This can be a hectic time of year where marketers are asked to evaluate and justify in-progress programs, with the high performers being carried into the coming year(s) and the underperformers being sent to the chopping block.

In today's media-centric world, we tend to see a high number of plans and measures built around specific channels. That's certainly understandable.

If you're taking a customer-centric approach, though, you're taking a step back from this popular channel focus where budgets are set for interactive, social, email, and advertising. Instead, you're planning for interactions with your customers across all of these channels.

As marketers, we are often tasked with creating plans for specific platforms, shifting our attention away from how our customers are utilizing them. If you're only looking at direct mail, search, social, or in-store experiences, you're missing out on the full scope of what customers are doing. For example, they might use one channel for awareness, one for consideration, and another for purchase.

Don't get me wrong; channel integration is an important part of the marketing mix, but only when developed around customers, their actions, and their preferences. After all, it's not channels that drive revenue; rather it's the customers who use those channels.

As you develop next year's plan, ask yourself: how will you maximize your ROI - by focusing on getting more out of each channel, or by focusing on getting more out of each customer?

Today's post comes from Bridgz engagement strategist Andrea Krohnberg.