Plan for success instead of New Year’s resolutions

Gee whiz, is it December already?!

You bet it is and if you’ve been listening to us over the last few months, you’ll already have done the hard work for your Christmas campaign and will now be reaping the benefits.

The next big item on the calendar is the New Year. And what generally comes with the New Year? That’s right: resolutions.

Personally, I’ve never been too big a fan of resolutions. They’re tacky, largely ineffectual and 9 times out of 10 we don’t stick to them.

Instead of resolutions, I like to think about success planning for the year ahead. This is less about changing who your are or committing to a new habit and more about getting organised and committing to a plan that is tailor-made for better results.

This short blog is all about making that plan for brilliance that will let you and your business shine. Not new year, new you – more like new year, a more effective and productive you.

The five step plan

1 – Vision

Never mind your world-changing corporate vision. What do you want to get from this year? What does success look like and how will you know you’ve got there?

When pursuing success, having a destination in mind is paramount. The route might involve a few unexpected detours, but you’ll never get anywhere without a clearly defined ‘X’ marked on the map.

2 – Strategy

Goals, objectives, priorities. Write it down and formalise your vision! It doesn’t have to be perfect and we know these things will change. As the Prussian Field Marshall Moltke the Elder said:

“No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength.”

In other words, there’s only so much you can plan for. But the things that are in your control should be planned for robustly. Having a clear answer for questions like those found below set you up with a clear strategy and increase your chances of success.

• Where is your growth going to come from?
• Who do we need in place to achieve it?
• What does success look like and how do we measure it?
• What do we need to do to improve our chances of success?

3 – Analysing the market

Take a proper look at those people and businesses you’re targeting.

• How do they describe themselves now everyone’s had a refresh?
• What are their priorities?
• What are they talking about?
• What can you do to connect with and satisfy their needs and desires?

4 – Tactics

The work you’ve just done should make this bit easy.

Will you deliver your marketing/achieve your objectives through social media, PR, personal relationships, a webinar series, or in-person events?

Do you need to update your branding or your website?

Do you need to bring more skillsets into the business?

You can’t do everything, prioritise. Ruthlessly.

Choose what industry conversations you can authoritatively step into and do so with confidence and poise.

5 – Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

As the proverbs say, a goal without a plan is just a wish. To reach your goals for 2022 you’ll need to get serious and efficiently strategize, organise and act. That doesn’t mean a single planning meeting at the start of the year.

To guarantee success, you’ll need to have an initial planning meeting to map out the year, properly action items to ensure they’re completed and have monthly catch-up meetings to ensure you’re on track.

Knit it all together. And begin.

Easy.

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If you’re looking for a marketing agency to help you plan for increased growth, revenue and presence, give Luma a call and we’ll give you the recipe for success.