The end of the year brings heartfelt good tidings and well wishes from all around. Amongst the kisses and confetti, promises of resolutions and “New Year, new you” chants fill the air.

The “New Year” means hitting the giant refresh button on previous missed opportunities and past mistakes and turning over a new leaf.

Whether it was underestimating the budget, having a lack of process, or missing the mark on campaigns...marketers could definitely do better in this next year. It’s time to set some solid resolutions and work towards achieving them in 2019.

So what do New Year’s resolutions look like for marketers?

Setup recently held a #MarketersBreakfast with distinguished client-side and agency-side marketers with a discussion centered around New Year’s resolutions. Many marketers wanted to become more data-driven and customer-centric, focus on delivery, have a bigger impact, and create something epic.

New Year's resolutions typically include exercising, cleaning, eating healthy, being more active, and focusing on self. The following tips put a marketing spin on the usual New Year’s resolutions to help marketers make the epic, game-changing moves for their brand in 2019.

Exercising

People exercise to stay healthy or in shape - the same can be applied to brands. Freshen up strategies by staying in tune with competitors and keeping an eye on new industry trends and consumer behavior. The world is changing and your brand may need to change with it. Redefine consumer personas or objectives accordingly and don’t be afraid to change.  Brands must push boundaries - flex the budget and take reasonable risks. Nothing “epic” or “big” ever came from playing it safe.

Related:

• Understanding the “WHO” in Marketing Personas

• Overcoming the Fear of Planning a Marketing Budget

• The Objective behind Marketing Objectives

Cleaning

A new year brings new beginnings. Out with the old and in with the new. While many consider cleaning to be purging their closets of 2008 North Faces and crusty sneakers or cutting out the poisonous people from friend circles, marketers can do themselves a favor and clean out anything that is limiting their company from being the best version of itself. This could mean reorganizing internal/external processes, cleaning up the marketing qualified lead (MQL) pipeline, and/or tweaking outreach efforts.

Cleaning could also translate to prioritizing the budget differently based on last year’s reports or taking a closer look at the marketing team. A company is only as effective as its people, so brands must make sure everyone is the right fit and being utilized to their full potential.

Lastly, cleaning up the marketing department could also mean rethinking agency partnerships. Just like that 2008 North Face, agency relationships eventually go out of style. Evaluating the return on investment (ROI) for each agency partner is a major line-item on any marketer’s “New Year’s cleaning list.” The new year is a time to take action.

These resources should help:

• The Complete Guide to Finding a Marketing Agency  

• Perfect Interview Questions to Fill Empty Marketing Roles

• A How-to Guide to Writing the Perfect Marketing Brief

Eating Healthy

What are brands “feeding” their consumers? Is it valuable content? Everything brands put out should have a purpose that ultimately serves the consumer and the brand. Keeping the consumer in mind during every step of the content creation process increases engagement and ultimately makes campaigns more effective.

That doesn’t mean a brand should strive to enter every trending conversation just to include itself. That’s hashtag hijacking - and it might as well be the “unhealthiest food” to give to a brand’s audience.  Avoid posting or commenting on a topic that may be far-fetched or unrelated to the brand in order to get traction. Brands should stay in their lane, be authentic, and know the personalities and preferences of their target personas.  

Related:

• How Brands Act as Media Companies

• Injecting Humanity into a Brand

• Hashtag Hijacking: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Being More Active

It’s important for marketers to be proactive instead of reactive. This means planning before implementing any new marketing initiatives by leveraging insights gained from the last marketing initiative. It means finding the right metrics to leverage that will optimally predict future outcomes.

Related:

• Everything you Need to know about RFPs

• Why Brands Pounce on Real-time Marketing

• How Marketers Use Data to Personalize Ads

Focusing on Self

Every brand should periodically take a hard look at itself in the mirror and ask:

1. Are actions taken aligned with company values?

2. Is the company culture special?

3. Are employees consistently growing with and alongside the company?

Self-reflection and realizing what marketing leadership could be doing better is always a worthwhile exercise. Annual and quarterly performance reviews help align company expectations and open the door for honest feedback.

Related:

• 5 Tips to Prepare Marketers for an Annual Performance Review
  

Let’s raise a toast to the new year - a year for setting goals and actually achieving those marketing resolutions! 2019 is the time for brands to create something bigger, better, and more EPIC.