Ready to make 2016 your best year since…2015?

The Holiday Season is in FULL SWING…

Thanksgiving has come. And gone. (Bye-bye!)
Meanwhile the rest of the holidays are bearing down on us… An unstoppable ultra-high-caloric freight train of lavish meals, replete with too many desserts to mention is picking up steam. (I can already feel the phantom pain of my waistband cutting into my waistline.)

2015 Is Drawing to a Close

The other notable event hovering on the horizon is the end of the 2015 calendar year. It’s the time of year when you begin to reflect on the last 12 months… Your successes … Your failures … And you start to think about next year.
If you’re like most small business owners, your primary business goal from year-to-year is to make coming year better than the last (that’s mine, anyway).
And effective marketing is paramount to achieving that goal.

Three Critical Marketing Questions

Toward that end, here are three critical questions that will help you improve your marketing and make 2016 your best year since… 2015!

Question #1 – What Marketing Gambits Succeeded?

Go over your notes. Look back at your 2015 project planning. Write down a list of all your marketing efforts, no matter how small.
What succeeded? To what extent did it succeed? Why, in your best estimation, did it succeed?
In addition to underscoring a successful strategy, it also highlights your accomplishments for the year. And this gives a sense of what you CAN do with the right approach.

Question #2 – What Marketing Campaigns Failed?

What initiatives absolutely tanked? Which projects didn’t turn out the way you expected? Write it all out. Include your expectations and the results.
This serves as a reminder of what doesn’t work and what to avoid in the future. It also helps keep you honest. Reflecting upon missteps illustrates that sometimes seemingly GENIUS ideas aren’t effective.
And that’s a key consideration – marketing isn’t about seizing a hold of the latest, and supposedly greatest, new tactic or technologically revolutionary tool. It’s about maintaining an effective strategy that drives RESULTS.

Question #3 – What Did You Learn From the Process and How Can You Apply it in the Coming Year?

Review your lists. Triumphs. And failures. What did you learn? What were the trends? Where did you excel? Where did you fall short? And what lessons can you take from these experiences?
Accomplishments can teach a great deal. But failures hold the potential to teach even more. In the final summation, it’s not whether you failed or succeeded, but what you learned from each outcome. And how you can apply those lessons next time around.

What About You?

What was your biggest success of the year? And your biggest failure? Drop by my Google+ page and share your thoughts.