In honor of 2013, I am sharing 13 resolutions that I plan to employ to improve my marketing for the upcoming year.
1. Connect more with customers My goal is to have more two-way conversations with my customers and prospects rather than the typical one-way messaging. Expand my social media, content marketing and blogging activities.
2. Tell more stories Consumers typically gravitate to brands that have appealing stories. Humanizing one’s brand through stories is a great way to do that. Think TOMS shoes, Google, Amazon, Clif bar.
3. Use video to tell stories Pictures are often more powerful than words. And video can be even more compelling. Check out this great video from Alexa’s Angels; I feel like I know the team after watching it.
4. More targeting Segmenting audiences and providing relevant content to each is a winning combination. Need to do more of it.
5. Listen more We live in a world of interruption marketing and shouting. Think Washington politicians. Listening more is the ticket to being more targeted in content and responsive to needs.
6. Keep investing in email We keep hearing about the death of email. Yet email marketing still pays big returns (a Direct Marketing Association study says it is #1 in ROI). Spend money on this marketing vehicle.
7. Test, test, test I am always amazed at how frequently my initial hunches on designs, offers, and subject lines don’t prove to be as effective as I expect. Testing more makes my marketing more effective and data-driven, not hunch-driven.
8. Consider how mobile can help my business Mobile usage is massive. For example, we check email on our phones more than any other source. And eCommerce is huge on cell phones. Invest time in figuring out how mobile can support my goals.
9. Expand Social Media beyond Facebook & Twitter Spend more time engaging with my communities with LinkedIn and Pinterest in 2013.
10. Integrate campaigns into business systems Following up on leads is stronger when all of a prospect’s touch points are in one place (likely the CRM system). And measuring campaigns is also much easier when tied to business systems.
11. Expand Content Marketing programs I am a believer in Content Marketing (creating and sharing content with the goal of generating profitable customer actions). This is a great way to connect with my community. Read more about content marketing.
12. Be more visible in search engines A majority of web sessions start at a search engine. Aim that my site is visible on the front
pages of search engines- particularly Google.
13. Create a marketing calendar; stick with it The plan is much more likely to happen if I plan it out for the year.
I hope my 13 Marketing resolutions have given you some ideas.
Have others? Leave them in the comments.
