Let’s Do This, 2017: A Few Marketing Resolutions

Last January, I whipped up a list of New Year’s marketing resolutions for me and other young marketing professionals to shoot for in 2016. We don’t have to get into how many of them I successfully followed. In any case, it’s a brand new year now and it’s time for a brand new list. (Keeping it shorter means a more likely 100 percent success rate.) [caption id="attachment_61982" align="aligncenter" width="516"] Look, our good friends People in Business Suits Doing Athletic Things are back![/caption] Use A/B Testing Way More Often I’m so embarrassed at how little of this I actually do. The number of times per week I think to myself “Ugh, these two subject lines both seem appealing but which one is the true winner which ONE??!!,” but ultimately blindly make the call and pray … well, it’s a lot of times. Not to mention the age-old question “would the text-only or graphics-heavy version of this email work best?” Clearly, the simple and intelligent answer is A/B testing, yet it always seems to come down to an “if I only had the time” pipe dream. Or, in cases when I would need different versions of creative, “if the art department only had the time.” But, seeing as it’s been proven time and time again that testing works (I mean, logic, right?) I think 2017 is the year I stop making excuses and start making the time. If I can complete even one test per campaign I'd be satisfied. Who’s with me? Do More Research This one's more or less inspired by the previous. There's just so much brilliant marketing research being done every day, new statistics and new reports and new blogs about statistics and reports, it can get a little overwhelming. But it's also information that could make my job a whole lot easier and more successful in the long run. In 2017, I'm planning to learn and grow more from the insight and intelligence of others in the field, starting with all the resources right here in my http://targetmarketing.adweek.com/ home. Write Outside of Work Before I went to college to major in professional writing, I did a lot more writing in my free time, as you can imagine. Now that I spend a good portion of my days writing promotional copy, I still don't write in my spare time much. This might sound like more of a personal goal than a professional one, but it's my personal belief (and many in the writing profession agree) that getting those creative juices flowing with no pressure, no deadlines, and no constraints can only improve the writing you do from 9-5. Even if it's just journaling about my day or blogging about the latest episode of Sherlock (anticlimax much???), I'm hoping to incorporate writing into my non-working life every single day in 2017. Use My Vacation Days Okay ... at least use some of my vacation days. Like, half would be good, even. For a generation constantly berated as lazy and entitled, research actually shows that millennials use fewer vacation days and are more likely to feel ashamed when they do use them than any other generation before. Thanks to the accumulation of five years' worth of sparsely used vacation days, I have ... well, let's just say a comfortable number of days available in 2017, and I am determined to use more than 7.5 of them (that's how many days I took off in 2016.) After all, vacation makes better, more productive workers. (From the linked article: "The brain can think positively, productivity improves by 31 percent, sales increase by 37 percent, and creativity and revenues can triple." Wow!) I'll take any suggestions for how to spend the time, thanks! Choose a Theme for 2017 This one I actually stole from: https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-in-business/10-new-years-resolutions-for-every-professional/, but I really liked it to wrap up my goals and I'd love to give it a shot. How do you want your colleagues and bosses to describe you in 2017? That's your theme for the year. Brainstorm steps for how you can encapsulate this theme in everything you do. For an added challenge, don't make it a word that pops up on your annual review every year anyway. I often get "creativity" on mine, so that won't be my 2017 theme. I'm still mulling over it, but a few ideas I have are Action, Consistency and Boldness. Finally, an Anti-Resolution Let's call this more of a "Leave it in 2016 (and 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015...)" Resolution. A thing to stop doing, as it were. I know Mike & the Mechanics said it best when they said "Every generation blames the one before." But everyone. Please. We have got to move past Millennial Discourse. I'm serious. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. It's beyond exhausting at this point, it's beyond mildly amusing: It's become a meme unto itself. (You know how us millennials love memes.) People. Come on. We can do better than this. I saw an article the other day complaining that millennials aren't buying enough fabric softener. That's the point when you have to know you've put the topic in spin cycle one too many times. If we promise to pay more attention to wine corks, will you promise to stop writing think pieces analyzing the every spending habit of arguably the most diverse and uncertain generation in history? It's not earning customers or their loyalty; if it were, these articles wouldn't continue to start with "Why aren't Millennials ____________?" Deal? Great. Let's all be safe, productive, and happy in 2017 — that's the most important goal.

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Let’s Do This, 2017: A Few Marketing Resolutions

Use A/B Testing Way More Often

Danielle Cantor

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Danielle Cantor