Focus: Five Resolutions for Digital Marketers

In 2011, I came up with 17 resolutions, and while these resolutions were very popular, they were far too many to achieve in one calendar year. So in 2012, I came up with five resolutions. The five trends included a sharp focus on transactional messaging, a cross-channel preference center, and a keen focus on deliverability. 

1. A clean and engaged list of followers. Email, mobile, or social – the list needs to be correct (no bounces or blanks), the list needs to be “awake” (dead weight looks really bad), and the list needs to be interactive. This will help with deliverability for email and mobile. It will also help you find more friends on social media.
2. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. You can cause your file significant harm by seeking new customers at the expense of existing customers. Think about re-engaging your existing customers to drive interaction. Bring them back, and do this across channels. Digital channels make it very easy for existing customers to see that prospects get treated better. If you focus on the existing group, you can turn them into brand ambassadors.
3. Do not offer everyone the same thing. Segment your list to come up with a better way to personalize. Move your segments to micro-segments – ultimately leading to a back-and-forth interactive dialogue with your consumers. Carry this conversation across multiple channels and do this with relevance so the consumer understands that you are listening across all your channels.
4. Build up your preferences. Start by asking questions during the sign-up process and then track what they are doing. You have to know what your consumers are doing to both validate preferences and to also make sure that you learn more information about them. The goal of your preference center is to have concierge-type services that allow you to serve your consumers better. Consumers do not mind sharing their digital preferences as long as you use the information to serve them better.
5. Create mobile-friendly content. Fight the urge to include everything in your campaigns. Focus in on less for mobile devices. Design for “fat fingering” and do not forget to create mobile zones (optimized landing pages for your mobile offers). Mobile is going to be a key driver for 2013, as brands and consumers will use mobile for payments, authentication, and real-time interactions.