New Year – it’s a time of fresh promises, new perspectives and a lot of new gym memberships.
We all want to do better, and what better time to do so than at the start of the year?
Unfortunately, many businesses fail to make the most of this time, a time where people are far more receptive to new ideas. It’s time for you to capitalise on this.
It’s one of the best times of the year to invest in marketing. With a careful blend of the right content and comms, you can boost your success and end the financial year strong.
So, if you’ve got growth goals you want to achieve before April, then this is the blog for you!
The importance of nailing your January marketing
First up: why? Why do we recommend a strong marketing drive in January?
Start the new year with a bang
As we return to work, many of us are refreshed and raring to go. Everyone will have their own goals, meaning it’s the perfect opportunity for both B2C and B2B organisations.
B2Cs can capture individuals while they’re at their most motivated, while B2Bs can target businesses that are looking to achieve their growth goals before the financial year ends.
If you’re the solution to the customer’s dilemma, and you communicate it well, you’ll smash your targets; all you need is a little bit of intelligent marketing (more on this later!).
Meet your growth goals and set new ones for the new year
This period sets the tone for the rest of your calendar year.
Yes, it’s important to smash your targets for the financial year, but now’s a great opportunity to learn what works and apply these learnings to the rest of the year.
You can take the data from your January marketing and apply it to your ongoing work for the rest of the year.
It’s a great chance to implement changes from the year before
In addition to the above, it’s a great time to take learnings from the previous year.
What’s worked, what’s underperformed? Good marketing relies on great data, so analyse your previous work and apply the best bits to your January drive.
7 ideas to help you get ahead of the curve
You get it, you know it’s important to market your business in January, but do you know where to start?
Sometimes it can take some time to get your brain out of holiday mode, so here are some key ideas of how you might choose to market your business to make the most out of January.
1. Announce an exciting new product/service
Have you got a new product or service that’s ready and raring to go?
Announcements around Christmas often get overshadowed by the big red man and his four-legged friends. It’s way better to start the new year with a bang, and there’s no better way to do this than by announcing a killer new product!
Write emails, create social posts and prepare ads – get everything ready to make some serious noise about why your audience is going to love the shiny new things you’re offering.
Even if your new product/service isn’t yet ready to go, you can mention that something exciting is coming and start to generate some hype.
This will make you one of the first businesses that your audience thinks about as they get settled into 2024 – being front of mind is the aim of the game here!
2. Lean on New Year resolutions
‘New Year, new me’, we’ve all said it, and chances are your audience will be saying it too!
YouGov surveys have shown that the most common resolutions in the UK are:
- Exercise more
- Lose weight or improve diet
- Save more money
- Pursue career
- Quit smoking
- Decorate/renovate our house
- Learn a new skill or hobby
- Drink less
- Find somewhere to volunteer
- Spend more time with family/friends
If your business helps tick any of these boxes, this is a great opportunity for you. Create marketing comms that focus on how you help with some common resolutions.
Even if not, get creative! Acknowledge some common resolutions and use the above information to help humanise your brand.
3. Celebrate the New Year on social media
Sure, you can throw out the classic ‘Happy New Year from the team’, and leave it at that, or you could get a little more creative.
Get interactive – polls and other interactive content is a great way to have a bit of fun with your audience. Discuss your plans for the new year and what you want to achieve moving forward – a little bit of transparency goes a long way in building rapport with your customers.
4. Share your company (or individual) resolutions
This can be a great bit of fun, and it’s a great way to introduce your audience to individuals in your team.
You can create both:
- A company-wide resolution; perhaps you’re looking to develop a new product, or improve software in existing products, for example.
- Individual resolutions to be shared in your content across social media. This, again, helps to humanise your brand as you celebrate the people who make your success possible.
Resolutions can be silly, serious, or a bit of both – whatever suits your industry.
5. Share a feedback survey (New Year, New Us!)
The start of the year is a great opportunity for you to demonstrate that you’re serious about improving.
Send out a survey to your existing, lost and lapsed customers. Get warts and all feedback that you can then use to improve your service and boost your performance for the rest of the year.
You might choose to include questions such as:
- What are your favourite things about [business name]?
- How could we improve your experience?
- How do you feel about ?
This can be especially useful if you’ve struggled with elements of your service in the past, as you can use this to segue into comms all about how you’re improving what you do!
6. Discuss industry trends for the year
This is a great time to create some blog content both reflecting on the previous year, and featuring your predictions for 2024.
Consider:
- Shifts you expect to see in the market
- Developments in tech that could influence your space
- Customer trends
This, of course, will vary depending on your industry and target market. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate how knowledgeable you are about your industry, establishing yourselves as experts.
7. Run a seasonal promotion
January sales are very popular, and for good reason!
Many people are looking to invest in products that better their lives, and many businesses are ready to buy products and services that will help them achieve their growth goals.
If you start your promotion right at the start of the month, you’ll be able to ride the resolutions wave!
Smash your January marketing with Catalyst
Catalyst are a commercially-focused digital marketing agency.
We specialise in helping businesses like yours to drive growth, and there’s no better time to start than now!
By using data and research, we’ll create a comprehensive marketing strategy, designed to ensure you smash your short-term goals and exceed your long-term objectives.
Consider us your new marketing department. Click the link below to talk to a member of our friendly team.
