: offering expansive services.
My #1 tip? Try offering goods or services that are often bundled together. For example, if you sell candles… try offering the scent in a room spray that pairs nicely. Bundle buying is an upcharge that helps moves goods, diversifies your services, AND allows for bigger pay-outs.
post every day on social → create a content strategy
Posting every day without a purpose “just to post” is not feasible in the long run. You’re more likely to grow frustrated and burn out. That’s a no-go! The best way to avoid this is to plan accordingly ahead of time. Consistency and strategy are meant to work together and ease yourself into a more comfortable view on managing your social media.
My rule of thumb is to post at least 3-4 times a week if you’re new to social media. A content strategy is NEEDED for this. Let’s go through an example of a week’s worth of posting for one of my clients…
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A post promoting their brand voice. This can be things like an introduction to their personality, their services, or showing off a ‘behind-the-scenes’.
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A post that reinforces them as experts in their field. This can be photos of their finished products or happy customers, a testimonial graphic, or a recognition of their training or valued certifications.
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A post with a direct call to action. This can be a “spaces available” or “book now”.
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A post with direct engagement. This encourages algorithms to begin sharing your posts on social feeds more often. “Fill in the blank”, “Which do you prefer?”, “Tag a friend” are common examples.
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A post with sales-centric goals. This is very blunt and showcases pricing first and why their customers should jump on booking them.
With this diversity, you’re able to use tools for planning to prepare ahead of time!
have a website → have a GOOD website
A bad website will hurt your business.
Play that back: A BAD WEBSITE WILL HURT YOUR BUSINESS.
Your website will be a 24/7 billboard that shows yourself as invested in your business and craft, dedicated to your customer, and confident in your service. The reality is — a GOOD website will pay for itself easily, but a BAD one will cost you in the long run.
GOOD websites are rewarded in Google and admired by fans. BAD websites are forgotten and ignored.
So… what makes a good website? Here’s a few things your website should be:
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Designed with desktop, tablet, and mobile in mind. This includes site speed and responsive design.
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Clear and direct – it leads your customers down a sales funnel subconsciously with answers to their questions and ways to contact you.
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Branded with YOUR brand in mind, this includes your colors, fonts, brand voice, brand messaging, and value.
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Capable of having SEO-improving strategies added to it. Most websites have this capability, but WordPress is one of the best.
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Defined pages that read between 400-500 words. This helps Google rank you based off relevant content! My suggestion is giving each of your services their own page.
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Ways to contact you clearly. This includes phone number, social media, or contact forms that are easy to find.
improve stars on google → collect testimonials
Google is the end-all-be-all to organic searches, in my opinion. However… making your customers just go THERE to leave a review may be cutting your user-generated marketing short! People don’t JUST search Google, but they also look at pages like Facebook business pages, Yelp, Angie’s List, etc. for guidance on what businesses are trust-worthy.
There are plenty of programs for review management that offer you a funnel on closing that encourages true and honest testimonials. These testimonials can be used in marketing and expand your business-to-customer perception.
Rich, honest, and detailed reviews do far better than just clicking a 5-star with no content. You WANT your customers to tell their story and be your cheerleader.
My tip for this is to have either a management software or wrap-up e-mail that sends after you finish a job or sell an item to your customer. When you ASK for a review, you may not always get it but providing them the tools to do it takes the guesswork away and gives them a direct path. List all of the websites you want reviews for and prioritize from there.
2022 who? i don’t know her!
This year has been a struggle for many different reasons. Even those who were successful in certain aspects of their lives find it difficult to find balance. It’s okay, you are not alone. For 2022, it’s the year of saying yes and year of pivoting to a new (and scary) outlook. Being online, being consistent, and showing up will continue to yield you a presence when face-to-face encounters have grown scarce.
I hope you truly find these goal re-alignments beneficial and I’m eager at the end of 2023 to see the results! 🙂
