When you look back on this year, you’ve be completely forgiven if you haven’t got a clue what you’ve achieved this year – or even if you hadn’t clocked that it was now nearly October and the year is three quarters over!
So here’s a little fun fact for you – on Sunday we only have 90 days left in the year! Someone reminded me of this on LinkedIn the other day and when you see it written like that, it’s a bit scary! Although to be fair, a lot of us are also pretty excited by the prospect of bidding farewell to 2020 too! The person who shared this little fact was also talking about 90 day goals and how it would be a great opportunity to set yourself one last goal for 2020!
When I’m working with my clients, we always look at setting their BHAG –BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal, an idea conceptualized in the book, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by James Collins and Jerry Porras. According to Collins and Porras, a BHAG is a long-term goal that changes the very nature of a business’ existence.
BHAGs are bigger, bolder and more powerful than regular long- and short-term goals. They typically take a 10- to 30-year commitment, but they are exciting, tangible and something everyone just “gets” without any further explanation.
But in order to have any chance of actually reaching or achieving your BHAG, you need to break it down into more bite-size action plans – and for me, that’s usually 3year, then annual then 90 day action plans. I call it, Dream Big, Start Small – otherwise you’ll be so overwhelmed by where you want to be in 20 years time, you’ll lose sight of what you need to do now to get there.
So if you haven’t been through this process yet, now could be the perfect time. What is it you really want to achieve in your business before the end of the year? Or what is it you want to achieve personally? Have a think about that, write it down, share it with the rest of your team or family and go! I’d love to hear your progress and what you’ve managed to do come 2021!
So, how are you all doing out there?
I know some of you have lost your jobs, and some of you are still working through the best options for you and your business- and others are pushing through and making the most of the small domestic market opportunities that exist.
It’s been interesting to watch what has happened since the second Auckland lockdown – it does feel like the mood has shifted somewhat to me. Do you feel that too?
We haven’t quite seen the same surge of business in tourism as we did after the first lockdown – it’s like people are feeling a little more wary about what the future might hold – or cautious with how they are spending their money – I’m not sure. But it does feel a little different. What are you seeing?
And more importantly, what are you doing?
There are a few things you could be doing right now to ensure you’re maximising every dollar you’re currently spending on marketing. Have you got your geographical targeting right on your social media ads? A lot of the time I am finding that businesses are spending money talking to people who have to make a decision to actually visit their town, when in fact there are many people already living and holidaying where they are – so the decision to come and visit that business is a lot easier if you’re already in the region. You don’t all have to target Auckland right now – look at who is in your backyard and use the geo targeting tools available to you to reach those who are in close proximity! You might find that this is a much better return on investment for some more immediate results.
Have you worked out who your target audience is? Build your buyer personas and USE them in your marketing. These should be real life representations of your actual customers – look at your data to help build them and talk to your customers about why they chose you. This will help you to create really intimate discussions with your prospective customers about how you can meet their needs. It might sound a little stalkerish and strange if you haven’t yet discovered buyer personas, but trust me, these work!
Most businesses develop around 5 buyer personas for their businesses - you may find you have more if you’re a larger business – but you can build your content and strategy around these people.
Only when you tap into this more “intimate” side of the customer, can you really influence the buying decision.
Have you reviewed your keywords for your google ads to ensure you’re not wasting money bidding on keywords that aren’t working? Chat with your digital marketing agency to ensure that you understand exactly what you’re paying for, and how you are targeting your prospective customers.
Are you working on your website? There is no better time than now to be optimising your website - Your website is often the landing page or home base for all of your marketing efforts. This is your call to action for ad campaigns. All of your published content resides there.
If it doesn’t offer a seamless experience, your brand and business will suffer.
Make sure your keywords are used in your content on your website, and ensure your page load speed is fast – Google doesn’t like slow pages so don’t let something so easy to fix upset your results. Is your website optimised for mobile? I’m assuming that most of you have already done this but it’s always good to double check that everything is working like it should.
Have a chat with your front line teams to see what questions they are being asked to see if this is content you can add to your website too. It’s amazing how many people will not pick up a phone if they can’t find the info they need – especially if they find it on your competitors’ site!
Use your analytics to make improvements – google provides great insight into the entry and exit pages on your website, along with the bounce rate. Play with different landing pages for your buyer personas to serve up personalised content. Your digital agency will be able to help you with this.
Tell YOUR story – use social media to tell your story – talk to your customers about your WHY – your company’s purpose and reason for being. Remember, this is the part that talks to the decision making part of the brain and will connect you with your customers best – way more than your what or how ever will. (if you’re not familiar with this concept, I urge you to check out Simon Sinek’s It starts with Why and watch his TED talk)
And finally – make sure you’re following up on all of your leads. I have been amazed by how many of my clients said they chose me, because I got back to them so quickly and made them feel like I cared. And I honestly do. So if you’re authentic, and genuine with your responses to your customer enquiries, you have a pretty good shot at being successful in the conversion. There is nothing more annoying as a consumer than to have to wait days for a response. You should have a goal to get back to customers within a couple of hours these days. Remember, they have a lot of choice about how to spend their hard-earned money and will not wait around forever for you to get back to them when you feel like it.
So there are a few things to hopefully help you get back on track if you feel like you’ve lost a bit of momentum lately.
And don’t forget to work on your 90 day goal for the end of the year – you have until Sunday to figure one out and share it. Let me know what it is on my social media posts – on Facebook or Instagram – I’m happy to help you stay accountable! 😊
I hope you have a fabulous week ahead, I’m off to Aoraki Mount Cook to spend some time with my South Canterbury clients and I cannot wait.
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