We are well into a busy 2017 holiday season. While this can be an exciting time with record sales or donations, it is important to remember that 2018 is right around the corner. Now is the time to start planning for an even more successful year ahead! 

1. Grow your contact list
   The holiday season is the perfect time to add more subscribers to your list and build an ever bigger base of customers to email. Knowing how and where to collect new contacts and make sure you’re doing all that you can to grow your list over the holidays will help set you up for success in 2018. 
2. Measure
   Successful emails don’t end once you hit send. Measuring the results of your emails will help you learn what’s working—and what to work on. Digging into these learnings will help you optimize your plan for 2018.
3. Make a plan
   A successful year starts with a strong marketing plan. We can help you create a marketing calendar. A marketing calendar provides you with a monthly campaign view that makes planning, creating, and scheduling your marketing more efficient— saving you time and driving better results for your business.

Kami Design and Marketing partners with Constant Contact as an email provider. So if you are interested in getting your e-mail campaign going, we can help!

In a Small Business Week Survey, 82% of small businesses and nonprofits said they adopted a multi-channel marketing program including email, mobile, and social media. 73% of them reported success such as:

Maybe you are just starting out your business, or perhaps you’re already established. Either way, make sure you do an annual check up of your marketing. Marketing requires constant assessment and tweaking to ensure it’s still doing what you want it to do. Todays topic focuses specifically on Digital Marketing.

1. YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE:
Establish a Social Media presence if you don’t already have one OR if you already have one established, take a week to analyze what you have been doing this past year -- what worked and what didn’t.

The major social media outlets you should be using are: Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter. And depending on your business, you may also need to be active on Snapchat, Google, and Yelp.

If you are on review sites such as Yelp, be sure to respond to any reviews. Even if it was a negative review, your response will show other potential customers that you are willing to learn from your mistakes and improve.

Make sure to post content frequently -- at least once a week to show your customers and potential customers that you are still alive. Also tag others and share other posts. Social Media is meant to be social! If people see your account is not very active, they may lose interest. If you find that some accounts are working better than others, than aim to focus on those, and consider closing the accounts that aren’t working rather than let them gather dust. For me, I really see Instagram as helping me, but Twitter not so much. SO I focus most of my energy on posting on Instagram. 


2. CHECK OUT YOUR WEBSITE

• Does your homepage have a specific Call to Action?
• Is it easy to read and understand?
• Does it link to all your social media accounts?
• Does it have a sign up for your email list?
• Is it easy to contact you?
• Is it Search Engine Optimized?

If you have answered  NO to any of these questions, it's definitely time to update your website. Also, search engines like to see updated content. If your site has just been sitting there, it is going to fade from the search engines, so try and update content to stay fresh and easier to find. Drive customers to your site in new ways by making sure you have a link to your site on all your social media outlets, your email signature, and your printed marketing materials.


3. EMAIL MARKETING
​Email is great way to stay top-of-mind of your customer/potential customer. It’s important to keep an updated e-mail list, as well as offer content that makes customers want to click on your email as well as stay subscribed. So in addition to offering promotions, make sure you have content that is interesting to read!

Use an email marketing software system such as Constant Contact. It helps you send to your entire list, and provides analytics. Make sure you have an email address that reflects your business website, not just a gmail or yahoo account. It looks more professional and shows that you mean business!

4. A couple other Marketing things to consider:

• Quality of Photography: Whatever you post on social media, make sure you put your best look forward by posting quality photos. I'll be doing a blog especially about this topic, coming soon!
• Blogging: This is a great way to keep content fresh on your website. Let your customers know about upcoming specials and promos, events, and give tips and advice to keep top-of-mind. 

5. MARKETING CALENDAR
Establish a digital marketing calendar for the quarter so you can ensure that it aligns with your business goals that quarter. Always analyze what you’ve done and then use that information to move forward into the next quarter’s marketing calendar.

This is a great time of year to asses how your digital marketing is working for you and to establish a strong campaign plan for 2018. If you are interested in our professional services, we can help!