An email marketers resolutions for 2012

6 personal resolutions that apply to all online marketers

Just before the New Year, I had the pleasure of participating in a Focus.com webinar with Andrew Kordek of Trendline Interactive and Stefan Eyram of ClickMail, regarding email marketing trends for 2012. Below are five resolutions for the coming year which either came directly from that webinar or were inspired by it. Thanks to Stefan and Andrew for the insight and inspiration for this post!

1 Stop talking like a rocket scientist

We keep telling people social media marketing isn’t rocket science and then we use words like “integration” which sounds exactly like what a rocket scientist would say! It’s not that the words or terms are inherently bad, it’s just that we assume people actually know what they mean.

What we should be focusing on is putting online marketing (regardless of the channel) into context for people. This means using a little more imagination to come up with good analogies and being aware of different frames of reference.  Understand who you are speaking to and put things in terms they can relate to.

2 Tell better stories with real world examples

It doesn’t matter if you are doing a webinar, a live event or blogging, telling stories with real world examples and data gives them context and relevancy. Anyone can talk a good game, but to really have impact, you need some data and examples.

3 Be not an email or social marketer, but a marketer who uses the right channels and devices to reach the right people

Are you an email marketer or as Mark Brownlow puts it, a marketer who uses email? The former may have a narrow view and suffer from short sightedness. The latter, looks and leverages all the possible opportunities that present themselves.

Email was the first social network and remains one of the most effective social channels for marketing. However, the best approach is one which combines all effective avenues of attack.

4 Use data to get to know customers better, be more relevant and engaging and move closer towards the 1-1 conversation

I don’t know if brands can ever achieve a true one-to-one relationship with their customers, but I do think it’s a noble goal which drives us to be better marketers.

We’ve put a lot of work at GetResponse into developing new analytics tools for our customers to test their campaigns and understand better what their subscribers want. That’s because to be relevant and more engaging, you have to know who you are trying to connect with and personalize.

Test every aspect of your email marketing campaigns and use all the data you have available to know your subscribers better.

5 Worry less about what a product does and more about what people do with it

I’ve got a smartphone that came with two dozen apps and on average I only use four or five daily. It may not be the customer’s job to tell you what they want, but it is their decision as to how they use what they have. And what your product can do and what people will do with it are often two different things.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t provide spec sheets. I’m only saying that showing people how others actually gain value from using your product or service can be very powerful. From user reviews to case studies to videos of your product in action, try telling the stories of how your product or service has been employed by customers to add value to their lives.

6 Do something different

You certainly should be following email marketing best practices, but that doesn’t mean you have to be plain vanilla.

Look at others for some inspiration and then try something and see if works.

Thanks to Jim Ducharme for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Jim Ducharme is the Community Manager with GetResponse, one of the worlds leading email service providers with clients of all types and sizes around the world. Jim’s role is to reach out to people and communities and help answer their questions and help them enhance their email marketing ROI. He's a veteran broadcaster and editor, having launched such brands as PC World Canada and The eMail Guide as editor. He also has a background in technical support and has built and managed online community networks with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. His traditional and new media experience gives him unique perspective and insight regarding integrated email and multi-channel marketing. Jim loves to demystify complex ideas and terms, putting them into context for busy marketing professionals. You can follow Jim on Twitter @hugeheadca.