As I’ve preached often on this blog, I’m not a fan of goal-setting for business owners.

In an ideal world, goal-setting is an excellent exercise for establishing targets for growing your client list and increasing annual revenue.

But in reality, life is all-consuming. Meaning it gets away from you in the blink of an eye. And more often than not, the lofty goals you set for yourself on December 31st fall by the wayside before January draws to a close.

Instead, I’ve long subscribed to focusing on developing habits. Specifically, zeroing in on what I call the “marketing habit.”

Moreover, I consider developing this habit integral to your marketing success.

Now, you’re probably wondering… “How does all of this shake out practically speaking?”

Great question! So, let’s take a closer look at the 5 Keys to Marketing Success in 2022:

1. Identify Marketing Projects You Need to Tackle in 2022

Common projects might include…

== > Launching or updating your website.

== > Start or reignite your email marketing efforts.

== > Establish or revive your social media presence.

Whatever’s on your agenda, make a formal list and put it in writing.*

*Scripting your project in writing is key because… It helps you define and flesh out the tasks you need to address while also encoding the ideas in your brain, making them much hard to forget or ignore.

2. Create a Project Completion Timeline

Open up whatever calendar software, or even better, project management platform you happen to use.

Estimate the time it will take to complete each project. And chart the completion dates on your calendar.

For example…

First Quarter: Website update; Completion date: March 31st

Second Quarter: Establish regular email marketing campaign schedule; Completion date: June 30th

Third Quarter: Grow social media followers by 30%; Completion date: September 31st

And so on…

3. Schedule Ongoing Weekly Appointments (With Yourself)

Go back to your calendar or scheduling app. Calendar a weekly appointment with yourself to work specifically on the current quarter’s marketing project.

Now technically, the length of frequency of appointments should be determined by the amount of time required to complete the project at hand.

But at a minimum, you should set a weekly self-appointment of at least 1-3 hours.

4. Monitor Your Progress With a Monthly Evaluation

Once again, open your calendar or scheduling app. Calendar a monthly “progress evaluation” appointment with yourself on the last Friday (or whatever day of the week works best for you) of each month.

During this appointment, review your current progress. And consider writing a brief status update.*

As you evaluate your progress, ask yourself… Are you on course to finish the project on time? If not, where are you falling short? Why? And what do you need to do to get back on track? Or alternatively, do project parameters, including your time horizon, need to be revised?

*A written review helps you mentally clarify your progress, in addition to contributing to the fifth and final key to ensuring your marketing success in 2022…

5. Assign An Accountability Partner

This step is optional. If your discipline is ironclad, perhaps you can hold yourself accountable. But in all honesty, those who make the effort to assign an accountability partner always see better results.

Mainly because…we’re all human. In other words, it’s much easier to lie to, mislead, and otherwise delude yourself than it is to fool a neutral third party completely.

Your accountability partner can be a colleague, employee, significant other, friend, or anyone you can trust to give you a fair, honest, no BS assessment of your progress. And is comfortable and willing to take you to tasks when you’re falling short on effort, neglecting your responsibilities, or similarly messing up.

You should meet with your accountability partner at least once per month (and I recommend making it a part of your personal monthly evaluation).

In your first accountability meeting, share your entire slate of 2022 project goals with your partner. And ask them to chart your project timeline on their calendar, too.

That way, you’re both on the same page from the get-go. And there are no “magically moving the goalposts” to contend with if you’re tempted to spontaneously “revise” your project timeline.

Also, this is where a written progress report can be very helpful…

• It gives your accountability partner a clear indication of what you’ve accomplished thus far and what’s still outstanding.
• Your partner doesn’t have to play 20 questions to get an update out of you.
• And it makes it easier for your partner to see or sense when you’re padding your update with meaningless blather.

Ready To Achieve Marketing Success in 2022?

So, listen… I realize you’re busy. There aren’t enough hours in the day to stay on top of the business of running your business as-is. So, adding anything more to your already overflowing to-do list is just…too much.

And many of the projects I noted above (along with whatever items you might have in mind) are out of reach. At least operating under your own power…

So, instead of choosing between making yourself crazy with more work that you really can’t handle and ignoring important business growth objectives — Hire a pro… Like me!

From websites to email campaigns to social media marketing and lots more, I can help.

So, before too much more of 2022 gets away from you, let’s chat… 310.466.7893 | ryan@ryananys.com