As the year draws to a close, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges you’ve experienced in 2022. It might’ve been a year of gradual improvement or one of stratospheric growth, but with marketing technologies and best practices evolving rapidly, you won’t want to rest on your laurels – though a celebration of success never goes amiss!
So whether you’re racing to close off projects before Christmas or starting to enter a calmer period as the big day approaches, here are a few ideas to consider which will stand you in good stead for 2023. You can think of them as benefitting your platforms, processes and people…
Conduct some (late) spring cleaning
If you have a few spare moments in December, giving your database a health and quality check is a great use of your time. You can start by looking through key campaigns or frequently used master lists – you may find duplicate contacts to merge, entries that are missing certain fields or realise clients are missing from the lists. For long-lasting results, it’s best to set up automated processes for data cleansing and data enrichment which can run throughout 2023, saving on time and even business costs.
Another process which often benefits from a check-up is your lead scoring. Lead scoring systems can lose some of their shine if not assessed and adapted regularly. For example, are the high-value actions you allocated on setup still the behaviours you want to reward the most? Or, are too many leads reaching MQL status but being recycled by sales? This usually works best as a collaborative project in which stakeholders come together to ensure lead scoring is thoroughly optimised for the new year.
Run a platform ‘super-use’ session
A ‘super use’ session is what we term a detailed, forensic analysis of a specific platform. This could be for any of the systems you use regularly, but let’s use a MarTech platform as an example. Gather your main users and stakeholders around the table, and run through each aspect of the platform systematically. Some great areas to review would be: admin structures, process and categories, channels and tags, processes/user guidelines and templates. Vocalise the highlights and challenges of each area, and you’ll begin to identify where improvements can be made. This is also an effective way to share best practice and expertise between individuals or identify where more training is required.
During a super use session, you might also want to talk through activities you would like to further A/B test in 2023, and start laying the foundations for continual improvement through the year.
Put your people first
A good tenet to take into 2023 is, it’s usually better to have the right people with the right skillsets than to simply have the best tech stack on the market. And if you’ve already got a star-studded team in place, make sure you are supporting and nurturing them to maximise potential – both individually and as a business.
That means thinking about training budgets and how they can be used most effectively in 2023. Will you be addressing areas where more skills are required, or furthering expertise where there are individual strengths? Both are viable approaches. You could also consider carving out blocks of time for professional development and practice. Again, these could be individual or team-based sessions, ensuring that skills and knowledge are being spread across the team and everyone can use core platforms effectively. Whatever your strategy – put your people first, and your platforms will flourish.
These are just a few ideas on how you can make the most of the time remaining in 2022 – but there’s a whole host more opportunities out there. And once you have finally signed off on 2022 activity, do take the time to reflect on your successes and enjoy the Christmas break. After all, a bigger and better 2023 is just around the corner!
Find out more on BluprintX Training Courses:
Contact us today to talk about your tech stack, possible tools and strategies you can implement to further your investment.