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New Year’s Eve is quickly approaching, and if you’re like most people, you’re probably working on crafting another life changing resolution. It’s that big promise you make to yourself every year that will have major implications on your self-esteem, future goals, and your overall quality of life.

Unfortunately, statistics show that more than half of all people who make resolutions fail to follow through with their plan in the first six months, and only 12% of us actually achieve our goals. OK, so maybe I found these numbers in a Wikipedia article, but I’m sure most people can agree with the theory behind them.

The reason so many of us (including yours truly) fail to follow through with our New Year’s resolutions is because of the size and scope of the goals we set. Lose 30 pounds by this summer. Find my future wife. Visit all 50 states in the country. Double my company’s sales for the year. These tasks are complex and difficult to achieve, creating the bloated failure rates cited above.

A Resolution A Day

I’d like to propose something that will radically increase your chance of success in 2012. Don’t create one, singular resolution for the year; instead, accomplish one new resolution each day (i.e. researching when to use a semicolon.) Rather than trying to lose 30 pounds, your goal should be to sign up for the gym on the first day. The next day might include monitoring your caloric intake, and on the third day you can walk 1 mile in the morning before work. Each day should have a clearly defined task that can be accomplished without a major investment of time or resources.

Breaking your large projects down into smaller, action-oriented objectives will give you a feeling of success each day, and keep you motivated towards your overall goals. Sports fans already know how powerful momentum can be, and the same concept applies to your personal achievements. Even if you miss a day, it should be relatively easy to get back on track and continue to move forward.

For business owners, this method is an excellent way to build a stronger and smarter company in 2012. Set aside a few minutes in the beginning of your day, after lunch, or before bed to finish your daily goal, and to write down a goal for the next day.

The best thing about this method is that you don’t have to wait until the New Year to start. Right now is the perfect time to take action and complete one task that will get you closer to your goals. Just like the pyramids were built one stone at a time, you can start realizing your goals each day of 2012 and for years to come.

Last week I posted an article to show dealers how to update Google Places to create a measurement for the number of clicks to your website you get inside of Google Analytics. (Read Part I)

This code will help “clean-up” the visitor traffic reports that are being attributed the other sources. This will be important in our use of data to accurately attribute vistor traffic by source.

For most dealers, Google Places traffic is mixed into general traffic which is sloppy data since we know how important Google Places is for referral traffic.

I have included a snapshot of the last five days of traffic to this dealer’s website once I added the tracking code.

The campaign name that I chose is now clearly showing in the “All Traffic Sources” report in Google Analytics. Once this runs for a month, you will start to be able to see just how important Google Places Optimization (GPO) is for your business.

So, if you are starting to dig into your site analytics to make smarter marketing decisions, it is critical to isolate Google Places traffic which otherwise would be padded into other broader categories.

Low Bounce Rate

It is too early to say that there is a pattern accross multiple dealers, but it is interesting to note that the bounce rate from Google Places (19.57%) was much lower than Google Organic Search (33.43%). See below:

If you liked this tip, please click on the Google +1 button on the bottom of this article. Also, tweet it out to your friends and share it on Facebook. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

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Brian Pasch

PCG Digital Marketing is pleased to announce that the company’s long-time friend and automotive digital marketing client, Tracy Myers of Frank Myers Auto Maxx, was elected President of the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association.  Glenn Pasch, COO of PCG Digital Marketing, was present at the CIADA conference last week when Tracy was inducted.

Glenn Pasch is quoted, “Everyone at PCG is thrilled for Tracy’s accomplishment and I was honored to have the opportunity to speak at the CIADA conference last week when Tracy was inducted.

The CIADA is the only non-profit organization focused solely on representing the independent automobile dealer in the Carolinas. The organization puts forth great efforts to promote, educate and help advance independent dealers.

The CIADA is made up of predominately small business owners, however, Tracy has proven himself to be much more than a small business owner. Tracy is a dealership owner, author, speaker and entrepreneur.  He recently celebrated the opening of his newest business, The Celebrity Academy in Charlotte, NC.  The Academy teaches professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners how to get noticed, gain instant credibility, make millions and dominate their competition by building their celebrity expert status.

The staff at PCG Digital Marketing congratulates Tracy on his most recent accomplishment.