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Welcome to 2024! A new year is like a new car \u2014 it comes with that amazing smell of promise unsullied by life events. So, let\u2019s look at what we can do to make this new-year smell linger as long as possible for our email marketing efforts.<\/p>\n
Everything in this new year should be about setting goals for the year, creating aspirations and deciding what we need to accomplish \u2014 like how we will reach that seemingly impossible sales number our boss gave us because we smashed our goal in 2023.<\/p>\n
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If you find yourself in the front seat of the struggle bus, do what I do. I think of three words \u2014 that\u2019s it, just three \u2014 that will frame my priorities or personal goals for the coming year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t invent this exercise. It comes from author and speaker Chris Brogan<\/a>, who popularized this technique nearly 20 years ago. I also enjoy this exercise because I can frame three words for a broader audience \u2014 in this case, the email industry.<\/p>\n Before I signed off on 2023, I shared my views on trends and takeaways from 2023 and how we could use what we learned to inform our 2024 planning.<\/p>\n What I\u2019d like you to do after you finish reading this article is to write down your own three words, maybe on your next break or commute. Put some thought into it; this is not just another homework assignment. Class is not in session!<\/p>\n And when you come up with your three words, don\u2019t keep them locked away on your phone or in a document on your desktop. Write them on a sticky note that you post on your computer, your cubicle, your office wall or any place where you can see them daily and remind yourself about your intentions. Let them become your north star for the year.<\/p>\n Here are my three words for the email industry in 2024.<\/p>\n After tracking and working with various forms of artificial intelligence<\/a> over the years, I\u2019ve come to believe it\u2019s time for marketers to take it seriously. It\u2019s not a fad.\u00a0<\/p>\n AI has become a serious mechanism for change. It also created two kinds of people: those who have embraced it strategically and those who keep their heads in the sand, thinking they can limp without it.<\/p>\n Having AI as my first word for 2024 also signifies its importance. In my company, we spent 2023 looking for AI tools we could use to help us in our business. We didn\u2019t give up. We spoke with people who were on the same quest but abandoned the process because it wasn\u2019t working for them at that moment.<\/p>\n That might seem smart in the short run, but you\u2019re just kicking the can down the road. Although AI has taken a firm hold among many people in marketing and allied professions, we must remember that AI-driven tools like generative AI are still in their infancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s fight the urge to kick AI down the road, to wait until the tools and data are robust enough to give us maximum value for our efforts.<\/p>\n When we give up too soon, we don\u2019t learn how to use it properly or distinguish real AI from glamorous imposters. The only way to get the AI mastery you need is to try it, to find a place for it, to fail and try repeatedly.<\/p>\n One possibility: If the free version of a large language model like ChatGPT has worked for you, find the money in your budget to upgrade to a paid service and make room for it in your workflow. We\u2019re doing that in my business and it works well.<\/p>\n We email marketers must explore how the current toolset can help us achieve our goals in the business. No, you haven\u2019t attained AI nirvana if you use ChatGPT just for writing and testing subject lines.<\/p>\n Gaining expertise is hard work. It\u2019s like when I work out with my trainer. If I\u2019m not gasping for breath at the end of a session, I haven\u2019t tried hard enough. If you don\u2019t get frustrated or see visions with AI, try again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dig deeper: 3 ways email marketers should actually use AI<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If it were up to me, 2024 would be the year we changed everything. Nothing should be off-limits. Everything would be on the table, whether it\u2019s our approach to email or our thoughts about our customers, tech stacks, vendors, work processes or testing regimens.\u00a0<\/p>\n We should be open and aggressive about change because \u201cWe\u2019ve always done it that way\u201d is never a successful business strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t mean changing for the sake of change or on a whim. Instead, look at your strategy. Identify what you need to shake up, why you should do it and what you hope to achieve.<\/p>\n This will take some thought. That in itself will require changing how you conduct business. The first step is to shift away from the \u201cjust get it done\u201d mindset that values tactics over strategy<\/a>. We needed this tactical approach in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic blew up. But now it\u2019s time to adopt a mindset for change.<\/p>\n Why the shift? Because if you focus exclusively on getting things done, you aren\u2019t thinking about how you\u2019re making that happen. A change mindset makes you look at how you get things done and search for ways to do them better.<\/p>\n I encourage you to walk into your business with this change mindset. And make no mistake \u2014 if you are an email marketer, you own a business. You own that business because you\u2019re operating a program that produces revenue. It\u2019s your responsibility to own email and know the best ways to run it.<\/p>\n I understand the need to go on pause. We work with marketers and executives who hesitate to change something because change can be scary. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s on the other side, but we know things aren\u2019t working and could be done better.<\/p>\n Being aggressive on change can help you keep that new-year smell around longer!\u00a0<\/p>\n Dig deeper: Why you should always ask why: Strategy must lead tactics in marketing planning<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This year marks my 26th in the email industry and my first as CEO of my email digital agency, RPE Origin. I\u2019ve spent those years listening to people and learning from them. Even after 26 years, I haven\u2019t reached the point where I don\u2019t need to learn.<\/p>\n If you think you\u2019ve reached the \u201cgod of marketing\u201d level in your career, that you\u2019re so important that people need to listen to and learn from you, then you\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n Everybody should be humble enough to say they need to learn. With the email industry evolving faster than ever thanks to technology, privacy, customer expectations and government regulations, nobody can claim to know it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, the email community makes self-learning easy, whether it\u2019s consulting with the people you pay to run your business or learning from your customers. In my company, we teach, discuss, learn and share information. We join industry groups and communities, attend conferences, read and write articles and blog posts and sit in or lead webinars to seek and share expertise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Continue to learn about new platforms, processes and workflows. But begin with the humbleness of spirit to say, \u201cI need to learn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, my agency hired some key people whose jobs included, in part, helping me understand things I did not know and pointing me toward things I needed to learn. Some bosses find it hard to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know this stuff.\u201d That\u2019s just the first step.<\/p>\n Be a sponge in 2024. Soak up everything to better understand what you need to learn, then use that knowledge to identify and drive change.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dig deeper: 8 inexpensive professional development ideas for martech pros<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n January is a hard month for everybody. You just came off an exhausting fourth quarter, had a break and now have to start everything up again. You aren\u2019t just sitting on the struggle bus \u2014 you\u2019re driving it!<\/p>\n It takes discipline to get started. But if you want to succeed, you must invest in the journey one more time.\u00a0<\/p>\n This \u201cthree words\u201d exercise, coupled with strategic and planning goals, can help you pull the cord to get off the struggle bus at the right stop.<\/p>\n Take five minutes or so to come up with your three words for 2024. Let them guide you through the year and inspire you to learn and develop the change mindset that opens up your opportunities for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n3 words for 2024<\/h2>\n
1. AI<\/h2>\n
2. Change<\/h2>\n
3. Learn<\/h2>\n
Embrace AI, drive change and keep learning<\/h2>\n