What should Marketers be thinking about as they build their 2015 Plans?

Did you know that January is named after the Roman God Janus - the God of “beginnings and transitions”? What an appropriate name for us marketers as we spend much of January reviewing last year’s performance and planning for the year ahead. Like mine, I am sure your inbox and social feed are full of predictions and advice on what’s important to consider for the year ahead. Here are my key take-aways and what will be front of mind for me this year.

• The Consumer is Changing: Among 10 Huffington Post consumer trends, the most interesting was “You should know me by now” - the consumer understands we have a lot of data about them and expects us to act on it

• Personalisation: It’s crucial and is the first of 5 key marketing trends in Asia identified at the Business 2 Community Blog 

• Content: It’s even more important than ever before and its role in the customer journey is essential, as this Guardian article explains

I know I will be discussing with my team how these trends shape our plans and ‘agreeing aligned strategic priorities’. I encourge you to also consider the findings from the State of Marketing report for 2015 which surveyed more than 5,000 marketers globally. This report, which Derek Laney looked at in more detail in his post, 'It's Out! The State of Marketing 2015', examines industry priorities for the year ahead and year over year trends. Four clear strategic priorities emerged that you should consider when building your Marketing plan:

1. Map the Customer Journey: You have to understand the individual customer experience and place that at the centre of your strategy. In fact 86 percent of those surveyed in the report say it is critical to create a cohesive customer journey across all touchpoints and channels. 

2. Mobile Matters: The report found that 65 percent plan to spend more on mobile push notifications direct to the consumer, a 32 percent increase over 2014. 2015 is the year that marketing becomes “mobile-first”. 

3. Social at the Centre: One staggering statistic in the report was that “64 percent of marketers now view social as a critical enabler of products and services, up from 25 percent in 2014.” Social Media is very powerful because it conflates all of these trends: data-driven engagement of customers through personalised content delivered on mobile platforms.

4. Email Remains: Despite what some people may think, email is still very much essential to  the “digital marketing engine” and 92 percent agreed that it continues to deliver ROI.

So that’s what’s shaping my thinking for 2015. What’s on your mind?

Whatever you focus on I hope it delivers huge value for your organisation and I wish you every success in the year ahead.