Welcome to 2024! A new year is like a new car: it gives off this incredible smell of promise untarnished by life’s events. So let’s see what we can do to make that smell of the New Year linger as long as possible in our email marketing efforts.
Everything about this new year should be about setting goals for the year, creating aspirations, and deciding what we need to accomplish – like how we’ll hit that seemingly impossible sales figure our boss gave us because we have exceeded our objective in 2023.
If you find yourself in the front seat of the struggle bus, do what I do. I think of three words – that’s it, just three – that will define my priorities or personal goals for the coming year.
I did not invent this exercise. It comes from the author and speaker Chris Brogan, who popularized this technique almost 20 years ago. I also enjoy this exercise because I can formulate three words for a broader audience – in this case, the email industry.
3 words for 2024
Before signing off for 2023, I shared my views on 2023 trends and takeaways and how we might use what we’ve learned to inform our planning for 2024.
What I would like you to do after you finish reading this article is to write down your own three words, perhaps on your next break or commute. Think about it; It’s not just another homework assignment. Classes are not in progress!
And when you find your three words, don’t keep them locked away on your phone or in a document on your desk. Write them on a post-it note that you post on your computer, desk, office wall, or anywhere else you can see them daily and remind yourself of your intentions. Let them become your North Star for the year.
Here are my three words for the email industry in 2024.
1. AI
After following and working with various forms of artificial intelligence Over the years, I’ve come to believe that it’s time for marketers to take this seriously. It’s not a fashion.
AI has become a real mechanism for change. It has also created two types of people: those who have adopted it strategically and those who keep their heads in the sand, thinking they can limp along without it.
Having AI as the first word for 2024 also signifies its importance. At my company, we spent 2023 researching AI tools that we could use to help our business. We didn’t give up. We talked with people who were on the same quest but abandoned the process because it wasn’t working for them at that time.
This may seem like a good idea in the short term, but you’re just throwing the pot away later. Even though AI has firmly established itself among many people in marketing and related professions, we must remember that AI-based tools like generative AI are still in their infancy.
Let’s fight the urge to abandon AI, and wait until the tools and data are robust enough to give us maximum value for our efforts.
When we give up too soon, we don’t learn how to use it properly or distinguish real AI from glamorous impostors. The only way to gain the mastery of AI you need is to try it, find a place for it, fail, and try repeatedly.
One possibility: If the free version of a great language model like ChatGPT worked for you, find the money in your budget to upgrade to a paid service and make room for it in your workflow. We do this at my company and it works well.
We email marketers need to explore how the current set of tools can help us achieve our goals in the business. No, you haven’t reached AI nirvana if you only use ChatGPT for writing and testing subject lines.
Gaining expertise is hard work. It’s like when I train with my trainer. If I’m not out of breath at the end of a session, it’s because I didn’t try hard enough. If you’re not frustrated or seeing visions with the AI, try again.
Dig Deeper: 3 Ways Email Marketers Should Actually Use AI
2. Change
If it were up to me, 2024 would be the year we change everything. Nothing should be forbidden. Everything would be on the table, whether it’s our approach to email or our thoughts about our customers, our technology stacks, our suppliers, our workflows or our testing programs.
We need to be open and aggressive about change because “We’ve always done it this way” is never a successful business strategy.
But that doesn’t mean changing for the sake of it 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.
This will require reflection. This in itself will require changing the way you do business. The first step is to abandon the “just do it” mentality that values tactics rather than strategy. We needed this tactical approach in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded. But now is the time to adopt a mindset for change.
Why this change? Because if you focus exclusively on getting things done, you don’t think about how you get there. A change mindset causes you to examine the way you do things and look for ways to do them better.
I encourage you to go into your business with this mindset of change. And make no mistake: if you’re an email marketer, you own a business. You own this business because you operate a program that generates revenue. It’s your responsibility to own your email and know the best ways to manage it.
I understand the need to take a break. We work with marketers and leaders who are hesitant to change something because change can be scary. We don’t know what’s happening on the other side, but we know things aren’t working and could be improved.
Being aggressive about change can help you keep that New Year smell for longer!
Dig Deeper: Why You Should Always Ask Why: Strategy Should Lead Tactics in Marketing Planning
3. Learn
This year marks my 26th in the email industry and my first as CEO of my digital email agency, RPE Origin. I spent these years listening to people and learning from them. Even after 26 years, I haven’t reached the point where I no longer need to learn.
If you think you’ve reached the level of “marketing god” in your career, that you’re so important that people need to listen to you and learn from you, then you’re wrong.
Everyone should be humble enough to say they need to learn. As the email industry evolves faster than ever thanks to technology, privacy, customer expectations and government regulations, no one can claim to know everything.
Plus, the email community makes it easy to self-learn, whether that’s 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 participate in or host webinars to research and share our expertise.
Continue to learn about new platforms, processes and workflows. But start with the humility of spirit to say, “I need to learn.”
In 2023, my agency hired key people whose job was, in part, to help me understand things I didn’t know and point me toward things I needed to learn. Some bosses have a hard time saying, “I don’t know this stuff.” This is just the first step.
Be a sponge in 2024. Soak it all up to better understand what you need to learn, then use that knowledge to identify and drive change.
Dig Deeper: 8 Inexpensive Professional Development Ideas for Martech Professionals
Embrace AI, Drive Change, and Keep Learning
January is a difficult month for everyone. You just came out of a grueling fourth quarter, you took a break, and now you have to start all over again. You don’t just sit on the struggle bus, you drive it!
It takes discipline to start. But if you want to succeed, you need to invest in the journey once again.
This “three word” exercise, coupled with strategic goals and planning, can help you pull the cord to get off the struggle bus at the right stop.
Take about five minutes to find your three words for 2024. Let them guide you through the year and inspire you to learn and develop the mindset of change that unlocks your opportunities for success.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily of MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
