A new year is a great occasion to reflect on your goals and commit to reaching the next level in the upcoming year. This year, we’ve identified three new year’s marketing resolutions to help you reach your business goals in 2017.
Measure Everything
Did you find it difficult to evaluate last year’s marketing performance? To ensure you’re making informed choices on your marketing channels, step up your metrics tracking in 2017.
- Choose KPIs based on your business goals. Interested in building awareness? Focus on engagement metrics (ex. Page views/sessions, time spent on website, email clicks). Interested in profitability? Look at your cost per lead on a channel basis to see which provides your best ROI.
- Look beyond a single lead source. Customers typically interact with your brand several times before making a purchase. Be sure you aren’t eliminating channels that appeal to customers at the beginning of the buying cycle.
Invest in Your Infrastructure
It’s easy to prioritize immediate results and ROI over long-term investment. In 2017, commit to investing in at least one tool or process, based on your business goals, that will make your marketing and sales teams’ lives life easier. Some recommendations include:
- Begin using a CRM, or upgrade your existing platform, to help your sales team keep track of leads and prospects.
- Invest in marketing automation or an email marketing platform to make it easier to stay in touch with contacts. Set up workflows for routine emails (such as Welcome emails), as well as for marketing campaigns. With automated emails, you can build one and let it run (with periodic updates, of course!).
Stay Flexible
We often say, “no plan survives the field”. Whether or not you have an annual marketing plan in place, it’s important to check up on your initiatives to ensure that they’re still creating impact. On a regular basis, ask yourself the following questions:
- Why are we doing what we’re doing? Are our initiatives consistent with my business goals, and are they effective? What is the value in continuing down this path?
- Is there anything we should be doing that we aren’t?
Based on your answers to these questions, adjust your focus.
Keep these resolutions top of mind to help your marketing function more efficiently in 2017. Happy New Year!