Faster than you can say “fa-la-la-la-la” and deck the halls, the old year passes.
What you do now, at the end of the year, can set your business up for a successful new year, or keep you mired where you are now. There’s an old saying, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will always get what you have always had.” Meaning: if you like where your business is now, keep doing the same thing, but if you want growth, it’s time for positive change.
Digital Marketing Evolves Quickly
In the past year, we’ve seen enormous changes happening in the world of digital marketing. From AI to changes in Google’s algorithm, nothing stands still.
This past year, for example, we have seen:
- Growing consumer pushback on AI generated content
- At least four major Google updates and several minor ones that rocked many websites’ traffic patterns plus, renewed emphasis on Google’s “E-A-T” formula, which indicates that expert, authentic, and trustworthy content remains dominant
- The iconic blue Twitter bird become a black and red X, with the social media giant now on shaky ground
- Areas that were popular in previous years, including YouTube and video content and podcasting, remain hot (with no sign of cooling)
- Increasing consumer reliance on trust indicators, such as reviews, to determine whether local businesses are legitimate and trustworthy (there’s that word “trustworthy” again!)
So, what’s a small business owner to do? Here are our recommendations for digital marketing resolutions for small business owners.
New Year’s Digital Marketing Resolutions
- Avoid the use of AI-generated content. AI content continues to draw controversy, with increasingly vocal consumer backlash against all AI-generated text and images. Recently, Sports Illustrated, the venerable magazine and brand that millions love for its sports coverage and swimsuit issue, found itself in hot water after using fake author profiles, bios, and images created by AI as well as articles written by bots.
The resulting debacle saw the company scrambling to remove content and a huge dip in confidence in the venerable brand. To avoid a similar negative effect on your own brand, avoid the temptation to use AI to generate content. It’s not worth losing the trust of your customers to save a bit of time and effort.
- Focus on high quality, useful web content for SEO. Chasing Google algorithm updates is a fool’s race because the ‘finish line’ – first position on the SERPs – is always changing. It’s like the old Peanuts cartoons where Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown, and always snatches it away just as he goes to kick it. Google is always changing, tweaking, and refining the algorithm used to determine just where a page sits in the rankings. Gone are the days when we could use precise formulas to get pages to rank. Now, with so much AI-generated content flooding the market, it’s more important than ever for companies and brands to publish content judiciously.
- Participate on social media platforms where your customers gather. Whether it’s Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or another platform, put your time, money, and effort into the platforms where your customers are most likely to seek the products or services you sell. Headline makers like CEOs behind X and Facebook are just that: headline makers. They are not the brand, and they are not a determinant of where your customers prefer to spend their leisure time. Go where your customers go online and participate on the platforms where they like to be.
- Video and Podcasting Remain Hot: Yes, videos and podcasts continue to be in the news as exciting opportunities for content producers and advertisers. But, like all platforms, it’s only profitable if your customers listen to podcasts or watch videos. Some products or services lend themselves well to either podcasting or videos, others, not as much. This is where our experts at Dashboard can help you decide what, if any, channels you should advertise on or participate in.
- Build Your Trust Up (and Don’t Lose It!): Trust, once lost, is hard to recover. But it is a priceless commodity in a world increasingly flooded with phony accounts, AI-generated content, and businesses that do not keep their word.
So work hard on building good customer relationships and a high degree of trust with your customers. And ask for reviews. These trust indicators are priceless and excellent advertising. Positive reviews on Google, Facebook, Angie’s List, Clutch, and other review sites all help boost your business’ brand and visibility in the marketplace and shorten the time it takes for someone to move from search to lead or sale. We can help you develop simple, time-tested processes to ask for, and get, more customer reviews. Ask us about it.
Focus your website, blog posts, videos, and social media posts on perspectives that only you, as an authority on the topic, may have, or industry knowledge that you’ve gained from many years of experience. Publishing the same old, same old content won’t achieve the results you desire. Think outside of the topic box and write for people, not search engines, to court and woo both to love you. It sounds crazy, but it works.
Make Dashboard Part of Your New Year’s Resolutions
As far as New Year’s resolutions go, the list above is really quite do-able. It’s much easier than the resolution to wake up at 5 a.m. to go running every day, and definitely easier than giving up your daily cup of coffee in favor of something caffeine free (shudder).
We’re passionate about sharing with small business owners best practices in digital marketing. Whether it’s ensuring your social media builds your brand and generates leads or ensuring your website is secure, Dashboard Interactive Marketing resolves to be a small business’ go-to marketing partner for the new year. Happy New Year!
Call us at 763-242-2454 for a consultation or if you have any questions.