With the New Year just around the corner, now is a great time to start thinking about how you are going to tackle the year ahead. Over the quieter business period at the end of Dec-early Jan - a lot of business owners finally have the time lie on a deck chair and have a ponder about working "on" the business whilst not having to deal with the normal day to day distractions of running a business.

When I was preparing for the recent Marketing Education Workshop series we ran with ANZ Bank I realised that even though we are a Marketing company there was some improvements I could make to my own marketing and thought it might be helpful to share some thoughts/tips on getting marketing ready for the challenging and potentially exciting year ahead!

a.Face Facts and Make a Plan - You'd have to be living in a cave not to be affected by the media hype around the Global Financial Crisis and the impact on business owners locally. I've seen a lot of businesses respond to this by immediately putting plans on hold. Paralysis might seem like a good idea now, but any impact will be greater than if you continued to market, as long as it's done smartly. The businesses that will do well will be the one's who take action quickly and keep their brand out there.

b.Is the changing economic climate going to impact you business positively or negatively?

• Set some forecasts(will you grow or do you need to plan for a decline in sales)
• How can you grow or maintain revenue regardless

1. Do you need to change your offering, pricing or payment plans.
2. Do you need to develop new products to suit changing buying patterns.
3. Can you take advantage of a lower Aussie dollar by chasing a Global market?
4. Can you acquire a competitor to grow market share.
5. Is your product or offering perfect for a more cautious, budget-conscious buyer, do you need to review your brand or marketing messages to make the most of the opportunity!

• Do you need to do some Market Research to better understand how your customers will react and what you can do to keep them?

2. Educate yourself about new Marketing channels and methods. New media is moving faster than ever before. It's really hard to keep track of what's happening in the digital space and how you might make the most of that for your business, however it's also the most measurable, flexible form of marketing there is. Some key things you might want to read up on or find out more about are:

• Search Engine Optimisation - How the Search Engine's work and how you can optimise your website and contribute to other sites to increase your ranking in the search results.
• Search Engine Marketing - Using Google Adwords pay per click advertising in a targeted way to generate qualified leads and boost sales!
• Using social networking to build referrals, increase your Search Engine Optimisation ranking. You might want investigate using the following platforms:

1. Facebook communities
2. Twitter - the micro-site blogging sit
3. Linked-In
4. Plaxo
5. MySpace
6. YouTube

3.Start Tracking - Think about all the ways you market your business and whether you can really measure the effectiveness of it. How could you measure the effectiveness better?

• Are their way's you can increase the return on investment from each tactic?
• Should you switch to direct email marketing vs direct mailing?
• Could you increase your response rates using outsourced telemarketing leading to greater overall conversion and a lower cost of acquisition?

Marketing is a science and succesful marketers analyse everything!

Those who consistently market their business in a smart way over the next year have an opportunity to gain market share from less active competitors. So get working on your Marketing muscles to win!

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