If you are a small business owner, a one person?consultancy?or the marketing arm of a larger company, the early part of January is the time to reflect. It is time to review what worked and did not work last year. Time as Steve Covey loved to say, “to sharpen the saw,”
But what does this have to do with content publishing?
Any good marketing strategy should evolve around a central theme. The first content you put forth in a new year should be the focus of all your messaging. But going in a single direction can be a risk.
How do you know what will work?
When looking for the answers to what to do next, it is important to look at what has worked in the past. This does not in any way mean recycle your successful campaigns and run something similar again. While the best course may be to continue on a path that has brought in new clients and increased revenue, it could also be the ceiling that causes your business to?plateau. What you want to look for in the campaigns of the previous year is as follows:
- What resonated? Look for themes or messages that enticed interactions with prospects and led them too buy.
- What did not? Look at what campaigns fell flat. Look at marketing copy and content that did not resonate.
- What feedback did you receive on your campaigns? Internal, external, it is all of value.
Once you have gathered this data, you can start to look for a new idea for the New Year. You can lean on the ideas that resonated in the past, while avoiding the ones that fell flat. Putting together a new theme with confidence should be a lot easier if you manage first from the past.
One final thought before you run off and start developing content:
Try and make your content and ideas current. eBooks that resonate in the now tend to get more immediate play then those that feel stale or appeal to too great a range of people. Know what is important to your audience and what resonates. An easy way to do this is to follow them on twitter or connect with them on other social networks and watch what they are sharing and commenting on.
Good luck and a Happy and Fruitful New Year from Flipbuilder.