4 Marketing Resolutions for 2016

The New Year gives us a clean slate and an opportunity to make resolutions to improve our lives. Typical goals and resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, improving finances, getting a new job or procrastinating less. Which, I’m sure we’ll all fully accomplish this year.

Yeah, right.

According to recent research published in the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, while nearly 45 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent actually keep them. A third of us ditch our vows by the end of January, because we’re too busy or not committed to our goals in the first place. Less than half of us stick to it for six months.

But the same research study found that people who write down their specific resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t make specific resolutions. With that in mind, here are my marketing resolutions for 2016:

1. Contribute to the growth and success of a local nonprofit organization. Nearly all community organizations welcome volunteers to help promote services and raise awareness. Soon I’ll be fully settled in my new community, and I plan to volunteer some of my time to help a worthy organization.

2. Help multiple organizations increase their brand awareness and engagement. Throughout my career I’ve helped large and small organizations create, build and enhance their brands, as either their consultant or chief marketing officer. Working at a large full-service marketing communications agency, I’m proud to be part of a team of experts that can—and will—help businesses and organizations in all industries differentiate themselves, market their products and services with breakthrough strategies and creative, and generate unprecedented and measurable growth in leads, volume, sales and customer satisfaction in 2016.

3. Encourage and enhance internal marketing and communication. As a marcom professional, I know how important internal marketing and communication is in achieving marketplace success. Organizations need a cohesive, enthusiastic and inspired workforce on the inside before they can market their products or services on the outside. This year I’ll work with our account services and creative teams to help our clients create brand ambassadors among their employees through timely and powerful communications, incentives and training.

4. Foster marketing thought leadership. We all find personal satisfaction in sharing knowledge and expertise so that others can learn from our experiences. I enjoy publishing journal articles or writing blogs like this, as well as public speaking engagements. It’s a mental rush to take a real-world situation or timely topic, understand the challenges and opportunities that it presents, and offer thought-provoking solutions and ideas. In 2016 I plan to continue to write and talk, doing my best to help marketers think progressively.

Following the tenets of a smart marketer, I’ll be checking this list of marketing resolutions from time to time to see how I’m doing. Next year at this time I’ll report on how successful I’ve been.

Now, how can you make a positive impact in 2016?