I have a friend who will insist on using the term New Year revolutions. When corrected, by someone knowing him for less than twelve months probably, he justifies the terminology by saying that the same old things come around every year. I’ve no wish to encourage him, but he is spot on, especially so for email marketing.
So why not try something different, something new? You never know, your resolve might last more than a few days. My suggestion is doing away with targets.
The logic behind this is that these are similar to resolutions: they often lose their impact because of repetition. If each time you try to increase a measured point by 2.5% then enthusiasm wanes. A new method of achieving the same results can prove invigorating.
Continuous improvement is an essential in email marketing as if you don’t move forward, there are plenty of others who will be doing so. Targeting, though, is not the only method.
You will have a massive resource within the data of your email marketing software but if it is not used, it will be of no value. There is a sort of imperative.
You can enliven the regular target setting meetings by stating that you are going to try something different. Instead of working out if a target conforms to the SMART model, you will ask for suggestions on how to, for instance, change the landing page.
Those taking part will no longer be trying to balance the need to appear adventurous and progressive with the desire not to go for a target that will give them too much work to do. Instead all you want from them is ideas: something a bit different, a method that your competitors are not using, one that would not have thought of if they had concentrated on targets.
Emphasise that there can be no failures. An idea that is new is a result for you. It can be tested in a manner that costs nothing, and if there is a decline in results then you know what to avoid in the future. On the other hand, a minor increase in the data, or hopefully a major one, will give incentive for the next meeting.
Try a revolution.
