More than Half of Small Businesses Make New Year’s Resolutions to Better their Bus. According to New Constant Contact Survey
January 06 2014 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
The biggest focus of business-related
resolutions: revenue growth and increased efficiency
New Year’s Resolutions are not just for setting personal weight
loss goals. According to new survey data from Constant Contact®,
Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT), 53 percent of small businesses make New Year’s
resolutions every year and 23 percent make them every few years. As
for their success rate in keeping their business resolutions: one
third (33 percent) say they are successful in keeping them, while
65 percent say they are sometimes successful in keeping them. More
than half (53 percent) say keeping business-related resolutions is
easier than keeping than personal New Year’s resolutions, while 27
percent say it is harder.
“I think most of us can relate to the treadmill gathering dust
in the basement, or the long-abandoned pledge to stop
procrastinating, so it’s easy to see why the majority of people
surveyed think business-related New Year’s resolutions are easier
to keep than personal ones,” said Christopher M. Litster, senior
vice president of sales and marketing at Constant Contact.
“Business resolutions can be easier to measure, as can the rewards
if you stick to them, so I think staying focused on them can feel a
bit easier.”
Getting Bigger and Better
What area do these business New Year’s resolutions focus on?
Revenue growth and efficiency come in at one and two,
respectively:
- 26 percent Growing annual revenue
- 18 percent Running my business more
efficiently
- 16 percent Getting more
customers/clients
- 10 percent Creating better
planning
- 10 percent Trying different marketing
tactics, like mobile marketing
- 8 percent Creating a better
customer/client experience
Respondents shared some of their specific New Year’s Resolutions
for 2014. Among them were:
- "To expose my business to potential
clients that don't know what services I offer"
- "Contact customers more often"
- "To increase social media presence on
all levels by 15%"
- "Be better at teaching my staff how to
provide exceptional customer service, while offering irresistible
bargains"
- “Run more efficiently. Need to keep
costs under better control. Having a better plan/budget in place
should help with expenses.”
- “Put more resources into the most
profitable projects”
- “Increase the number of in-store and
out-of-store educational seminars to better engage our customer
base.”
Resolutions Resulting in Business Success
When asked what resolution they kept in the past that helped
their business, replies included:
- “Ask for more help”
- “Build my team”
- “Be more aggressive with social
media”
- “Blog more frequently”
- “Find out what personally motivates my
staff”
- “Create a marketing plan”
- “Drop what isn’t working and move
forward”
Dreaming Big Translates to a Bigger Staff and Marketing
Spend
When asked what New Year’s resolution they would make for their
business if money were no object, the verbatim answers ranged from
aggressive (“buy out the competition”), to wishful (“retire”), to
downright practical (“get my financial reserves to six months of
revenue”). Hiring people was a big theme. From sales staff, to
bookkeepers, to administrative assistants, small businesses would
like to be in a position to hire and train more staff.
Another running theme of answers to this question was having
more money to spend on marketing efforts. Some responses
included:
- “Conduct a full-on marketing
blitz”
- “Consistently, efficiently and
effectively write blogs, send newsletters, and use social
media”
- “Hire a marketing/PR firm”
- “Hire someone to do all of my marketing
and social media marketing for me - and I would spend a boatload of
money on advertising of all sorts”
- “A new, mobile-optimized, interactive,
custom designed website built on a content management
platform”
- “Advertise regularly and
effectively”
- “Launch an extensive marketing campaign
for the New Year”
About the survey
This Constant Contact-sponsored survey was administered in
November of 2013 to 1,305 small business participants in the
Constant Contact Small Biz Council – a research panel of US small
businesses recruited from the Constant Contact customer base. This
survey is part of an ongoing series about the state of small
businesses and the ways they connect with, and grow, their
audiences.
About Constant Contact®, Inc.
Constant Contact wrote the book on Engagement Marketing™ – the
new marketing success formula that helps small organizations create
and grow customer relationships in today’s socially connected
world. More than half a million small businesses, nonprofits and
associations worldwide use the company’s online marketing tools to
generate new customers, repeat business, and referrals through
email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, local
deals, digital storefronts, and online surveys. Only Constant
Contact offers the proven combination of affordable tools and free
KnowHow®, including local seminars, personal coaching and
award-winning product support. The company further supports small
organizations through its extensive network of
consultants/resellers, technology providers, franchises and
national associations.
Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered
trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product
names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company
and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their
respective owners.
(CTCT-F)
Constant ContactMedia Contact:Erika Tower,
781-482-7039pr@constantcontact.comorInvestor
Contact:Jeremiah Sisitsky,
339-222-5740ir@constantcontact.com
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