What are you going to do to make your business grow this year? Let me give you five tips!

1) Become an Instant Expert

Publish relevant articles regularly in online article directories. Provide value and show off your expertise. And when people Google you, they’ll be impressed. And will consider you — an expert!

2) Stay in Touch with Your Prospects

Don’t let your website visitors slip away without at least making an effort to capture their info (legally!) so you can follow up with them. What I mean is that you should invite them to opt into your email list.

You can accomplish this feat by offering them something of value in return for their email address, and then continue to offer them something of value in return of their allowing you into their inbox and actually opening your email.

3) Start Using Social Media Effectively

Many business owners totally underestimate how much social media can contribute to their business’s growth. Don’t make that mistake. Start with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and actually use them. Then expand.

4) Make Sure Your Website Is Effective

Make sure your website invites your visitors to take action. Whether they are inspired to sign up for your list or visit your store — now, you want them to do something that will be sueful to you over the long haul.

They may not need your services at the moment, depending on what you do, but sooner or later they will — and you want to be the one they’re thinking of calling or going to.

5) Don’t Do it All Yourself!

You’re not fixing your own house’s plumbing — unless you’re a plumber, of course. You don’t fix your own car — unless you’re a mechanic. Why write your own articles and press releases? It will take you far more effort and time than it would take someone whose job it is to do such things. A professional writer, particularly a marketing expert, will also get much better results.