New Year’s Resolutions

While New Year’s resolutions are normally for personal goals, given the economy and continued growth in the unemployment rate, it is time we made some for where we work.  Here are a few I think will take you the furthest in a tough economy. 

1. Be Collaborative: Tough times require big ideas.  Communication and brainstorming is more important than ever and two (or more) heads are better than one.  Build a cross-functional think tank within your organization and set some goals that can help your organization be more efficient or drive more revenue.  Those goals can be as simple as improving your marketing process or cleaning your customer list, or more complex -- like developing new products or testing a new innovative social media marketing effort.  Either way, go for it.
2. Think Strategically:  Most companies are aggressively cutting costs.  If you are in marketing, that often means cutting programs or negotiating down the costs with existing vendors.  You may even conduct a RFP (Request for Proposal) review process to make sure your current vendors offer the best solution at the best price.  All pretty standard reactions.  However, I encourage you to think broader: Are there other solutions which you didn’t originally consider that perhaps you should, i.e. bringing email in-house vs. using an Email Service Provider?  What are the long-term goals and objectives for your organization and do existing providers align with those needs? Now is a great time to make those key decisions that can help your company build a greater competitive advantage when things turn around.
3. Embrace Your Customers:  Whether they are internal or external customers,  success is nearly always tied to delighting your target.  Consider conducting a customer experience audit, form an advisory panel, survey and interview customers, and then commit to making improvements.
4. Adopt a Start-Up Mentality:  Today’s environment requires marketers from all sized organizations to think more like a start up.  Every program, every cent spent on acquiring and retaining customers should be examined and optimized.  Take email as an example.  Simply adding a forward-to-a-friend option can potentially extend the life, efficiency and ROI of an email message.  In fact, JupiterResearch once estimated that companies that considered viral marketing and customer satisfaction when identifying and targeting customers, could reduce customer acquisition costs by 27% and increase average order size by up to 60%.  But that is just part of it.  For viral marketing to really take off, you have to have an offer that is exciting and compelling. And don’t forget that all forward-to-a friend campaigns must comply with CAN SPAM requirements.
5. Think “Participation”:  We’ve detailed some great examples on how participatory marketing has extended the reach and success of marketing programs on this blog.  So whether it’s a TV ad campaign like Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” that encourages users to upload video of themselves or The Limited’s design contest that engaged thousand of users, think about how you can add a little participation to your existing campaigns and communications to achieve greater success in ’09. 

Wishing you a prosperous ‘09