At the turn of a year we often turn one eye inward and another outward. We focus upon what worked in the last 12 months and wonder what will achieve the same or better results in the period ahead. Often this means looking for “experts”, for “insight” and for “action”. But all too often, this is done at the expense of our own analysis.
So before you read much further, I would encourage you to write a five bullet list – what worked and what didn’t – for you in 2008.
Below this, write a list of your strategic objectives for 2008 and then draw lines linking the objectives with your campaigns. Be honest. Did they align? Did your marketing executions deliver on your strategic objectives?
Valeria Maltoni has pulled together an eBook called Marketing in 2009, and it brings together 12 different viewpoints on marketing direction for the coming year. Francois Gossieaux looks at social media in the enterprise, suggesting that social media will deliver business transformation (something I am very interested in); while Connie Reece and Mike Wagner also look at the opportunities for business-focused innovation.
Christina Kerley shows that a large part of the “new” requires “change” – that the “old” marketing disciplines can be applied to new technologies and approaches; while Beth Harte recommends doing the groundwork before embarking on a social media initiative.
Olivier Blanchard, and Matt Dickman walk us through measurement and accountability; and Amber Naslund asks us focus on the hard work of executing strategy.
There is plenty of food for thought across all 12 articles that all serve as good reminders for your marketing activities in the months ahead.
Thanks for sharing this Gavin, I’m thankful to Valeria for orchestrating it and it serves as a great “focusing” exercise for the months ahead… here’s to 2009 😉
Thank you for spreading the word, Gavin. I enjoyed working on the project and all the various reports of it, too. I have other surprises up my sleeve this year, so stay tuned.
Here’s to all of you, focus and execution.