Happy (almost) New Year! Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? I’m actually not a big fan myself of resolutions. I always feel that every day is a fresh start. We each get 24 hours with which to make progress on all fronts of our lives – spiritual, physical, mental, personal, business, you name it.
But I know that New Year’s Resolutions are an important tradition for many. In that light, I’ve put together the marketing manager’s spin on them.
If you do nothing at all in 2022 but follow these resolutions, I can almost guarantee you a happy, prosperous, and business-filled year. Happy New Year!
9 New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing Managers
Repeat after me: In 2022, I resolve to….
- Prioritize marketing over other business tasks: It’s so easy to tackle everything BUT your marketing! Yes, I own a marketing agency, but before founding Seven Oaks Consulting, I founded and ran an e-commerce business. And I can say from experience that often everything but marketing took priority in my day: answering customer emails, sourcing new products, shipping orders, and more. But the longer you put off marketing tasks, the greater the risk of being forgotten by your customers. With so much competing for customer attention online and off these days, it is essential to make marketing a priority. Resolve to do at least one marketing activity each day to promote your business!
- Keep abreast of updates in my field: Whether that means listening to a podcast each week or reading emails from your favorite blogger, make it a point to learn something new each week about your chosen business field or your specific marketing discipline.
- Focus on a few tactics to do well: Some businesses try every marketing tactic under the sun, using a “throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks” marketing method. The result is usually an uneven hodgepodge of marketing tactics. Each method might work, but without the energy, enthusiasm, consistency, time, and measurement behind each, it’s impossible to know. Instead of trying everything and seeing what works, focus on one or two marketing tactics you believe will work and try them for several months (or even a full year).
- Measure the results: Not all marketing methods are easily quantified, but most can be quantified in some way. Whenever you can, measure your marketing activities and use the data to support marketing decisions.
- Avoid one-size-fits-all marketing: Just because everyone is on TikTok (or Instagram, or running Google AdWords campaigns, or mailing postcards out) doesn’t mean that it’s right for your business. Always check the demographics to see if your target audience is reading, listening, or responding to a particular channel before investing in marketing activities there. Your audience may love Facebook and hate Twitter, or may be hard to attract using Google Ads but respond well to content marketing. No two businesses have – or should have – the exact same marketing strategy.
- Keep your eyes open: Keep your eyes open and start a ‘swipe file’, or a sample file, or marketing materials that strike your fancy. While you cannot and should not copy anyone else’s marketing materials directly, use this file as inspiration to discover what you like about the marketing activity and why.
- Ask for professional help when needed: Don’t try to DIY all aspects of your marketing. You can’t. I’ve been a marketing manager for over 30 years and even I don’t DIY everything anymore. Besides not having the time anymore to fuss with certain things, I know that my skills lend themselves better to some forms of content marketing (writing) and less to others (video). It’s much smarter to invest my time in what I know I can do well and pay someone to do things I don’t do well so that the overall end product – the marketing deliverable – is fantastic than to try to save a dime and DIY the entire campaign.
- Invest in professional development: Early in 2021, I made what turned out to be a fantastic decision for my business. I invested in my own professional development. I joined a blogging course and weekly mastermind group. And while my blog did not turn into a money making machine, it did teach me a lot about various SEO skills I lacked and helped me to focus on what produced revenue. It was a great experience and one I recommend to anyone able to invest in professional development whether it is a recorded course or a weekly meeting with a coach.
- Plan, but be flexible: Resolve to create and follow a marketing plan but remain flexible enough to “go with the flow” should the occasion warrant it. My plans evolved in 2021 but my initial focus remained the same: to build Seven Oaks Consulting into the agency of choice for expert, unique and creative content marketing solutions. This focus, combined with a flexible approach to achieving my goals, enabled me to achieve the goals I set for myself at the start of 2021. Planning, flexibility, and regular check-ins with yourself are the best way that I know of to achieve your goals, too.
2021 was a wild ride, and 2022 is also starting off a bit rocky with so many problems worldwide, including the continuing global pandemic. Through it all, one thing remains: we all wish for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
So here’s to your new year, and may your New Year’s resolutions yield abundant results. Happy new Year!
Jeanne Grunert, president of Seven Oaks Consulting, is an award-winning direct and digital marketer with over 20 years of senior marketing leadership experience. She’s passionate about mentoring marketing managers and providing exceptional content marketing programs and services to Seven Oaks clients. Jeanne holds an M.S. (awarded with distinction) in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University and frequently lectures on content marketing, search engine optimization, and project management techniques.J
[…] time that you and I, as content marketing managers and marketing executives, make some New Year’s Resolutions together. […]