Marketing with Intention
With the new year comes new goals… and new obstacles. January is the month of setting intentions, and working really hard to start off the new year on the right foot. Come February, most people start slacking and falling back into old habits. We wish it wasn’t so – but, hey, we’re human! That’s why now is a good time to check in with your new year business and marketing goals - to make sure you’re staying on the right track.
Business and marketing intentions go hand in hand, and must be synched up in order to achieve desired results.
Intention setting when it comes to business is all about the goals you’ve laid out and how you plan to achieve them. A lot can happen after a year of work, and if you aren’t intentionally steering the ship, then you aren’t choosing the destination. Any organization without a strong captain is bound to get lost at sea.
On the marketing side, intention setting is all about supporting your business goals and curating a more targeted strategy. Marketing without clear intentions leads to wasted resources, brand degeneration, and a hit to your bottom line. If your marketing efforts are not clear to you, then they will not be clear to anyone.
Business and marketing intentions go hand in hand, and must be synched up in order to achieve desired results. Whatever you do, don’t operate blindly. Lay out a plan, and stick to it. Of course, flexibility is a must, and you’ve got to be able to adapt as needed. For the most part though, you should have a roadmap and a designated course of action.
If you haven’t yet set your goals and intentions for the new year, it’s not too late. Rather than pulling these objectives out of thin air, you should rely on data from years past. What’s been going well? Set a detailed plan to keep it up. What areas could use improvement? Maybe you want to increase website traffic, boost engagement on your social pages, or build out a more robust email list. Brainstorm ways in which you can achieve these goals, and write them down. Talk to your team to share the plan, and the reasoning behind it, and open up a dialogue in order to gain new insights and different perspectives.
Take a long hard look at your marketing strategy from the past year. Are you hitting your target demographics, or is your following a bit more jumbled than you’d like it to be? How can you hone in on the right group? Does your content have real value or is it mostly filler? Do you feel proud of the message you’re putting out into the world? In what tangible ways could you improve your online presence? Try incorporating polls into your strategy, so you can hear directly from your audience what they want to see more of.
If your marketing strategy and intent is not authentic, then people can sense that from a mile away.
Keep in mind that while you’re selling a product/service, you should also be selling the lifestyle around it. Ask yourself, what is the lifestyle you’re selling, and why? How do the actions of your organization align with that lifestyle? If your marketing strategy and intent is not authentic, then people can sense that from a mile away. Maybe your overarching intention for the year ahead is to practice and convey more authenticity. This can be done by posting more videos as the face of your brand, articulating your purpose and telling it through your brand story, or shifting energy towards getting more word-of-mouth referrals.
Having a strong sense of purpose and intention not only allows you to feel more fulfilled as a business owner, but also allows your team members and customers to feel the same.
Whatever your intentions are, they must be realized every step of the way. Not a day should go by without checking in and ensuring that every action is in accordance with your plan. If you forget to check in every now and then, it’s not the end of the world; however, neglecting this often enough will lead to a lack of purpose, visible from both within your organization and from your audience's point of view.
Having a strong sense of purpose and intention not only allows you to feel more fulfilled as a business owner, but also allows your team members and customers to feel the same. People are naturally drawn to connect with shared values, so your marketing strategy will be more likely to succeed when it speaks to people’s sense of identity in this way.
As the new year begins to unfold, perhaps the best business/marketing intention is to be more intentional in all that you do. When you lead with conviction, you’re bound to meet your goals and land exactly where you want to be.
