As we close in on the end of 2016, it is a good time to evaluate your goals from 2016.

What goals did you achieve and what goals did you miss and why for each? It is not a hard practice but one that many professionals don’t do. For the ones you missed, was it technical, resources or timing – this helps with your planning for future goals but also understanding the why.

Look at each one of the programs you are responsible for and get a better understanding of each – this will help you with your goal making for 2017.

eMail programs – what has worked, what hasn’t work and why for each? This gives me an idea of any potential roadblocks that were had for the year and how we were able to overcome those roadblocks, or a reason why we were not able to. Helps with planning and expectations around programs but more importantly, gives you more insight into reason why your programs were successful or not. Of course, you should already have KPIs identified when the programs began but if you don’t, you should implement for every program in 2017.

SMS programs – SMS is still one of the most under-used eCRM programs and of the programs many brands have, they are programs are mainly offer and transactional based. Look back on 2016 and did the programs meet your goals and KPIs? If not, why not? For 2017, look at ways of using SMS as more of a utility that compliments the offer/transactional side. Give your customers utility options on using SMS – think password reset, order confirmation, order shipped and so on.

Mobile – Throughout most of 2016, most brands should have seen more and more of their customers interacting with their brand with mobile devices. As you head into 2017, is your mobile website set-up to handle the mobile users? What devices are your customers using? Look at your analytics for all of 2016 and get an understanding of how they are engaging with your channels, how long they are staying on your site and on which pages are you getting the most bounces. Take those learning into 2017 and make the necessary improvements – improvements for a better customer experience.

Push Notifications – As on of the new comers to the eCRM game, there is still much to learn about Push Notifications and how customers are reacting to it. Like with other programs, it is important to understand the analytics and to understand why programs were successful and why they were not. For many brands, Push will see many changes in 2017 and should begin to be more of a utility and much more personalized than the blanket message many brands are sending today.

Website – this seems like such as easy task to do, but this is one that many brands don’t do – and that is a post-year site review. Your learning from your post-year reviews are opportunities for improvement in 2017.

Here are a few questions you should be asking yourself – What were your top pages and why? What are your bounce rates on each page? Where are your customers coming from? What devices were your customers using? What did you do correctly with your site? Did you do A/B testing? New vs returning customers? And…sales and transactions from your site? And.so.much.more…

All the analytical data that you are gathering holds a mountain of knowledge about your customers and how they interact with your brand.

Take the time to truly understand what is working and what is not – use 2017 make the easy adjustments and set your goals accordingly.

About Bernie
With more than 23 years of experience in marketing, Bernie is the Director of Digital Marketing at Papa John’s International, based in Louisville, KY. His current focus is building and scaling a progressive digital marketing foundation that balances the needs of both consumers and national/local stakeholders — all while delivering measurable ROI to the business.

Additionally, Bernie oversees brand representation for Papa John’s digital properties and manages direct-to-consumer channels including email, SMS and push messaging. Recent initiatives have centered around bringing together larger promotional efforts with targeted campaigns to engage the consumer at the precise moment of interest.

Follow Bernie on Twitter @B2the7 or @B7_Design & the B2The7 blog @ http://b2the7.com/b2the7

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