Well, 2020 is out of the way, and there won’t be many who’ll mourn it. It’s tempting to think that everything would have changed at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but of course it hasn’t. We’re back in lockdown — but one of the main continuities I’ve noticed is that I’m still working flat out, as I was in December.
Hence this New Year blog being a little late.
2020 for Nick Blatchley Copywriting
So, beyond the obvious, what was 2020 like for me? Actually, surprisingly good. I was one of the lucky businesses. I’ve never had employees or premises, and lockdown simply meant that I carried on working from home.
The biggest difference has been in networking. Two meetings used to be a busy week, partly because a two-hour meeting could actually be half a day out of my schedule. Now, with the rise and rise of Zoom, I fit in at least half a dozen meetings a week and still have as much time for work.
Except that the amount of work I have has risen. Again, I’ve been lucky that very few of my existing clients have had to suspend work due to lockdown. At the same time, abandoning geographical restrictions on networking means I’ve made large numbers of new contacts, some of whom have become clients.
Which is why I’ve been working flat out.
2021 for Nick Blatchley Copywriting
The reality is that no-one knows how 2021 is going to play out. The hope is that by summer the vaccine will have kicked in enough for us to start getting back towards normal, but there are so many variables that we really can’t tell.
What that means is that our plans need to concentrate on the things we can control, instead of pinning our hopes on the things we can’t.
Like all of us (I hope) my basic plans for 2021 involve carrying on doing the things that are working and changing those that aren’t. More particularly, however, I have a few specifics in mind:
- At the end of last year, I launched my new Website Deepdive service, offering an in-depth analysis of your website content and identifying what works and what needs to be changed. I’ll be promoting this heavily in 2021, and I anticipate it becoming a significant part of my offering.
- For a couple of years now, my ongoing work has included writing property descriptions for estate agents. I feel there’s plenty of demand for this, and I’ll be expanding my offer to estate agents and property developers looking for engaging descriptions that sell the dream, not the features.
- I’ve been working to improve my processes and conversations for maintaining contact with both new and existing contacts. This will be becoming a key part of my strategy in early 2021.
- The business holy grail is, of course, to do more business in less time. My strategies for 2021 include a series of streamlining measures to get at least close to this goal.
At the root of everything, though, my business strategy is what it’s always been — to supply compelling marketing content so that small business owners with a hunger to grow can stop being the best-kept secret in town.
Give me a call to find out what I can do for your business.