4 Key Marketing Objectives for 2018

We're done with the first week of January, so it's perhaps a little bit late to be solidifying your objectives for the year. Ideally, you'd have planned these in the last quarter of 2017, but given that we're all marketers (and master procrastinators) - I'm sure there are a few of us out there still scrambling to get our 2018 priorities in order.

Everyone's marketing objectives are going to differ. Some companies will be in an incredibly advanced position where they'll be doing further optimisation across channels and experimenting with new technologies, and some companies will be starting out with CRM after getting a good start with paid social last year.

I've tried to keep this list as useful as possible for companies in all stages of marketing maturity, but by no means is this the ultimate list for marketing objectives.

1. Create a Custom Measurement Framework

This is a fundamental exercise that most marketers often skip, or establish and then don't update or follow. A measurement framework is usually a custom built Google Sheet or an Excel (if you can't afford a dashboard solution) that tracks your marketing activity across channels, and time periods.

Below is an example of a measurement framework that I talked about at Hootsuite's Social Breakfast session in December of last year.

A measurement framework, custom built according to your business or client's needs - should ideally track the key performance indicators that have been identified for the marketing team, as well as the activities being done to hit those objectives.

It's critical in ensuring that we know what works, what doesn't, what not to try again and what to keep continuing to optimise.

2. Stop Thinking about Single Channel Performance

In a huge number of conversations I've had in 2017, I often heard this statement - "Twitter doesn't really work for us."

Replace Twitter with another social network, or with an advertising medium - and you get the picture. And when I asked what that specifically meant - the response was often along the lines of, "Twitter hasn't been driving a lot of conversions for us."

I get that we're all trying to get every marketing channel out there to convert, but this is a problem that arises when you think of each marketing channel as its own universe. You need to start influencing your audience across channels, delivering experiences unique to that channel to your audience, and let them convert on the conversion channels.

YouTube will never be a high conversion channel for most brands, does that mean you stop uploading all the videos you create onto YouTube, and stick to keeping them on Facebook? Of course not.

It's key to look at the entire consumer journey, see what channels are a part of it, what role they're possibly playing - and then play to their strengths.

3. Invest in Quarterly External Training Programmes

The marketing world is changing faster than ever before. One of the critical areas of concern in an ever-changing environment, is that of talent and skills. Marketing teams this year, more than ever, need to start investing in training programmes.

With new marketing technologies being introduced day after day, and slightly older ones reaching the stage of maturity where even conservative brands are open to investing and experimenting with them, it's critical to not purely rely on vendors and agencies to have all the information and knowledge.

Instead of seeking continuous education from vendors and partners, marketing teams should be aiming for smart conversations with their partners, coming equipped to the table with the right knowledge and expertise of what's making marketing move today.

Online courses might not be the best idea, long established courses might not have the best information - so it's critical to seek out experts in your geography and industry that can hopefully put together custom learning modules for marketing teams.

It's an investment, but a worthwhile one.

4. Make Campaigns and Marketing Communications Less Layered and Complex

One of the biggest gripes consumers have with marketing is that a lot of the offers and deals come with far too many terms and conditions. They're shown a promotion that says 80% off, but it's only 80% off if you've spent $500 - which happens each month for 15 out of 180,000 customers.

The campaigns you run this year, the offers that you give customers - should be constructed to be as simple and straightforward as possible. Don't let your customers feel duped by your deals, misled by your communication - for in a time of information overload, everyone's looking for simple, straightforward and transparent marketing.

If you're unable to provide it, a competitor will. And with people switching brands faster than ever before, the barriers to switching being removed and being a lot less troublesome than before - that switch to a competitor is a lot easier and a lot closer than you think it possibly is.

These aren't end all and be all objectives, and these aren't all you're going to need to get your marketing in order this year. These are principles for the year that span across a host of functions that marketing teams should be concerned with this year - and I hope you find at least one of them useful and actionable.

What are your key objectives for the year?