The Marketing Dissector has been thinking about New Year’s resolutions for 2010. Once a year, it helps to remind ourselves of the important things, like long-term goals and principles to live and work by. Some ideas that make us better marketers do not involve tips, tricks, or tactics. In this time of rapid change and experimentation, any idea or practice that helps us be better learners—and teachers—is a winner. With that in mind, here are my New Year’s resolutions. I promise to:
- Listen more, and learn what I can.
- Try to figure out how to apply what I learn, and share that knowledge.
- Be generous with my time, knowledge, advice and support of others, without regard to “what’s in it for me.”
- Not tweet about minor inconveniences only affecting me (or my flight status, menu options or location–except in emergencies).
- Always apply the “so what?” test to everything I read, say, think, believe and especially, advocate. (WARNING: This requires that skepticism and analysis be applied to all ideas, including those of people you know, respect and admire.)
- Not use social media to be a parrot.
- Occasionally take the opposite side, just to play devil’s advocate and tweak the know-it-alls.
- Approach whatever I have to sell from the point of view of making it easier for the buyers to find and buy.
- Embrace the ambiguity of everything that is happening around me even while I seek out insight and new ways to understand and learn from it.
- Never take offense when someone disagrees with me. Disagreements are normal, helpful and necessary. I will only be offended if someone intentionally acts offensively to me.
- Never miss the opportunity to help connect the dots for someone who has not yet connected some dots that I already have.
- Resist the temptation to navel gaze.
- Try to walk the fine line between popular and proven, while remaining open to new ideas that are neither.
- Honor my fanbase if I have one, and if not, my potential fanbase.
- Try to be funny sometimes, and share a laugh, and try even harder not to be embarrassed if it flops.
- Try to tell the fads from the trends.
- Not resort to phony techniques to boost my social media box scores or metrics.
- Rely on science and math when conducting marketing experiments, to make them as rigorous as possible.
- Not abuse email subject lines with cheap tricks.
- Not exude inappropriate cheerfulness, nor suppress my inner Oscar the Grouch.
- Work to make 2010 the year that sales and marketing actually got aligned and the long war ended.
- Heed the words of the great author and humanist Kurt Vonnegut, and remember to “pity the poor reader” whenever I write anything.
- Try to underpromise and overdeliver in all things.
- Try to discover new ways that online communities can help us sell and help customers buy.
- Never use the “change or die” metaphor, but try not to hurl whenever someone else does.
- Not belabor the obvious.
- Be extra patient with anyone speaking, texting, emailing, chatting or tweeting with me in their second language. I will meet them more than halfway to ensure we understand each other.
- Not be jealous of anyone with more or different experiences than me, but instead seek out their opinions and appreciate them.
- Quickly embrace “new rules” when they’re useful, but just as quickly discard them if they’re not.
- Take everything with a grain of salt, and never be too lazy to scrutinize ideas regardless of origin.
- Try to only do marketing that matters, and measure it only with measurement that matters.
Whew, that’s a long list. I guess I’m going to be busy. What are your resolutions for 2010?
About The BtoBblogger: Steven H. Parker is founder and CEO of Parker Communications, a PR and marketing agency specializing in start-ups and fast growth technology companies. He has worked exclusively with tech companies in PR and marketing for the past 25 years. His prior agency, The Launch Company, for 10 years was one of the top 25 independently-owned agencies in the U.S. He’s also a former VP at Hill & Knowlton, and a former print journalist. During his award-winning career, Parker has provided strategy and consulting to everyone from two-person start-ups to major industry leaders including Lotus, IBM, Digital, Xerox and BBN. Thirty of his 160 clients have been acquired at a total combined value of more than $5 billion. He blogs at www.marketingdissector.com.
