New Year, New…What, Exactly?
According to US News & World Report, 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail. So many of us mark the arbitrary deadline of a new year with new goals. The plan is to lose weight, get our finances in order, read more books, travel to exotic destinations, or get better with stress. And typically, by the first week of February, we’ve given up. Though, to be fair, some evidence says we give up by January 12. That means that by the time you read this, you may have given up already, or you are on your way to doing so!
This is my year, I can feel it!
We don’t need to fail, though, and we don’t need to limit our resolutions to our personal lives. According to Dr. Marcelo Campos, writing on the Harvard Medical School blog, there are 5 questions to help make a New Year’s resolution stick. They are:
- Why do you want to make the change?
- Is your goal concrete and measurable?
- What is your plan?
- Who can support you as you work toward change?
- How will you celebrate your victories?
At Strottner Designs, we use the year end as a time to evaluate what has occurred, and how we can adapt and improve in the new year. Some of us also pledge to read more and go to the gym…we just can’t help ourselves.
I’m usually back…
We also believe that a business should be evaluating its branding, inbound marketing, social media marketing strategy throughout the year, and shouldn’t be beholden to arbitrary deadlines. There is a natural tendency to review and reflect at the end of each year, but if you’re reading this, you missed that. It’s mid-January, so let’s take a serious look at what you should be considering as you’re a resolution for your business this year.
For now, focus your resolution on your business’s website. Is your website up to date, meaning in line with modern standards and expectations? Is it mobile responsive? More people search on mobile devices than computers these days. You’re missing out on valuable traffic if it can’t be easily viewed on a phone or a tablet. Does your website do all of the things that make Google happy?
Knowing how to make Google happy is no small task. Every few months, Google changes its mind about its happiness. But we listen, and respond.
Earlier this month we launched the newest version of Advanced Aesthetics – Lopez Plastic Surgery. We had been working on a, ahem, facelift for the site since late last spring. You see, Dr. Lopez’s site had been up for many years and was very functional. The practice was growing, he has multiple locations, a growing staff, and patients that speak very highly of the entire practice. But his site was also an amalgamation of different design visions, it was hard to keep optimized, it didn’t work well on mobile, and really didn’t represent the practice very well. The issue was that there really wasn’t anything that you could point to and go, “THAT! That is the thing we need to fix.” We spent a lot of time with Dr. Lopez and his team, consulting with them, explaining that an ounce of prevention now was worth a pound of cure later. Really, that we could present a better face for the practice, and the site could be more in line with their brand, and that this would benefit them long term. And that they would be easier to find, leading to more patients and business.
The result became our newest Flagship site, over 80 pages of procedures, doctors, nurses, products and locations, as well as photo galleries and video libraries. As part of the process, we made sure that the site has proper On-Page SEO, is optimized of all devices, that it loads quickly, we developed a detailed Social Media Strategy, and we made sure that the site is fully secured so that visitors can be confident that their data is secure. All of this effort has been worth it, the new site has seen an increase in visitors, and the practice has seen an increase in phone calls…exactly the results we were looking for!
The point is, feel free to wait until the New Year is about to roll around for a personal resolution. But don’t take a chance with your business. Resolve today to get the most our of your digital marketing strategy. Review your website, audit your SEO, start a Social Media strategy…and if you don’t know where to start, refer back to Dr. Campos’s 5 questions. Specifically, #4, “who can help you as you work toward change?” We can. Let’s get started.
