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Wait, you haven’t planned out your strategy for domination in 2019? Yikes.
One thing is certain: if you’re still playing by the rules of 2018, you’re missing the massive momentum just waiting for you to grab hold! But, with SO much advice (*cough cough* fear-mongering, money-grabbing) on the interwebs, you could massively miss out on all that this year can bring to your business. Or rather, what your business can bring to the world in 2019.
I rounded up these 19 top marketing strategists’ advice and expertise to make your 2019 strategy a breeze!
Denise Horan: The #1 Most Important Strategy is to get visible. You can fix most problems in a business by getting more sales. The easiest way to get more sales is it to get out there and get your face known. People do business with people and the #1 reason why they don’t do repeat business with you is they have forgotten about you. It doesn’t matter how good a job you did the last time; if you don’t stay relevant, if you don’t let them know you are still there and open for business, then they literally forget you. So my #1 strategy is to make a plan to get visible and then just do it!!!
Jessica Niezgoda: The #1 strategy for entrepreneurs looking to scale in 2019 is to think like the entrepreneur in the next revenue threshold. Wanna scale to 7 figures? Act like you’re already there. NOT in a superficial manner, but in terms of hiring, systematizing, automating, delegating, and visibility. How would a 7-figure entrepreneur think/act/prepare? Go do THAT in 2019 to achieve your goals.
Alexandra Katrina Van Doren: According to Scott Davis, “Image and Perception help drive value; without image, there is no perception”. So let me ask you this: “Do you have a proper inner and outer image for your brand or business?” In a world where competition creates infinite choices, as a brand or business, you need to connect emotionally with your audience and customers. A strong brand stands out in a densely populated marketplace. Your brand needs to serve 3 primary functions:
1. Navigation – helping your audience/customer choose
2. Reassurance – solidifying the customer’s choice
3. Engagement – help your customer identify with your brand through visuals, language, and brand culture.
This is your inner brand – your purpose. According to Connie Birdsall, “the best brands marry intelligence and insight with imagination and craft”.
Yael Bendahan: You
have to make sure that you’re dedicating time to building and nurturing relationships with your audience and A-players, your mentors and colleagues, who are growth-oriented and striving for success. Gary Vaynerchuk says that you are the sum of the 5 people you hang around with most, and I completely agree! Not only will this push you to strive for more, but you’ll also have the most incredible people at your back when you need them – just make sure you’re giving back to them when THEY need it and you’re golden! This will REALLY make you stand out from the crowd – people who truly care aren’t as common as you may think!
Tara Bushaw: In 2019, the #1 most important strategy for entrepreneurs is to tell stories. When you can tie your stories into your product, your audience resonates with you and wants to buy what you have out in the marketplace. What is the best way to tell stories? You guessed it, a book! Having a book on the market not only gives you credibility, but it also gives you authority in your space. People see that you have a book, and there seems to be an automatic trust built from that. They think you know a thing or two about what you are talking about.
Book writing no longer has to be a time-consuming process. There are numerous strategies today to be able to write a book that will take you little time in comparison to the long-lasting impact it will have on your personal life, your business, and the lives of others.
Kelly Sturtevant: So, you have a business, but you aren’t getting the leads or sales you were expecting. You did everything the entrepreneur’s handbook told you to do – you created a website, put up social media channels, told friends and family what you are doing, and maybe you even started posting in groups about your company once in a while. But nothing is really helping you get your brand out there.
So how do you fix this? You get visible. Your company needs to have a consistent and cohesive online presence – this means utilizing your social media platforms of choice and ensuring content is relevant and engaging for your audience. This means being present to your audience consistently through organic posts and paid advertising. If there is one thing you can do in 2019 to push your business to new heights, it’s ensuring your online presence is visible.
Brandon Hirst: Everywhere you turn you see the same stories, hooks and flashy things. The best thing you can do
in 2019 is just be yourself and people will resonate with it. Your stories will stand out more when people actually connect with your personality and see that you are a real person. Building your brand doesn’t mean you need to change the things that make you unique to fit a certain profile.
By doing what you love and acting the way you want, you will grow your business faster because you actually will put your ALL into it. Most jobs have a certain way you need to act, dress, and communicate to fit their ideas. When you create your own atmosphere, you will grow and attract others that are just like you.
Lynley Loftin Hipps: So, you started your business because you had a fire, a passion you wanted to share with the world, right? You have a message that is meant to be shared! But you want to hear the real secret? You might not like it. Are you ready?
Ok, here goes… It’s not about you. Or your products. Or your experience. Or your wisdom. Or your genius. It’s not. It’s about your customer. 100%, hands-down, 24/7. Every thing you do – every decision you make, every product you create, every program you launch – MUST be 100% focused on your customer.
Stephanie Falkner: What is the #1 most important strategy for entrepreneurs in 2019?
Tough one, right?! You might say valuable content, visibility, consistency… And ALL of them are important! BUT there is one thing that is even more essential, and that is FOCUS.As entrepreneurs, we tend to have a gazillion ideas sitting in the back of our head that are just waiting to be unleashed. We want to give that new webinar a go. We want to try tapping into a new market. We want to finally create that course or add another course to our value ladder.Instead, you need to focus. Focus on your ideal customer and how you can truly serve them best. Focus on and prioritize activities that you know will bring you a step closer to achieving your goals. Focus on things that already work and optimize them to the fullest before you experiment with new ideas.
Tanja Falkner: ALIGNMENT in your digital marketing efforts. You might have a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account, or a YouTube channel. You might be running a podcast, webinar, or a blog. And maybe you even have some email marketing set up. But you know what? If all these channels are seen as individual means and you don’t have an overall strategy in place then you are throwing money out the window left and right without taking full advantage of the possibilities.
Where’s the point in a podcast if nobody is listening? Or a webinar if nobody attends? Or even a Facebook page with no engagement? In order to grow your business effectively, you need a customized digital marketing strategy that considers all the above-mentioned areas and more, depending on your needs and goals.
Aligning your digital marketing efforts will help you truly leverage the infinite potential each channel has and set you up for success in 2019.
Megan Flanagan: The “3 A’s”: 1.) Authentic. Be authentic. Stop looking around and comparing yourself to other entrepreneurs (You know what I am talking about – you are wasting precious time). Work on becoming the best version of yourself. 2.) Aware. Specifically, Self-Awareness. This is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, your E.Q. If you can work on becoming self-aware, you will win many of the battles you face during entrepreneurship, especially the ones in your head.
3.) Action-Taking. Action is a game changer for an entrepreneur. Too many entrepreneurs fail because they are freeze up from fear of not being good enough. We are human, and we make mistakes. Keep taking action until you get it right and you will succeed.
Laurie McNealy Shields: The #1 Strategy for 2019 is visibility! We are seeing it everywhere. My feed is overflowing with #getvisible. But what does that mean? What are your strategies for getting visible? Blogs? Podcasts? Interviews? All great things, but this will only tell your audience your perspective. The top strategy for 2019 is influencer marketing. Getting your service and product into the hands of your target audience. Micro influencers are the fastest growing niche in marketing and allow you to reach audiences through word of mouth advertising that is authentic and honest. Today, over 81% of consumers are purchasing items that they have seen shared via social media. In 2019, you need to get visible with influencer marketing.
Kristen Miller: In 2019, entrepreneurs need to ditch their DIY tendencies in order to grow. Doing it
all on your own is quickly going out of style. As soon as possible, entrepreneurs must learn that letting go and doing LESS is actually the key to their success. A CEO leads. That’s it. They don’t do anything else that will distract them from visualizing and reaching their goal.
When an entrepreneur decides to stop trying to do #allthethings with their sales funnel, that’s when I step in. I help CEOs strategize and build their offers and funnels and take that responsibility off their plates. Then they’re able to step more fully into their own role as CEO without the day-to-day marketing details that hold others back.
Jeanne Eury: The number one strategy for entrepreneurs in 2019 is leverage. Leveraging your message to be heard on influential topics, leveraging your platform to bring attention to issues you support, leveraging your network to help you scale and to help guide you in creating the next level of products and services to solve more of their problems, leverage your expertise with that of your colleagues to shape the next big thing, and use the momentum from all of the above to future-proof your business.
Valeria Mead: The #1 strategy for entrepreneurs in 2019 is getting clarity before you get started. I see too many new entrepreneurs getting burnt out simply because they feel too overwhelmed by what they should do first and how to go about it. Start with the end goal! If you know you want to be a 6-figure social media manager this year, reverse engineer the process. How many clients will it take? What expenses will need to be considered? Do you want to hire a team when you hit a certain number of clients/financial milestone? Focus only on the efforts that will help you get towards your #1 goal and hire out the client work so you can spend your time on more revenue-generating tasks. It’s ok to take a few steps back to re-evaluate from time to time. Life happens, things change, and even our goals change! Having a clear focus on what you are working towards every day keeps you disciplined and motivated as you work to build a business and life you are 100% in love with!
Which of these strategies for 2019 MOST resonated with you? Which are you going to implement immediately – or even in Q2-Q4? Share this article with someone who needs to know the latest and greatest in marketing!
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