Marketing | My 2016 Strategy

Each year (since I decided to get serious about blogging), I have taken a little time in December to look over my current marketing plan and then tweak it to fit my needs in the coming new year.

This year I have decided to share my findings and plans with all of you wonderful readers of this blog.

Ready to take a look? Let's go Joe!

For the Blog:

Scheduling -

What I'm Currently Doing:

Right now I am scheduling three posts a week. I usually write on the weekends (I'm lazy so I usually do it on Sundays) but sometimes I have to hurry up and pop one out the night before the post is due to go out. This is so inconvenient for me. I work long hours during the week and I enjoy having my weekends to laze about. Needless to say, something is going to need to change here.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

I plan to continue to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But I have decided to cut back on the post topics I am currently using and create a new feature column on Friday that relates somehow to the weekly topic. Each Friday will be "The Friday Five" and I'll be sharing links from all over that offer advice, tips, tricks or tutorials that directly connect somehow to the new topics I will be featuring.

Post Topics -
What I'm Currently Doing:
Right now I am overwhelmed with 8 different post topics: Blogging, Social Media, Tips&Tricks, Marketing, Content, Design, Freebies and Tutorials. When I looked over this years posts I discovered that quite a few of my posts overlapped. With that in mind I have decided that it will be a lot easier for me (and probably you wonderful readers) if I condense this all down and slow down on the craziness.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

I've picked through all of the posts I currently have on the blog and narrowed down the overlap to come up with a basic four topic groove: Blogging, Business, Productivity & Design. Starting January 4th, I will have two posts on nothing but Blogging and then Fridays post will be a roundup of sorts, featuring great posts on blogging from other bloggers. I see this as helping me cut down on how much time I am spending scheduling and as a way to really enhance my readers experience :)

Products and Services -

What I'm Currently Doing:
Right now I have a basic page were I list my products and services. Although it is easy to locate and there's a spot for it in the sidebar, I feel like I don't I spend nearly enough time really promoting them or even advertising them. Which, naturally, leads to far less sales than I would like.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

My goal here is to really make 2016 my year and make my name in the design world. Although I aim to remain affordable, custom and completely unique in my industry, people will never know that if I don't clean up my pages and then actually promote and advertise them. So I am taking this last bit of 2015 to tweak and tuck, give it all a face lift and then work my butt off with social promotion.

For Social Media

Facebook -

What I'm Currently Doing:

Honestly, I am not doing a whole lot here. I schedule my Twitter and Google + through Hootesuite and by the time I am done with that I am too exhausted to properly promote on Facebook. When I look at the engagement on Facebook I cringe a bit because I feel like this is an area I should really be focusing on.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

Well, I have pretty much dedicated all of November to learning all about Facebook marketing and so I am doing to be implementing this information as strategically as I can. Not just blog posts and others posts but I plan to create a line of tips, tricks and quotes to inspire my readers and others in the industry.

Twitter -

What I'm Currently Doing:

I do a lot on Twitter. I'm very active with my posts (one an hour) and with sharing others posts as well. I'm trying to make sure that all new followers are getting personal tweets to say thank you as well as those who are re-tweeting. This isn't as difficult as it sounds although I am finding it difficult to always have unique content to share from others. This is a point of focus for the upcoming year.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

2016 is going to be all about interaction on Twitter. Yes, I do a lot of it now but I feel that it isn't quality interaction. Saying a simple Thanks for following along" just isn't personal or special and I would like to start making that a lot more one-on-one with my followers. Something else would be to promote more products and services. Though I am growing my followers by the day, that isn't raising my income. So by creating a more quality and personal experience and pairing that with detailed product promotion I hope to create more intimate experiences and bring in more clients opposed to just new followers.

Other -

What I'm Currently Doing:

Instagram has basically become a personal forum. I use it to promote posts from my personal blog and share my life as it exists in reality - not for business. I don't see that changing. As for Google Plus - I definitely need to get that page cleaned up and to start focusing on my posts. December will be all about learning marketing for G+ so come January I will be able to apply what I have learned.

What I'm Going to Start Doing:

I would like to take my IG up a niche in my niche (say that three times fast!) and promote myself a lot more. Many people don't realize that when you create a personal brand YOU are also your brand. You don't have to slap your name all over things but since readers love seeing behind the scenes and real life (it helps them connect), I aim to show a little more of my life and to create a beautiful branded look to my IG. For G+ I am going to soak up all I can learn and start applying. One thing I definitely plan to do is not lump my Twitter and G+ Posts together in one post on Hootesuite any more. I think this will go a long way.