For the last few years my clarion cry this time of year has been – Do not make marketing your new year’s resolution – precisely because marketing is very much like exercise and the good intentions rarely last beyond February. But, like everyone else, I find myself making a few promises to do more of this, and less of that.

So, this year I thought I’d share seven ideas for marketing resolutions that just might stick. ‘Do more marketing’ is just too vague to actually happen. You could find yourself wasting time messing about and still tick that box.

My mantra for effective marketing is that consistent low level activity is much, much, better than boom and bust. So, I’d suggest you pick one of these specific ideas and stick to it… please don’t try to do them all, as that has about as much chance of sticking as ‘running every day’ or ‘never eating chocolate again’ – please pick something manageable, and stick to it.

I’ve put them in order of the priority I think works best… as each builds on the last. Maybe you could add one each month for the next 7 months? After all, marketing is for life, not just for January!

1) Create an evergreen lead magnet and promos

Having a piece of powerful content that people will find useful and helpful regardless of what year it is, or what time of year, is an essential element of an effective small business marketing plan. If you get it right, you can put it to work for you day-in, day-out for years. Yes, I did say years!

Take a moment to think of the sort of thing people in your ideal buying audience might find really handy, and give it to them. It becomes a ‘lead magnet’ when you make it available in return for email permission. Here are ours, to give you some ideas:

• 10 Steps to Writing a Marketing Brief (five years old and going strong)
• The A to Z of Content Marketing Ideas (three years old and going strong)

Once you’ve created your key content item (or lead magnet), break it up into blog posts, tweets, images, etc. and schedule it over the year. You could even run some consistent low level advertising on key platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to drive traffic.

2) Commit to writing a weekly blog post

Getting noticed is all about mastering The Awareness Equation. One of the key elements of this is frequency. It’s that lighthouse effect of showing up regularly enough to be there when someone happens to be looking. The most effective way of achieving this, whilst also drawing someone into a conversation with you, is to commit to a regular post on a blog for your business.

A blog post of around 500 words will typically take between 2 hours and a day to write. The more you do it, the faster you’ll get. And, of course, you can work with a content partner to speed this process up, or delegate some of the task. Having a regular post gives you something fresh to put on your social media feeds, in emails, etc. and means that you can show up regularly in your buyers’ time lines.

Oh, and that lead magnet… signpost it at the bottom of your posts.

• For more on blogging, take a look at this series of post on the topic.

3) Send a monthly email newsletter

If you have a decent lead magnet (or a couple), and a regular blog, you have what you need to send a respectable monthly email newsletter. With a simple excerpt and link to each of the posts you’ve published in the previous four weeks, a sign-post to the download, topped and tailed with some more timely comment, and perhaps a link to something from a third party that you’ve spotted and liked… and there you have it, enough for a monthly email that’s worth receiving.

4) Create a monthly rich media item

Like exercise, once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to step it up. Time to add some aural or rich media content to your mix. Like video and visuals. If you’ve done the lead magnet, how about turning it into a presentation. Or, you can do this with your blog posts. Perhaps you could pick your best post each month to turn into a video.

Honestly, this isn’t as tough as you might think. And, you’ve probably already got the tools you need to do it. With the in-built record function in PowerPoint or Keynotes, you can create a slide show with voiceover pretty easily. Export it as a movie, upload to YouTube, and there you have it, a brilliant piece of rich media… directing people to your download!

Feeling a bit more adventurous? There are cost-effective video animation tools, like Sparkol, that you can use to create short videos like this:

• Are you stuck on the Yo-Yo marketing diet? 

5) Spend 10 minutes per day engaging in social media

Social media can be a complete time vacuum. It can also be a really powerful marketing tool, if used properly. I can attribute nearly £1m of business to leads that initiated in social media over the last six years (with 18 months off for that baby thing).

All of these leads came from having genuine two-way conversations. So, how about this as an idea. Set a stop watch for 10 minutes, then go onto one of the more immediate social platforms, like Twitter, and have a chat with someone. Ask them about something they’ve posted, or detailed in their bio.

Do this consistently for a period of time and you’ll find that those formless avatars that float past your news stream take the shape of real people, with connections, business needs, etc. Who knew?!

6) Take monthly snapshot stats

Whatever you’re doing with your marketing, you should be measuring it. But, I would caution about getting measurement obsessed. It can be a thief of both time and effectiveness. I talk about mindful marketing measurement – which is about truly understanding cause and effect. At the very least, I’d suggest creating a snapshot stats spreadsheet. Attribute key metrics to each stage in the buying decision and take a snapshot monthly. We’re working on a template for this… keep your eyes open for it.

7) Commit to one decent group and spend a high quality half an hour there per week

There are groups for absolutely everything. On LinkedIn and on Facebook you’ll find groups for every business and consumer interest. Take some time to research a these and select one that is likely to have your buyers in it. Then spend quality time each week engaging in the group. Not selling. Chatting. Ask questions, answer questions, Like people’s posts, direct people to useful content (that is not your own). Again, you’ll be amazed how relationships flourish when you’re simply showing people your expertise, rather than shouting about it.

So, I hope there is something in these seven ideas that you could stick to in 2015, and beyond. If you’re able to commit and maintain healthy marketing habits, you’ll soon find that your business is fighting fit and looking great. Do tell me how you get on.

© Bryony Thomas – The Watertight Marketer