3 Overlooked Areas that Need Attention in 2019
The new year is often seen as a fresh start both personally and professionally. While you may have outlined some personal goals for yourself in 2019, have you thought about any business-related goals?
Defining these goals is the easy part; following through with them is another story. The best way to ensure you end 2019 feeling accomplished is to accompany each of your goals with an action plan.
Whether you’ve already set your goals for the year or are still refining them, consider these three areas of focus for your business in 2019.
- Brand Consistency
How you convey your business to the public should always be a core focus. Do you have a clear mission statement or, more importantly, do your customers know what that mission statement is? What value does your business provide?
Having a well-defined brand is essential to acquiring new customers and retaining your current ones. Your branding consists of everything from your logo to the colors you use on your website to your language choices and much more.
It’s also the channels you use to communicate with your customers and to promote your brand to prospective ones. Utilizing a multichannel marketing approach is key to broadening your reach. However, your branding must be unified and seamless across channels in order to be effective.
- Unified Documentation
As your company grows, so do your records and the amount of people maintaining those records. Over time, inconsistent or undefined processes can wreak havoc on your organizational efforts.
If you were asked to retrieve a client contract from three years ago, how long would it take you to locate? It’s best practice to digitally centralize all of your important documents and to maintain a consistent nomenclature so you can easily access them. You should also restrict access to confidential documents and make sure there is a process in place for retrieving files from employees who leave the company.
- Privacy and Security
Cyberattacks are a constant, imminent threat to your business and preventing these attacks should be a top priority. Not only do lax online security measures and outdated software put your business information at risk, but also your customers; a data breach can be detrimental to your reputation (think Equifax and Facebook).
In addition to taking preventative measures to make sure an outside attacker doesn’t get access to your confidential data, you should also ensure those inside your business are compliant with recent data laws. From GDPR to CAN-SPAM to TCPA, having a legal counsel to help you navigate these regulations will mitigate your risk.
The Bottom Line
The new year comes with new challenges and new opportunities. Anticipating both will help you navigate the ebbs and flows. When defining your business goals and how you will accomplish them, make sure to take into consideration brand consistency, unified documentation and privacy and security. How else do you plan to strengthen your business in 2019?
