This post was originally published January 21, 2020 and was updated December 28, 2021.
New Year, New You
When a new year rolls around, we often find ourselves reminiscing on the 12 months that have just come to pass and setting goals for the 12 upcoming. Sometimes these goals are given, like sales numbers or revenue growth; other times the goals are more personal and self-assigned, like becoming more adept at SEO or focusing more on optimizing our website’s conversion rate.
No matter if the goal is picked or given, it’s important to find a clear path to success and begin on it.
For many marketers, it’s not hard to find the inspiration to get started on their business goals.
As soon as you visit your favorite blog or marketing thought-leader, you’ll no doubt be inundated with articles like “The Top Marketing Trends You Need to Adopt in [YEAR],” “The 16 Best Marketing Strategies to Try in [YEAR],” and even “20 of the Best SEO Tips for Keyword Rankings and Google in [YEAR].”
Everyone seems to know how to make the most out of the upcoming year.
But, how much of that is just hype? It’s important to take a step back and ask, “Is anything really that different?” If we’re honest with ourselves, probably not much has changed.
So, why do we continue to see articles like this? They appeal to our desire to be up-to-date with trends so we don’t become irrelevant, also known by many as the fear of missing out (FOMO). For many of you, FOMO is an all-to-familiar concept. It’s either something you’ve read about, something you’ve worried about, or something that you’ve actually felt!
We must now ask ourselves a new question.
In a marketing world set to play on our FOMO, what can we do to combat it and still feel like we’re progressing in the new year?
New Year, Same You
The answer to the above question is simpler than you think. Keep doing the things that made you successful the year before.
It’s not enough to just say, “We saw more conversions on social media, so we’ll keep using it.” No, instead you’ll want to look for something a bit deeper than that.
Figure out why.
Why did you see so many social media conversions last year? Was it because you started using images to accompany your text? Did you start writing long-form ads instead of bullets? Did you change your CTA button from red to blue?
If you haven’t yet taken the time to analyze the why behind your latest successes, the start of a new year is the perfect time to do so.
Instead of reading articles pushing you toward voice search or a TikTok account, step back and focus on why the things that worked well played out as they did.
Don’t assume your success was just luck.
There’s always a pattern, you just need to find it. Look at what day of the week your most successful campaigns were launched. Look at the time. Analyze the demographics of your buyers. Analyze the time it took to complete the sale. All of these metrics, as trivial as they may seem at face value, are trying to show you the keys to your success.
Okay, Okay – New Year, New You
“But, what if all of our sales tanked last year and we lost a major client?” Well, too bad, guess you’re out of luck.
KIDDING!
Even your failures are here to teach you something.
Did you get a whopping 2 clicks on your Instagram advertisements? Then maybe it’s not the platform for you. Only saw engagement but no conversions on your site? It’s probably time to optimize your sales funnel. Have a 2-second bounce rate? Focus on different keywords that are more aligned with the user’s intended query.
By drawing on all of these details, you can move forward into the new year with confidence. Don’t think that your marketing has failed, on the contrary, it is showing you exactly what you need to do (or not do) to create success.
Then, commit to continuing your successes.
If you are so fortunate to be seeing the conversion metrics you strive for, don’t just settle and accept that that’s as good as it’s going to get. By being continually mindful of your processes and decisions, you’re able to leverage them against goals and readjust as needed. Take a few risks, too, because if you become complacent in your sales, your leads, or whatever it is you’re looking for, you’ll slowly fall behind the curve.
Here’s to looking back for moving forward and keeping real experience and data as the decision-makers for how to succeed in the year(s) to come.