Assessing Quarter One: What Did You Learn About Your Marketing, Your Business Evolution, and You?
Image on Unsplash by Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 @epicantus
So, you’re looking back at Q1 and trying to figure out what worked… and what didn’t.
You had a marketing plan… so did things actually go according to plan?
Suddenly, you’re spiraling down a rabbit-hole of confusion and self-doubt mixed with some good old-fashioned ego-driven adrenaline.
You take a look at your site analytics and your impressions, views, and engagement on social media. You take note of what “performed” well.
But what does “performance” really mean?
It’s easy to look at your views and say,
This video with my dog got a lot of views, while this one, where I shared some meaningful insight about healthy living, didn’t…
I guess I better do more dog videos.
But chasing views isn’t necessarily going to take you to the next level on your business journey.
You may get 4K followers super-fast because you happen to have the funniest or cutest or smartest or weirdest-looking dog in the world.
But how many of those followers will have any real interest in finding a human being to help them live a healthier lifestyle?
I’m not saying you shouldn’t have your dog in your content. Maybe part of your healthy lifestyle is having a canine companion for emotional support or to keep you active.
Heck, one of the things I love about Yoga with Adriene is her dog Benji. But I don’t watch her videos for Benji. I follow and view her content because she records kick-ass yoga routines.
And her intention is clearly to help me develop and improve my yoga routine.
A consciously run business is driven by intention, not by analytics.
What’s your intention for your business? Is your content driven by that intention?
If your content is intentional, but it isn’t performing well, look at how it could perform better while staying true to that intention, rather than just chasing the highest views.
Analytics certainly have their place. Definitely look at those numbers… information is never a bad thing to have.
Take it in.
Get curious about what it brings up for you.
Invest in learning about how your message moves through digital space.
Just don’t let that information be the end-all-be-all.
Your job as a business owner is to assess all the information about your business and make decisions based on that information… but also on your values.
And those values are always shifting and evolving as you learn more and more and grow as a conscious creator.
There’s more to your Q1 marketing assessment than numbers.
Image on Unsplash by @soulsana
Take some time to journal or meditate on the broader journey you’ve taken in the past few months.
Ask yourself,
What have I learned this quarter about my relationship to my business?
What have I experienced as a business owner, maybe for the first time, and how has that shaped my vision?
What have I enjoyed doing most over the past three months with my business?
How have my long-term goals shifted and what are my most immediate needs today?
PRO-TIP: you need a different marketing strategy for:
your long-term goals (like expanding your services or your reach), than you do for…
your short-term goals (like landing two new clients next month to stay in the black).
If you want to know more about creating a marketing strategy for all your business goals, reach out for a free 30-minute chat.