With only about three weeks to go in 2011 I hope you are turning at least some of your thoughts to what you will do in the coming days to ensure that 2012 is your best year ever. I know it is tough to close out the year strongly while simultaneously planning for the future, but it vitally important that you do so.
Year-end planning reminds me of the cartoon where the guy is standing in waist deep water swatting at large alligators with a paddle. The caption reads: “When you are up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember the original objective was to drain the swamp.”
So how do you go about keeping the marketing alligators of 2011 at bay while preparing for B2B marketing success in 2012? Here are a few suggestions:
- Know where you want to go. Set specific, aggressive (but reachable) objectives for awareness, inbound inquiries and qualified leads. My recent article titled Just how many sales leads do you need? can help you calculate your 2012 sales lead requirements.
- Know your current Marketing costs and return on investment by campaign. Using the old management adage, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
- Have a plan for shifting some of your marketing efforts and spending from higher-cost push marketing to lower-cost pull marketing methods.
- Resolve to drop three ineffective media/programs and replace them with three new media/programs that have good potential.
- Tie your 2012 marketing initiatives to revenue. Make sure the plan you put together has a clear connection to revenue attainment. Marketers who tie their activities to revenue have much greater job security.
- Have a plan for what you will learn in 2012, hopefully something that will make you more valuable to the organization.
And good luck with those last-minute alligators.
Using the “customer lull” that settles in December is a great time for thinking about strategy recommendations such as these. I find these refreshing and conducive to thinking about this year and next at a high level. Maybe you have found, as I have, that you’ve forgotten some important initiatives that you lost in the rush to execution and being reactive to the client relationship.
Good post. Thanks, Chris, and happy holidays!
You are exactly right Mike. A lot of people, including marketers, get something of a break during the holiday season and this break can be put to good use by planning for a successful 2012.
Chris