Farewell 2015, Hello Marketing Made Simple in 2016

This year on the Crayons & Marketers blog, we answered some questions our small business clients have asked us and covered best practices that we follow ourselves.

Where we started

We began the year with a conversation about the power of keeping it real over the next twelve months, letting authenticity give our marketing a voice that tells our unique brand story.

But to do that, we had to liberate our marketing from the chains of poor messaging and failed execution. So we embraced the 90-day marketing plan. Agile yet effective, these plans require that we tap into the value bubbling underneath the surface of our businesses and pull it into a framework that communicates the right messages, to the right folks on the right channel – at the right time, of course.

We went on throughout the year to survive social media, not an easy task in such a noisy marketplace, hung out with Inc. Magazine at GROWCO 2015, and finally came clean about what’s been truly holding our marketing back.

We tricked out marketing systems that will help make our marketing efforts more efficient and figured out which marketing mistakes to avoid completely (do not pass go on these).

To wrap up, we made a wishlist of a few tools to put on our 2016 marketing wishlist. And by now, hopefully, they’re wrapped and underneath the tree.

So that brings us to 2016. What can you expect from our blog, The Yellow Box, next year?

A few things:

•  A greater emphasis on content marketing. That’s in our wheelhouse, and we’re sticking to it. In fact, we endeavor to be the best at it.

•  Weekly blog posts. Huge commitment, but you’re worth it. So keep those questions coming so that we can fill up the calendar!

•  More guest posts. See #2. You didn’t think that would be all us did you?

•  Continued focus on keeping marketing simple, content captivating, and processes effortless: We don’t believe that marketing has to be complicated, but we do know that the stories you tell should be good. We will continue to look for the simplest way to achieve the same goals so that you can manage your marketing better and get better results.

•  Commitment to our readers. Most importantly is our commitment to you, our readers. Thank you for supporting The Yellow Box over the past year. We’ve seen our readership grow and have been able to help so many of you get over your marketing hurdles, which is important to us.

Our Promise for 2016

We promise to continue to publish thoughtful yet witty information that is relevant and useful, easy to digest and put into action.

And hopefully, we will inspire you to color outside the lines now and then. That’s what crayons are for, right?