“New Year, new you.” So cliché, right? This time of year, everyone seems to be making resolutions to lose weight, sleep more or save more money; the majority of which will be out the window come the end of January. Seems like an ‘exercise’ in futility (pun intended). 

But there is merit to using the new year to reflect on what’s working and what’s not, look for opportunities for improvement and set realistic goals for achieving success.  

At Approach, we’re all about continuous improvement and setting aggressive but attainable goals—for ourselves, our agency and our partners. So, we asked ourselves, what are the top resolutions for PR and marketing that will help us (and our clients) work smarter and have a greater impact in 2019? 

1. Align your marketing goals with business goals. 
   It can be easy to dream about a feature on the front page of your local business newspaper, huge growth in your social following or partnerships with killer influencers. But achieving those may or may not impact your larger business goals. Depending on what you are trying to achieve (increased brand awareness, generation of leads in a target market, staff member recruitment), your marketing goals, and the supporting strategies and tactics, should strongly and directly support your company’s “North Star.”   

2. Build a solid foundation. 
   We see it all the time – clients want to try the shiny new PR tactic du jour—executing a stunt, working with the “it” celebrity, creating the next viral sensation. While we are total advocates of thinking outside of the box, many times, slowing down and taking time to focus on a few solid, measurable strategies gives you the opportunity to test and ensure the strategies are working, fine-tune and analyze results before moving on to those “wow factor” tactics. 

3. Establish solid internal processes. 
   This goes for both internal marketing teams and agency partnerships. As the saying goes, “time is money,” and nobody likes wasting time (yours or your agency’s) especially due to easily avoidable miscommunication or misunderstanding. Working with an agency can become a seamless partnership when both parties take the time to create processes for communications, approvals, work flow and measurement of goals.  

4. Get more miles out of your hard work.
   How many times do brands wrap up a successful media outreach effort, influencer partnerships or social media campaign only to put the coverage on the proverbial “shelf?” This year, we encourage you to think about the many ways you can leverage your efforts. Merchandise the heck out of that media and influencer coverage on your website and social media channels. Write a blog post about your social media campaign and achieved engagement with audiences. Send that awesome piece of content to your sales or biz dev team to send to prospects. Whatever you do, be creative about how to get the most out of what you worked so hard to achieve.

5. Keep lines of communication open. 
   I have never met a PR or marketing pro who wishes they had been given less information from their client. Understanding your larger business model, industry implications and things that are challenging your sales or conversions only helps us do our job better. The same goes for how our work is impacting your business or how it is viewed internally. At Approach, we schedule quarterly discussions with our clients to take a step back and talk high-level strategy, big picture thinking and receive candid feedback.   

Of course, if one of your resolutions for 2019 is finding the right agency partner to help you achieve your PR and marketing goals, approach us at hello@approachmarketing.com. We’d love to help you make the right marketing resolutions—and see you achieve them!—in the new year.