This is a guest post by Susan Fleming of Electronic Marketing Success.

When was the last time you pulled out that list of goals you wrote sometime around the beginning of the year? You did write some, didn’t you? If you don’t have them hanging in plain sight, go find them and lets take stock. I’ll wait right here till you get back with them…

Okay, first write down on a 1-to-10 scale how close you are to achieving each of those goals. A “1” would be, “I haven’t done anything with that… what was I thinking??” and “10” would be, “Got that baby DONE!”

Add all your numbers up and divide by the number of items. Multiply that answer by 10, and you will have a percentage that reflects your overall progress towards your goals. Now you are ready to go to work.

Check Up

As you look at your goals in light of where your business is now, divide them into three different categories:

• Scores of 1 – 3
• Scores of 4 – 8
• Scores of 9 – 10

First look at the 9 – 10 group. Look at all you have accomplished! Pat yourself on the back — you did some good work there.

Now look closely at each of those goals and ask yourself, “Has that contributed significantly to my success?” Put a star by the ones that have.

Look at the 4 – 8 group. Identify the ones that if you had done more work on them would have helped you be more successful. Do the same for the 1 – 3 group.

Catch Up

As you look at all of the goals you identified as incompleted success builders (scores of 1 – 8), you can now re-focus your attention on what you should be doing.

Because my area of expertise is primarily in electronic marketing channels, let’s think about those particular goals. If you planned to have a newsletter, write a blog, build or revise a website, write articles, create a Special Report, record a tele-seminar, or use Social Media, how are you doing?

Remember that much of marketing is building relationships, and that while the ultimate goal of marketing is to get people to buy from you, Job One is building a relationship so they can come to know, like, and trust you. Because your business reaches farther than the handful of people you see on a regular basis, much of the relationship building takes place remotely — and the easiest and most cost effective methods are electronic.

If you have started a blog or a newsletter but haven’t followed through, it is okay to either re-launch it, or just be human and apologize for letting it fall through the cracks. The important thing is to DO something.

Don’t know what content to use? Repurpose something you already have. Give Seven Tips about something, or Five Pitfalls to Watch For, or the Top Ten Mistakes, or Answers from the Expert, or How To do something, or What’s New… You have all that information, either already written and ready to re-use, or stacked up inside your head. So just do it!

Gear Up

We are now on the downhill slide to the end of the year. How strongly you finish will, to a great degree, depend on what you do now.

Look at your list again, specifically at the 9 – 10 group. Which of those completed goals have brought you the most success?

For example, if your goal was to have 3 speaking engagements before April, and you did… and you got clients as a result… That would be a completed goal that moved you towards success.

Or if you optimized your website and your traffic increased, and as a result, you sold more, then that would be a completed goal that also moved you towards success.

What you can do now is look at what is benefiting you and figure out how you can do more of it. If public speaking works, look for more opportunities. If more traffic on your website works, look for more ways to get it. If having a blog or newsletter helps, plan to do it more or better, or at least more regularly.

It is a generally accepted principal that on the average, 80% of our success comes from 20% of our efforts. If we can identify what that 20% is, and do more of it, it only stands to reason that our success will increase. Perhaps dramatically.

So, this is the time, before all the September through December activities overwhelm us, to check up, catch up, and gear up.

And as always, if you have any questions or need any help, please get in touch with me. I’ve added a few tricks to my bag that are proving very successful for some of my clients, so if you are feeling stalled, drop me a line and we can set up a time to talk.

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Susan Fleming rescues coaches who are being held hostage by the demands of their online marketing efforts. As a Certified Internet Marketing VA, teacher, corporate trainer, writer, public speaker and technophile, Susan has a unique skill set that helps her breathe new life and encouragement into flagging marketing efforts.

If Google Analytics, keyword research, HTML and meta tags give you a headache, relief is just a click away at Electronic Marketing Success.