1. Experiment with nontraditional media
Media isn't about to stop proliferating or fragmenting. In 2008, marketers need to put a plan in place to determine the nature, extent and return on an investment of something nontraditional.
2. Stop hating the sales people
Start treating the sales folks as marketing's clients. Start mining your marketing database and giving information back to them. Show them how the information will help make them more money.
3. Lose your fear of numbers
Decide what you want to measure before you launch a campaign. It's infinitely easier to explain your value to the CEO and CFO with hardcore data, rather then offering nothing but your good name to back up major marketing decisions.
4. Go for better integration in your campaigns
This year try going with fewer, higher quality and more tightly integrated campaigns. This will help you focus on getting value from all the other services in your marketing toolkit.
5. Stop promoting your brands to death and start building them
Spend money on real marketing communications - rather than just promotions - to tell folks what your brand stands for. Give them good reasons to buy your products or services that have nothing to do with a special offer or freebie.
6. Don't specialize in only Partial Customer Satisfaction (PCS)
The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that the average cross-industry customer satisfaction score has fallen below 75% -- basically a C grade. It goes without saying there is tremendous room for improvement here.
7. Walk a mile in your customers' shoes
Get to know what makes your customers tick and what problems they have, and let insights about them drive your decisions.
8. Account-based marketing is always a sure thing
If you can't get to anything else in 2008, make the time to hug your best customers. The fastest way to increase revenue is through customers who already know and love your brand.
9. Stop ignoring social media
It's not going away soon, and there are some tangible, measurable results to be gained by using new marketing channels such as blogs, podcasts, RSS and video.
10. Monitor your online reputation
Today companies must closely watch their online reputation. Think about how you can put a system in place to monitor and react in case of a reputation crisis in the blogosphere.
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