10 Ideas to Refresh your Business in 2012

The beginning of every new year is a great time to consider how you might refresh your business to increase sales, improve customer relations or develop a whole new approach to your products and pricing. Implement just one of these ideas and you’re bound to notice the impact. Implement three or more and watch what happens!

1. Develop a niche – If you’ve been attempting to sell everything but the kitchen sink to anyone that happens to be listening, now might be the time to consider going in deep and narrow. Offering a highly specialised service to a very specific market (ie tax advice to dentists) will position you as an expert and help you focus your marketing effort.
   
   
2. Rejuvenate your networking – As tempting as it is to sit behind your computer and let Twitter and facebook do it all for you, this is the year to get back to good old-fashioned networking and press the flesh. And I don’t mean just going to an event or two. I mean tossing out one of your marketing activities that just isn’t working and replacing it with a serious networking plan.
   
   
3. Make a difference – Let’s face it, sometimes it’s just plain hard to keep the fire inside burning bright when it comes to running your business. If your fire needs rekindling how about reconsidering your raison de l'existence and discovering how to make a difference to the community in which you live and work. You could support a charity, sponsor a local community event or even develop your own ‘give back to the community’ program.
   
   
4. Find a savvy graduate to help – You may not have the time or expertise to make your social media marketing activities really buzz, but you can be sure the latest and greatest of our marketing graduates have the know-how. Contact your local universities and ask your business buddies, friends and family if they know anyone.
   
   
5. Re-package your services – When was the last time you added more benefits to your service or product or hiked up your prices? How long has it been since you’ve reviewed the way you charge, your delivery terms, your guarantees or your customer service practices? Many small incremental changes can make a big difference to your customers and how much you sell.
   
   
6. Launch a new product – You’ve got a great database of current and past customers just waiting to see what’s next, right? Run a survey or focus group to find out what else they might buy from you and make a plan to build the product. Check out www.surveymonkey.com for your survey tools.
   
   
7. Rewrite your plan (or get one if you don’t have one) – I’m guessing you knew this one would come up sooner or later. Remember it takes as much effort to wish as it does to plan. A plan will help keep you focused on your vision and make sure all your marketing efforts are synchronised to bring in all those quality new business leads you’ve been hungry for.
   
   
8. Develop outstanding content – Got a message to convey that the world just needs to hear? Mind map the key themes and develop a list of all the ways you can distribute this content; blog, online article, TV show, press or radio story, keynote presentation, book, podcast, video, doco…whatever. There are hundreds of ways to tell your story. If you don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, you can always call in the experts.
   
   
9. Thank your customers – It’s easy to forget your old loyal customers in the hot pursuit of new ones. Send out a bunch of thank you cards to them. Better still phone them and say hi and thanks for being a customer. Don’t waste their time. Add some value to the call by offering some free advice or a free trial of your new product.
   
   
10. Get really, really creative – At the heart of every successful marketing activity is a wonderful creative idea. Prepare a simple but brilliant brief that answers three main questions…What are we selling? Who are we selling it to? Why will they buy it? Grab your staff, customers, friends, a pad, coloured textas, whatever and find a really cool creative space to brainstorm in.

You’ll notice (quite deliberately) that there's not one idea about social media in this list. Yep it's time to get back to the fundamentals. Once you've got that right then you can tweet away till your hearts content.