So that your brand can do its best to out-distance the competition time and time again, you need a well-rounded marketing plan in place. One way that you can complete a well-rounded marketing plan is through the use of something like video business cards. Video business cards are a newer trend amongst businesses in order to gain more customers. However, as this article explains, your marketing plan needs to be more encompassing than simply using one marketing tool.

Your plan should not only receive a fair amount of time and effort, but it also needs to encompass all there is in today’s brand promotional world.

While you may be wondering if you have the right resources to pull off a sound marketing approach, you may also be pleasantly surprised to learn you do. In the event you don’t have it just quite yet, it really is not as hard to achieve as you may think.

That said, will 2017 be the year that you finally get your marketing practices where you want them to be?

Avoiding Complacency in the World of Marketing

In order for your brand to get the most possible out of marketing, one of your top priorities is avoiding complacency.

You might feel like your marketing techniques are second-to-none, therefore meaning you don’t tweak them on occasion. You also might be of the opinion that if the real competition isn’t putting lots of time and effort into marketing, you do not need to either. Both ways of thinking can spell trouble for your marketing initiatives.

Another bad thought that may creep into your head is that your marketing budget is limited, so you, therefore, can’t achieve much. If that thought is there, remove that pronto.

Even with a small marketing budget, there is so much you can accomplish over time in promoting your brand. Remember, small pockets of promotions from time to time are much better than none at all.

Another idea to reduce complacency might be trying some data-driven digital marketing campaigns and while this previously was a long-winded laborious process of collecting and organizing data into spreadsheets, these days Marketing dashboards have significantly improved the efficiency of the entire process. Streamlining data distribution and organization across an organization. This data can keep your perspective in tune with your audiences because the feed of information is right on the pulse of customer opinion.

Work with Others to Benefit Your Brand

Assuming you already have a blog on your website, what are you doing with it?

Unfortunately, too many companies essentially let it go to waste. In doing so, they fail to capitalize on what can turn out to be one of their best resources.

If you have a blog on your website, do everything in your power to nurture it and of course, promote it. By doing so, you open so many possibilities for gaining new business and of course adding to your revenue stream.

As part of your blog promotions, do all you can possible when it comes to guest blogging.

With guest blogging, you are able to reach many more consumers than if you just stuck to your own base. If others are allowing you to guest blog on their business sites, by all means, do the same in return (assuming that is that you are getting quality articles to place there).

Lastly, be sure to include guest blog content that is both relevant and informative to your reading audience. When others (notably consumers) see you coming across as an authority in your industry, you stand to gain much from it, including an enhanced revenue stream.

Socializing Your Marketing Efforts

If social media has literally been a foreign concept to you up to this point and time, change that as 2017 nears.

Much like your blogging efforts, social media really doesn’t have to financially cost you an arm and a leg over time. If you play your cards right, you can come up with a social media strategy that allows your brand to expand and catch more ears and eyes.

One of the keys to a successful social approach is listening to what others are saying about your brand.

For instance, you will undoubtedly have some customers (perhaps even some consumers not truly familiar with your brand) that will speak ill of you. Instead of lashing out at them, take the time to understand what is causing this reaction. As you truly listen to them, you may very well be able to turn a former customer or consumer thinking of going elsewhere around.

Marketing Your Brand for Success

As you wind down the final weeks of 2016, now is a great time to review your marketing approach over the last year, seeing what did and did not work.

In doing so, you may very well be setting yourself and your brand up for a fantastic 2017.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers marketing topics on the web.