Nearly everyone makes at least a few New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year, and your business can benefit too. Here are three New Year’s resolutions that can help your business be more successful in 2023.
If you’re like most of us, you make some New Year’s resolutions. Whether you make them “official” and shout them out into the world and ask friends and family to answer to them, or whether you just jot these resolutions down in your head as goals for the new year is up to you. you, but most of us have at least a few New Year’s resolutions every year.
What I would challenge you to do is make three resolutions for your business in 2016. They may not have a major impact, or it may take a while for that impact to surface, but if you do these things together that I list below, you will probably notice a beneficial effect in 2016. That’s something we’re sure we could all use, no matter how good or how bad we are in our business endeavors.
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Refresh your website
If you’re a busy professional and your website is ABOUT your business, but not your BUSINESS, it’s easy to overlook keeping it current. I personally always do this. I regularly post on my blog, but in terms of the look and feel of the site and the marketing information about me and my products and services, it hasn’t changed in a while. That’s why it’s definitely one of my top priorities for the new year. If you’ve been trying to get new customers that were on the fence last year or the year before and you try again, the last thing you want them to see is that you haven’t changed your website much in two years. When I see something like this, my first thought is that they are out of business and forgot to take the website down. Keep it fresh. Your customers need to see changes happen and your potential customers need to see an attractive site with a fresh look and interesting content.
In addition to keeping your content current, check how your site looks on smartphones and tablets. If you’re not using a design that looks good in all formats (without pinching or expanding pages to read them), talk to your web designer about switching to a responsive template for your website.
It is said time and again that the return on investment (ROI) of time you spend on social media is difficult to calculate. And that is very true. Do Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook help make you more profitable? That is a good question. Probably. I get paid to help software customers around the world with their online content and promotion, but the overall benefits are sometimes hard to see. One thing’s for sure, most or all of your competitors are using it, so if you’re not, you’ll already seem unreachable or archaic.
If you don’t already have a social media presence, create one. Sign up for a Twitter account and create a Facebook page for your business. Promote both on Twitter and gain some followers and likes. Tweet helpful and witty tips and information intertwined with some information about your offerings, your industry, and your personal experiences. It may take some time – and you may want to contact a third party to create and/or manage your social media presence for you. The key is to initiate and use that presence. In addition, most consumers first search the Internet for the suppliers they are interested in, and that search often begins with an assessment of their social media presence.
Reach customers or customers you lost in 2021 – 2022
We gain customers, we lose customers. It’s just how business – especially small businesses – goes. Some customers appreciate the service we provide and would pay anything for it. Others are just looking for the cheapest deal they can find. These are just facts of life – the reality of doing business.
However, customer situations are changing. Whatever made them leave, you may have changed. Maybe their budget is more robust and they can pay you again. Or maybe they belittled internally and whatever you can provide is something they can’t do internally anymore and now they need you to do it again for them. It won’t take long to reach these lost customers, and you might get some back. That’s a high reward per hour for reaching out and letting them know you miss them and want them back. The key is to offer them something new to get them interested again. And at the very least, you might be able to ask them why they left, giving you very valuable information to take with you as you work to build your current customer base and retain your existing ones.
