Here are the first 5 things I’d do this week

New year, new plan. If you’re getting back to work today, here are the first 5 things I’d do this week:

Write down, from scratch, what you know about your customers. Who they are, what they say, where they shop, what they like, what they read, what they believe – and most importantly: what stories they tell themselves and how you fit in to those (last week we talked about the importance of archetypes – get to know ’em!) Did you already have some customer personas or avatars created? Review this new list against your old list and see what’s changed.
Run a focus group to make sure you’re right. It never hurts to spend a couple bucks on some pizza and soda to get some face time with your customers. Are most of your customers virtual? Invite them for a virtual coffee meeting. Trade stories, tips, and sneak in a few of your most burning questions about them.
Do a near-total website content review based on what you learn. Does your content match the story you tell yourself about your business? About your products? About your methods? Does your blog address the concerns of your customers? Does your blog speak to them in a way they’ll listen? Do your product descriptions, photography, everything – match their expectations?
Plan your next 3-6 months as far as products, services, and growth plans. Use SMART goals. It never hurts to have a succinct plan for where you’re planning to go and how you’re gonna make it valuable. Seriously – there’s no end of things to do, but the things worth doing are the things you can make more valuable as a result of you, specifically, doing them.
Plan your content for the next 3-6 months. Now that you know where you’re headed, do you have a content strategy put together for the next 3-6 months to support your business/product/service goals? If not, what the hell are you doing, man? Plan what you’re going to write, where you’re going to write it, who you’re writing it for, and what the punchline/call to action is.