A New Year’s resolution for businesses to actually stick to

Approaching the new year, many of us are setting personal goals to achieve throughout 2015, we like to call them New Year’s Resolutions. While some of these are recycled annually as they fail year after year (like winning the lottery), most are achievable and positive.

However, few realise the psychology of the New Year’s Resolution phenomenon and what it means for businesses. In recent work, University of Pennsylvania researchers describe what’s called the “fresh start effect.” Basically, we see the beginning of a new year as a fresh start, to proactively set goals and achieve them, leaving past mistakes and bad habits behind.Businesses can and should take advantage of the “fresh start effect” because of the lucrative opportunities presented by the proactive attitudes in consumers. Communicating to audiences at this time is particularly effective because people are actively searching for products and services to help them achieve their new aspirations.Marketers of products and services that help people attain desirable objectives (e.g. gyms, education institutions, travel agencies) may best appeal to consumers’ desires for self-improvement by communicating at “fresh start” moments, like the new year! So, if you’re a business that can take an active role in helping people achieve their New Year’s Resolutions, now is the time to get the word out there that you want to help, and the best way to do this is with SMS.If you don’t already use SMS for business communication, you could use a bit of the “fresh start” attitude and set yourself a New Year’s Resolution to do so, and we can help! With a 98% open rate compared to 22% of emails, implementing SMS for your business communication in 2015 will be a great way to keep in touch with all your customers and stakeholders, throughout the coming year and into the future.For more information don’t hesitate to get in touch on 1300 764 946 and we can advise you on the best ways to implement SMS this year, to make sure you really do have a happy new year!