I bring your goals for 2010 up for one reason only; if you haven’t reached them yet you most likely won’t between now and the end of the year. While you may be kicking yourself, don’t. The fact is there are a small percentage of small companies that actually reach all their goals in any given year and that’s not all bad as long as the ones you did reach propelled you forward in some form or fashion.

It’s also true that small business suffer from working “in” their business far more than working “on” their business and it becomes more apparent as they get close to the end of the year. They realize their marketing plan, accounting system, employee retention and a thousand other things have either suffered or not been touched at all or in a long time. I can’t help you with everything but I can help you with not only evaluating your marketing plan for the upcoming year but implementation of the plan. Knowing what to do is just the starting point. Putting everything into action in the right order with the right team is where the results lie. It is only through those results that you get a true measure of return on investment for the overall marketing plan.

Many people who deal with online marketing measure with traffic or clicks. It may make you feel great to get all that traffic but if that traffic or click through is not buying what you have or want the service you provide then it’s not worthy traffic. This is why having a plan of action that points everything you do in the correct direction is extremely important when marketing to any demographic these days whether online or off. To not work “on” the marketing of your business is the first step to disaster for a small business in today’s climate.

Give your business a Christmas present this year and stop to really evaluate your business and online/offline marketing going into 2011. Give yourself a chance to take your business to the next level; you will be glad you did.

Fear is a very funny emotion in that people respond in totally opposite ways when confronted by it. A small percentage of people both male and female will attack and move toward the very thing they are afraid of while the vast majority either are paralyzed and stuck where they are or run for the hills. From what I have witnessed in regard to people adapting to an online world, if the internet was an elephant there would be a lot of damage being done.

Fear is also an equalizer between the generations as many older people adapt very well to being online and using mobile devices. I personally have a second cousin in her mid 70’s that can use her iPhone with the best of them and know several kids in their mid 20’s that don’t know the first thing about a computer past Facebook. What that tells me is you tackle what you don’t understand or fear for one of several reasons;

• curiosity
• knowledge
• work or business requires it
• you are an early adapter with just about everything

While you would think this would cover a lot of people; it doesn’t. That means the rest of us just have to decide if we are going to learn what we need to learn or not. If you are a business owner or manager the very existence of your business may rely on what you decide about this question alone. Don’t let the fear of what you don’t know keep you from learning the very things that could take your business to the next level.

There is an old saying, “To many cooks in the kitchen spoil the pot” and we see the same thing from time to time when it comes to websites and marketing of that website. This is especially true for smaller companies that are trying to manage everything themselves because there is just so much stuff out here to learn you have to have some help.

You end up with one guy or gal that is your webmaster and takes care of the technical aspects of your site, you have someone else who does content and writes for your site and hopefully posts and does articles for you and you may have another who is administering your Adwords campaigns while someone else does link building and more advanced SEO techniques. All this is going on and you or possibly one of the above is managing all this to make sure it’s all being done correctly; or you hope it is…

Add to that the process of getting your social sites set up right and reviews done and monitored in a way to drive business to your business and the local maps set up for Google and Bing. After a while it is easy to see how you can have so many people working in and around your website that the lines start to blur and no one knows what the other guys is doing. You now have too many cooks in your website marketing kitchen! At this point you better know enough about the process to know who to eliminate. If you don’t, the pot will be spoiled for a long time.

There often seems to be embellishment in advertising. It’s no secret, then, why consumers are so frequently skeptical toward marketing campaigns. The counter to consumer skepticism would seem to be obvious: be exceedingly truthful in your advertising. I will give two examples of companies that would be wise to heed this advice. Not surprisingly, they are mobile phone carriers.

1. T-Mobile: You are hearing more and more about 4G mobile data connections. It is the latest and greatest technology for accessing the internet with a mobile connection. T-Mobile has declared they now have 4G. Did they suddenly upgrade their network to something faster? No. They simply decided their network was fast enough to define it as 4G. The International Telecommunications Union has set a standard that defines “4G” and T-Mobile doesn’t meet those standards. Unfortunately for them, you just can’t speak something into existence. Their network may be fast, but it’s not 4G fast.
2. AT&T: They like to boast about having “more bars in more places”, but any customer of AT&T knows that’s only part of the story. You may remember how AT&T and Verizon publicly feuded over Verizon’s claims that its 3G network was larger than AT&T’s. AT&T fired back with a barrage of commercials showing how much larger their overall network was than Verizon’s. While technically true, the actual point was about 3G coverage, and Verizon’s 3G network is larger. Semantics won’t make you look better in advertising.

In these two cases, some customers may not care because the technology is over their head. However, it is never good to embellish your service. People will stop trusting  anything you advertise about your business. On the flip side, if you are nakedly truthful, you’ll stand out amid the advertising chatter.

The state of the statistics man (or woman).

You love numbers. Venn diagrams and earnings reports are the stuff your dreams are made of. Clients love your keen eye for detail, and your unwavering commitment for exceeding expectations, and you love that at the end of the day you get to crunch numbers and calculate profits. The question is, how does this translate to what you put on the web?

You should always be telling YOUR story. If numbers and details are your thing, by all means showcase that on your webpages, blog and email marketing. However, it’s important that you aren’t overly statistical in all your content, because you may alienate your audience (content strategists love to talk about alienation). Instead, find a way to display your natural ability for the fine tuned without letting your audience believe you lock yourself in a room during lunch to configure algorithms (you don’t do that, right?)

Being a statistical person makes you an asset to the business world, so become creative in ways you show this to your clients and potentials. Infographics are perfect for displaying a vast amount of information in an eye-catching way that attracts a variety of viewers. Videographers can capture interesting factoids pertaining to your industry and combine them with excerpts of your office, or with carefully designed graphics that really pop. Think outside the cubicle and create something that interests your audience, while remaining true to your personality.

If your business is numbers, get creative with your business.

There are a few things every business should be doing to spread the word about themselves. From dental offices to neighborhood salons, business owners can and should be promoting themselves online. These aren’t hard things to do. All it takes is a little effort.

1. Google Places - This should be the first place you add your presence online. Places takes the information about your business, and displays it on Google Maps and in search results. Within Places, business hours, address and phone numbers can be displayed. Videos and photos can also be added to further expose your business to potential customers. It’s easy to add a business to Places, and should be done by every business.
2. Yelp & Angie’s List - Services like Yelp and Angie’s List have become invaluable as people have become more mobile. For instance, my wife and I were on vacation recently, and used Yelp to locate different businesses in the area. Similarly, we use Yelp to guide us to places within our own city. The businesses that don’t add a presence to these types of services are destined to be missed.
3. Vertical Business Directories - By vertical, I mean industry specific directories. For instance, there are dentist specific directories that compile listings of dental offices in an area. It’s the same with insurance agents, real estate agents and medical doctors. These online directories feed search engines with information about your business, which in turn boosts your search ranking. The end result, of course, is more awareness about your business.

It’s up to you to spread the word about your business. Start with these 3 things, and you’ll be headed in the right direction!