A new year has come and gone.

But are you another year wiser when it comes to your brand?

If you feel like there’s still plenty to learn, don’t worry—you’re in the same position as plenty of enterprise leaders.

The only question is: now that you have a fresh year to evaluate your marketing goals, what are you going to do with the 12 months that lie ahead?

How are you going to tackle your goals and cross items off your to-do list?

If you’re not sure, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve put together five MUST-DO items to have on your checklist this year—because without those, you’ll just be guessing at the future. There’s no reason 2019 can’t be your best year yet, particularly if you start it off on the right food. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Must-Do #1: Set a Clear, Ambitious Goal for Your Marketing Efforts

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all about setting goals.”

Setting goals sometimes gets a bad rap. It’s relegated to the heap of New Year’s Resolutions as something that briefly-motivated people do…only to never follow up upon.

But you’re not going to do that.

Instead, you’re going to set a goal that has three basic properties:

• It’s clear. When you set this goal, you should have a clear way to achieve it, whether that’s a specific number or a specific accomplishment for your brand that you already have in mind.
• It’s ambitious. Why set small goals? Life is short, and the end of 2019 will be here before you know it. Rather than set the “achievable” goals that don’t bring your business anywhere, consider setting a more ambitious goal that will demand that you test your limits.
• It’s reviewable. When you make progress towards your goal, you should have some milestones in mind that you can use to measure your current status. A monthly review of your goals is a great way to get a sense of what strategies are working, which strategies aren’t, and where you should concentrate most of your effort.

Is a new goal going to change the world? No. People set goals all the time. But if you make sure that your goals follow the three points above, you’ll accomplish far more than most people get from their goals.

Must-Do #2: Master Facebook Advertising Strategies

Facebook ads have fast become some of the top resources for brands of all types to reach a highly targeted, specific audience.

So why aren’t you on Facebook ads yet?

If you are but haven’t seen the results you’d like—or even if you’d like to try it out for the first time—here are some ideas you can use to get more out of your Facebook advertising efforts:

• Test your headlines and images. If you’re not using a little extra effort to test your headlines and images, then you’re not getting the feedback necessary to optimize these campaigns. Make sure that you continually test your Facebook ads to find the best results.
• Get more visual. Visuals like videos and photographs do well on Facebook; it’s great to be great at writing headlines, but ultimately you need a visual presence to get more out of your Facebook ads.
• Build engagement. What are some calls to action that you can incorporate into your ads? In your regular Facebook posts? What can you do to build a following and entice people to participate with what you’re doing on Facebook? Ask yourself these questions and commit to changing your strategies in 2019.

Must-Do #3: Get to Know Your Audience Better

A good entertainer is someone that knows their audience. But you’re not in entertainment. Whether you’re a large enterprise with a wide swath of potential customers or someone with specific customers in mind such as mortgage or insurance customers, you’re still going to need to know just who it is that you’re selling to.

But one question remains: how do you get to know your audience better?

You can start by employing a few strategies such as surveys.

Surveys are a great way for you to get anonymous readings on your business—readings that no one else will have access to.

You can send out a quick survey to an established email list or blast one out on your social media accounts.

Use a service like Survey Monkey to ensure that you collect as much actionable and interesting data as you can.

And here’s the key:

Make sure you listen.

Another great way to get to know your audience better is through analytics. There are plenty of available tools you can use to monitor your analytics, including many of the same tools that you might use to boost your marketing strategies in the first place.

But let’s go one level deeper. How can you get insights from analytics you already have in place?

Toss aside your old assumptions. It’s easy to believe that you know your audience already because you have a working business. But are the statistics really bearing that out? Conduct a thorough analytics review to get a better idea.

Must-Do #4: Build More Engaging Content to Attract Customers

Let’s say you already have a blog. You contribute to it once in a while, occasionally post up a few thoughts, and call it a month.

Is that really enough to attract people to your content?

The first step is to grow content on your site that’s more consistent. But aside from that, you should also take the time to consider what it is your audience want. In item #3, we talked about why it’s important to know your audience. Now, it’s time to take that information and leverage it for better content.

Try to create content that specifically answers the different types of problems your audience is having.

For example, if you work in the mortgage industry, then gear your content specifically to the types of terms you might see people searching for online. Content geared for first-time homeowners, for example, is a great way to answer a specific audience question.

In time, as you build up your sense of what works and doesn’t, you’ll be able to leverage old posts and create a more consistently informative and engaging content presence.

Must-Do #5: Persist

According to Psychology Today, the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions fail.

Why?

Persistence and determination have a tendency to wear out as the first month of the year turns into the second and the third. What once started out as a highly passionate new endeavor can feel like a drag.

The important thing to do is to establish the habits that you can realistically pull off week in and week out.

In the tips above, did you find some messages that resonated with you? Are there action items that you can put to work right away?

Is there someone you can hire? Someone you can assign? Who in your enterprise can take on these new tasks?

2019 can be your year if you’re willing to persist until you reach your goals. And don’t forget to sign up for a free trial of leadPops to test your limits and find out what you’re capable of before 2020 hits.