7 Marketing Resolutions for Younger Marketers in 2016

I'm baaaaaaack! Did you miss me? Did you feel like 2015 was just a little darker and a little colder as it drew to a close? You may have assumed it was just a result of the earth's regularly scheduled journey farther away from the sun, but I'm here to tell you that chill in the air was merely the lack of my presence in your life and on your screen. But fear not, I'm back for 2016 and will be posting again on a monthly basis. Starting right now, with my very own "2016 Marketing Resolutions" (because there's never enough "My New Year's Resolutions" posts in the world, right?) I figure I'll fare better with these guys than I will with "go to the gym 3x a week" or "limit myself to one season of a show on Netflix per night." I'll also list a few great resources I've found to help me on the road to resolution glory! [caption id="attachment_49567" align="alignnone" width="500"] According to iStock, a significant number of people have a goal of climbing a mountain and/or doing the Rocky pose in business suits[/caption] 1. Get to Work Earlier Here's the problem with having flexible work hours: you can actually take advantage of them. Add that to my just-two-blocks commute and you've got a perfect recipe for snooze-button-dependency. I've never been an early bird, and generally I'm of the mindset that I work better when I come in a little later and leave a little later. But I have to admit I feel an extra sense of pep and motivation when I manage to start my day an hour or two ahead of schedule, and having that extra time to enjoy my coffee and clear out the cobwebs logically results in more productivity. So I've decided: 2016 is the year I start getting to work before 9:00. I recently found this simple yet brilliant post on LifeHack for people like me, and I'm eager to try these strategies out. 2. Better Time Management Another daily struggle for me: deciding what on my list needs to be done and when, and how much time should be spent doing it. Since it's a point I'm always looking to improve, I've found a few basic tools that seem to work best for me when used together. I'm a visual person, so I always love a good to-do list; it really helps me to be able to look at my tasks laid out in front of me, and physically move them into an order that makes sense. My favorite of the many online options available is Wunderlist. You can create separate folders within your to-do list and categorize each task, set due-dates and alarms, enable email notifications, and sync your lists to the mobile app to access anywhere. Plus, that "ding" noise it makes when you complete a task is super satisfying. Oh, and it's free! Another must: The StayFocusd browser extension. No more "two minute web surfing breaks" that turn into ten or twenty; this app blocks all but your allowed websites after your allotted time runs out. Pro-Tip: Put the Chrome Extensions store on your block list, so you can't cheat and remove the app ;) 3. Use More Video Marketing Ahh, finally, a goal directly related to marketing. Did you know by this past August, video accounted for 50 percent of all mobile traffic? Yowsa. It's time to get in on that action, I know personally I haven't used nearly enough in my own marketing plans in the last year or two. My good pal Target Marketing always has my back though, with a ton of articles, facts and figures about what's new and good in video marketing. CMI also just published an article on Friday full of easy, proven tips to write video scripts that produce results. It's one to bookmark as we kick off 2016. 4. Think About Writing Less, Actually Write More If you've read any of my posts before, like my very first, you know I have a major issue with getting myself to just #*%$ing write already. It takes a while to quiet all the chatter in my head and all the concerns about not being original enough, or substantial enough, or funny enough, the list goes on and on. Luckily, over the last few months I've found a whole slew of (mostly) free resources to shine a beacon through the copywriting darkness, from idea-generation to the final edit. These include Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator, WriteOrDie.com, and Hemingway. I went into detail about all eight of my favorite tools here. In 2016, I plan on using all of them on a frequent basis to ensure I'm writing as much as I can, as well as I can. 5. Reduce Opt-out Rates Across Email Campaigns The number one reason people hit that unsubscribe button, across the boards, is "you send too many emails!" And yet, study after study, we continue to see email reign triumphant with the highest response rates of any channel. Thus, the Sophie's Choice of every email marketer: are those extra registrations we pull in from adding email blasts really worth those hundred opt-outs? The greatest content in the world ain't worth a hill of beans if readers are slipping away. It's this struggle that makes keeping opt-out rates as low as possible a permanent fixture on my, and probably every email marketer's, list of resolutions. MailChimp has a great, frequently updated page full of email marketing benchmarks to know, including average opt-out rates per industry and per company size, so you always know where you should be. It also provides useful tips to improve your stats. Also, check out the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. Technically meant for blog post and article titles, there's no reason it can't apply to subject lines as well. Pop in your subject line, and out pops a score, a grade, and a breakdown of what to change for better response and SEO. So cool and so useful, as a good subject line means more opens means fewer extra emails means lower opt-out rate! Of course, as we in the marketing department know, this particular goal isn't always entirely in our control. There are times when we can say "this heavy email schedule will do more harm than good!" until we're blue in the face, but that doesn't mean everyone involved in the promotional process ::coughSALEScough:: will agree to cut down. Which leads me to my No. 6 ... 6. Learn to Say "No" More Effectively I'm not going to go all Oprah on you here, and I don't have specific resources to help with this one. But alas, I've never gotten top marks in the "assertiveness" column, and it's something I'd love to work on as I grow more and more confident in my knowledge and skill sets. If we can't put our foot down when outside influences want too much done or want it done too soon, we can't market as effectively or successfully. So on a slightly more personal note, this is a big one for me. 7. Submit My Blog Posts on Time* Really. For real. It's going to happen guys. Let me know what your resolutions are, for marketing or beyond, and if you have helpful links to make 'em happen. So glad to be back, and I hope you'll all join me once a month in 2016. See you in February! * Added at the last minute to achieve maximum brownie points from editor :)

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7 Marketing Resolutions for Younger Marketers in 2016

Danielle Cantor

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Danielle Cantor