Looking toward the New Year you will want to create more marketing-focused goals to keep your big vision alive.

Setting goals should also be aligned with a marketing plan to help you get there. But, most small business owners miss this part and either stop marketing when business gets challenging or keep doing the same old things, not measuring the results.

7 marketing goals to focus on in the New Year:

1. Have a content marketing plan. What will you publish on your website and social media? Have a plan in place and a rough draft of every month’s marketing efforts at the beginning of the year.
2. Find strategic partners. Your partners could be online or offline partners. For example, I partner with other speakers to host specialty events for offline programs. And my online partners are JV launch partners who build my database and continue to help make online sales. Both of these partners are considered and planned well in advance with a strategic marketing plan.
3. Give something away for free to showcase your expertise. Nothing attracts potential clients like free content — especially good free content. For example, you could have a free guidebook or ebook on your website, free webinar or tele-seminar, bonus gift or benefit with another offer, etc.
4. Try something new. Marketing is about testing and tweaking and finding out what gives you the best return on your investment. This could even be consulting or mentoring in an area where you are struggling. And if that area is marketing — you really need help to get your marketing working for you vs. trying to figure it out on your own.
5. Track everything you do. Make it a point to track your efforts so that you really know what’s working and what’s not. To see the full-scale results of your marketing efforts, you need to track the analytics such as Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, etc.
6. Create something fun. Marketing can be fun, especially when you see the fruits of your labor—no matter how small—marketing can be enjoyable and creative.
7. Learn new marketing skills. To improve your marketing efforts, learn new skills to keep up. Marketing is always changing and evolving, and the best way to stay ahead of your competitors is to learn new ways to market your business.