How to strategise for success in 2020

While it’s true to say that every business is different, certain strategies apply to the proactive management of a business no matter what your industry or business goals.

Sit down (with your team if you have one) and write down your goals and objectives for the upcoming business year.

Strategic actions to streamline your business

Let’s look at some strategic actions you can take for streamlining and marketing your business in 2020:

It’s important to document how you want your business to grow and any new ventures that you’d like to undertake. Setting your goals will drive your activity going forward and give you the focus required to be successful.

Develop a clear and concise marketing plan and specifically define what that strategy entails. In rapidly changing business markets, the approach that you used last year (successful or not) may not be useful anymore.

And, have you considered using, or becoming, an online influencer? Many business marketing plans now rely upon online influencers who bring a remarkable amount of attention and brand awareness to a product or service. Influencers can help you create innovative media content and dynamic consumer engagement for your business.

Social media as a marketing tool

Not forgetting social media which is another important and still evolving marketing tool that businesses should employ in order to remain competitive.

Identify where you will advertise!

The use of paid social media advertisements to drive traffic to your business can be a cost-effective tool – but it’s important to trial such activity and avoid putting all your eggs in one basket! Paid ads are among the most cost-effective marketing strategies.

It sounds obvious and is effectively part of your marketing plan, but make sure you identify upfront which trade papers, magazines, websites, directories etc that have been successful for you in the past or are new, high profile newcomers that will hit your target audience.

Motivational marketing strategies

Remember that motivation is also a big factor in forming a successful marketing plan. 

Make sure you roll out your plan – so, if you’re a solo business owner, ensure that the plan remains at the front of your mind so that you deliver against it for achieving your goals. If you have employees, roll it out to them and in a way that that generates excitement and motivates them, so that everyone is moving in the same direction. Don’t let your marketing strategies be viewed as rather dull and tedious – get creative and sell them in a positive, enthusiastic manner – that vibe can go a long way and will bring everyone, including business partners, on your journey.

Whilst putting your plans into action, be sure to design recognise that your marketing plan needs to be adaptable. 

Things change! You can be sure that throughout any business year somethings will change and you’ll need to react to accommodate this.

But don’t get discouraged – restrategise and refocus if necessary. In reality, delivering a strategy and marketing plan takes time, dedication and perseverance. Again, if you have a team, make sure your team understand what’s changed and why – keep them onboard. If you’re a solo business owner, have clarity in your own mind what the drivers behind the change are and the potential benefits. Striving towards your goals means you’ll need to a few failures along the way.

Changing business strategies

Be quick and ready to move with change.

You’ll need to keep abreast of how your services need to be delivered, yes, even looking at what successful competitors are doing. Conduct research or get involved in networking, but be sure to feed this back into your strategy and marketing – embrace the change!

Do you know what’s changing in your field? Are people’s expectations shifting?

We’ve only just scratched the surface here, but hopefully we’ve given you the basis for moving forward into 2020 with a sound basis and some ideas for how to manage your business goals.

As we said upfront, one size doesn’t fit all, but the basic approach to developing and managing your business strategy and marketing plan cuts across all sizes and types of business.