With 2021 here, now is the time to begin making new resolutions for your business for the New Year. We’ve recently discussed 3 tips for success on how to plan for the upcoming year, and with the ongoing pandemic, it’s essential for your business to have additional ideas added to your list of resolutions for 2021.
While the future may still seem unpredictable, it’s important to continue to move forward with resolutions that will take your business to the next level of success. Take a look at the following 3 resolutions your business should focus on for 2021:
Marketing
Ensuring your business has an effective online presence is more important now than ever for the upcoming year. More & more people are spending time online since they’re staying at home, or working from home due to the ongoing pandemic. You want to be sure a resolution for 2021 is to update or prepare your marketing plan ahead of time in order to be prepared for the upcoming seasons. Take some time to reflect back on this year & identify what marketing efforts helped your business and what didn’t. Consider a new plan cutting out anything that didn’t work and prioritize what is working best for your business when updating your marketing plan for the New Year. We’ve also previously discussed efficient methods to update or change your marketing strategy, such as updating your website, google my business, and email personalization. While those are key steps to consider moving forward, below are new strategies to consider implementing into your resolution for your marketing plan:
- User Generated Content is any content, such as reviews, photos, or videos, created by your customers. UGC is important as it’s a reflection of your customer’s experience with your services, and will help any future potential customer trust your business. UGC is the new “word of mouth” for marketing, and is valuable for any business. Along with the fact that 80% of customers read online reviews, this is a great method to implement into your marketing strategy. Below are a few examples of UGC:
– Sharing photos or videos your customers post of any jobs you have completed for them on social media.
– Displaying reviews customers submit on your Google my business on your website.
- Videos are a new way for your customers to engage with your business on your website, or social media platforms. They’ve become almost mandatory to include as many social media platforms share videos as content. You can include videos such as how your team is taking safety measures on a job site, tips on how to get jobs done efficiently, or your team working at a job site!
Remember to keep any online presence you have up-to-date and ready to go for the upcoming seasons. Being prepared will show your customers you’re active online and ready to provide them with a great service.
Customer-Centric
With the ongoing pandemic, the future is still unpredictable. You want your business to focus more on your customers as a resolution for the upcoming year. Customers are concerned and cautious about venturing out, which makes it important for your business to implement policies that emphasize your customers’ and employees’ safety. Ensuring your business is implementing these policies and is committed to customer safety will help your customers be more confident in purchasing your services. These include adopting to contactless payment solutions, encouraging face coverings, and increasing sanitation protocols. You can help your customers be aware of your safety policies through any online presence your business may have, such as social media, Google my business, or your website. Additionally, with regulations constantly changing throughout the country, it’s important to keep your customers in the loop on any changes with your business. Make sure your customers are also aware of any changes in your hours of operation, or if you’re switching from in-person meetings to video chat meetings only.
Ensuring your business implements these policies will help your customers feel confident and have a good experience with your business. This is important as 80% of customers believe the experience a business provides is as important as its services, and 67% are willing to pay more for a great experience.
For 2021, you want your business to have a resolution of becoming more customer centric in order to advance to the next level of success.
Delegate Tasks
2020 was a year full of obstacles, and created challenges for many businesses. This upcoming year may or may not be any different, and as a business owner it can become overwhelming handling so many tasks at once while dealing with challenges. Although you may feel the need to tackle each & every task by yourself, consider a business resolution of outsourcing or asking for a hand in this upcoming year. Delegating your tasks with people in your team or hiring new people will help take some of the load off your shoulders and allow you to focus more on growing your business. Take into consideration which tasks are small and can be taking up too much of your time. Small tasks such as updating reports can delegated to someone else on your team. Remember, your time as a business owner is valuable and being able to take time to prioritize more important tasks will help bring your business to the next level of success.
Finally
Rely on Central to help, whether it’s questions about marketing strategy, strategic purchasing, or business planning during COVID-19. Central is the right partner for your business. We stay at the leading edge of the industry and we’re ready to help you grow!