As the end of the year approaches, it is time to create your small business marketing goals for the New Year.  Just as every great organization has a mission statement, every business—large or small—needs clear directives when it comes to marketing and sales.  Without a successful marketing campaign, your business may offer the best products or services in your industry, but none of your potential customers would know about it.

When it comes to advertising, social media, print media, and other marketing efforts, knowing which path to take can seem daunting; however, the good news is that you already have a plethora of information from this year that you can tap into.

Here are some quick steps to help guide your decision making process:

Step 1: Recap what you’ve done. For most small businesses, this list will include: Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest), Website/Blog (WordPress, Google Analytics), and Paid Advertising (Google AdWords, Facebook Ads).

Step 2: Identify the tools you need to track your results.  Once you’ve gathered a list of marketing activities, you’ll need to make sure you have the tools you need to effectively measure your results.  Luckily, most marketing channels have built-in reporting tools you can use to track your activity.

Step 3: Understand the metrics that matter.  As you start to look into your reports, you’ll likely see some new terms and have questions about what these metrics really mean for your business.  Understand and seek knowledge about words as bounce rate, opt-out, impressions, engagement, leads, unique visits, and conversions.

Step 4: Assess and create new goals.  As you start to look at your results, you’ll want to pay attention to both your marketing metrics and your business results.  For example, are you adding new social media fans and followers? Are more people visiting your website/blog?  Which marketing efforts are doing the best job at helping reach potential customers?  Take the most successful tactics and create your high priority goals around these items first. They need to be challenging, yet reachable goals for your business to be set up for success.

Step 5: Check in regularly.  Come back to these goals every quarter so you can evaluate if you’ll be able to reach them or if they still need to be a high priority. A lot can change in your business over a few months and that can alter the direction your goals should be heading.  Long-term goals can also be forgotten if they aren’t revisited regularly.

Just sitting down and making goals is not enough — you should be checking in with your progress regularly to make the most of the initial plan you’ve put in place.  By sitting down to review and reflect on the previous year of your business you can make next year even more successful.

As a small business owner you have a lot on your plate and using your experience to organize next year’s business goals is a great way to put your business on a clear path in the upcoming year.  At Lakeside Executive Suites, our support staff and full-service business center can give you the time and space to do just that.  We work hard to meet all your business needs so you have time to focus on the details of running your business.  We offer a professional look, prestigious business address, fully-furnished executive office space, live phone answering service, reception services, meeting rooms, high speed connectivity, and many more options that can be customized to meet your business’ needs.

For the best possible start for your business in 2015, contact Lakeside Executive Suites at (877) 301-6197 or visit us on the web at www.lesweston.com.