Marketers are churning out 2015 digital marketing predictions like crazy right now. But how do those prophecies relate to you and your business? Most digital marketers in 2015 will not be leading the pack — instead, they’ll be striving to stay focused and keep up. If you’re hustling a digital marketing strategy with limited resources and lots of upside, here are five realistic digital marketing goals you can accomplish in the coming year.
Focus on the social channels that are working
Social media channels are going through the same evolution that search went through several years ago. Competition is fierce and businesses are challenged to achieve a reasonable level of organic reach. In that environment, it’s important to evaluate how you’re spending your time. There’s nothing wrong with reigning in your Facebook efforts and redirecting those resources to Twitter, if doing so gets you better results.
You don’t have to close down your Facebook page, either. You can go halfway and simply repost the same content you’re producing for Twitter. This used to be a big no-no, but if your organic reach on Facebook is minimal, the actual customer impact of duplicating social content is pretty low.
Challenge your assumptions
AdWords isn’t a fit for your business. Your target audience doesn’t care about [fill in the blank]. Social media only works as a retention strategy. Assumptions like these help you make decisions efficiently, but they can also limit your effectiveness over time.
Make a list of digital marketing assumptions you’ve like to prove or disprove in 2015. Say you have avoided display ads for years because you don’t believe in them. Read up on what’s happening in display today and brainstorm ways these campaigns can help you. Think of this as a creativity exercise. At worst, you’ll end up confirming what you know and gaining new insights in the process.
Create (or add detail to) your customer journey map
Journey maps typically look like this: attract > engage > convert > establish loyalty. This is not a bad starting place, but it’s not a complete picture either. First, question whether these stages are sufficient. Depending on the complexity of your product, your map could have more or fewer stages. Then, list out the pain points of a prospect in each phase. What does it take for a prospect to move ahead from knowing about you to engaging with your brand? How can you use your marketing resources to encourage that progression?
Do a content audit
When was the last time someone reviewed the terms and conditions pages on your website? Or scoured your blog content for broken links? Or archived old content that no longer supports your company’s brand image? Failing to review your content regularly can create bad user experiences, fragment your brand presence, bog down your website and even expose you to potential legal problems. Put a content audit on your calendar at least annually.
Test your website
User testing is one of the most efficient and informative ways to improve your website. You can split-test conversion pages for free with Google Content Experiments. Or, you can use a service like Usertesting.com to have users complete specific website tasks while talking aloud. According to usability expert Jacob Nielsen, you can get good feedback with as few as five people per test.
If you’ve never tested anything on your website, start with your homepage. Devise questions or tasks that can tell you if the homepage is doing what you want it to. You may conclude that you’re not sure what should happen on the homepage. In that case, go back to your customer journey map to help you answer this question.
Make 2015 the year of digital marketing precision. Focus your efforts on what’s working, rethink your assumptions, get more targeted, and clean up ragged ends in your content and on your website. Your prospects and customers will appreciate it!
This article originally appeared on the Speak digital marketing blog and has been republished with permission.