Preparing Your Business for a Breakout Year in 2016

It’s not long before 2015 comes to a close and although there is still much work to be done it’s in your interest to begin planning for success in 2016.

Business is volatile so even with the best intentions you may be caught by surprise on some of the hurdles and challenges you’ll face in the coming year. Equally so, you may be surprised and absolutely thrilled at the accomplishments and barriers that are overcome once the new year takes shape.

Here are some of the things you, the business owner, should begin considering, in 2015, so that your business will have breakout success in 2016.

A) Dig into the Analytics

Crunch the numbers you’ve collected throughout the year such as conversion rate, traffic generation, social sharing, marketing expenses, promotional costs, feedback, and any other data points that give you a scientific look at how well your business performed in 2015.

Analytics will reveal all you need to know in order to grow in the new year.

The big data points, in the easiest of sense of doing this task, should be the number of customers you’ve brought in (and retained), how much you earn on each sale, how much you’re spending to operate, and what you can do to cut costs while keeping quality and satisfaction.

B) Personalization, Customization, and Employee Empowerment

Every year it’s important that you take a look at your competition and see what they are doing to attract their customers (because those customers could be yours).

Things you’ll notice if you deep research the competition (and even use social engineering to have them reveal their techniques) will allow your business to begin personalizing the marketing & sales message to reach your target audience and expand into theirs with ease. By taking this action you may also find ways to customize your products & services to give greater appeal and a modern look, feel, and value in the new year (all-the-while the competition continue to look dated).

Because of this drive to keep one step ahead of the competition you will also find the weak points of your business and the appropriate tools to empower your employees to deliver customer service exceptionally well. A combination of providing educational programs and new systems at work will give the employees an edge. This upgrade can be as simple as upgrading your office telephone systems to give employees modern VoIP capabilities and integration into CRM systems.

C) Audit your Social Media

Gone are the days when you could simply schedule a post to Facebook, sit back, and watch the community interact. Social media is in a constant state of evolution and this means your social media strategy needs to adapt and change for where it may be going in 2016.

The staples of social media will remain the same such as great content creation in the form of blog posts, podcasts, and videos, but the many messenger services have already shown they are major platforms in how your audience wants to interact with your brand – and it’s only going to become more commonplace as the younger audience gains additional purchasing power (along with older generations finally coming on board with the technology).

Take some time before the start of the new year to completely update any outdated information in your social media profiles. Also, take time to plan new content strategies, promotional ideas, email sequences, and other social campaigns you’d like to attempt in the new year by learning what has worked in the past and being playful with the platforms when it comes to the future.

There are big changes coming to how consumer and brands interact on social media.

D) Adapt

The last and shortest section says it all: you must be willing to adapt.

Each day new businesses are making their way into your industry; they are after your customers and fighting for dominance. These new businesses have fresh ideas and a lot of energy. It’s your duty to stay ahead of the curve, learn as much as you can from trends, take chances, and adapt to the way your industry changes whether that means small changes to the tools you use to big changes to the business culture. You must be willing else you’ll fade out like so many before.

Are you ready to take on 2016?