Not Another ‘Goal Setting in 2016’ Blog…

2016 is just around the corner (literally in 2 days) and it’s inevitable to talk about goals, aspirations and New Year plans. It’s unavoidable really. The best way to prepare is to take a look at what happened in 2015.

What did you learn? What would you change? What would you do all over again?

This is a great opportunity to learn from previous actions and events so you can grow as a person and a professional.

This year, I asked my colleagues and friends of Heinz Marketing what they want to learn more about in 2016.

Here’s what they said:

Matt: The key to making the current frothiness around Account-Based Marketing work will be integrating that with existing Named Account and Enterprise Sales efforts. We’ve done a lot of work with enterprise sales teams, but there’s still a ton to learn. I also want to raise my game in terms of managing priorities, time and execution around my most important objectives. 2016 is shaping up to be really busy for us (for better or worse) more business travel than ever before. Last, but not least, woodworking. Now that the farmhouse remodel is finished, I have a ton of projects in and around the house I want to get rolling. Most require a more refined set of carpentry and woodworking skills that’ll take a combination of education and practice. I’m stoked.

Maria: I’d like to learn more from female business leaders – especially in the sales and marketing space. What are they doing to keep learning, growing and succeeding in this fast-moving, competitive business climate?

Brian: In 2016, I am focused on learning how organizations approach the dynamics of a rapidly changing marketing technology landscape, especially with enabling employees to build the skills needed to succeed. Additionally, I want to continue learning how to best manage a marketing technology portfolio as the space matures and the hype settles down.

Nicole: More advanced project management methodology and tools, and how it all can be translated to making marketing teams and initiatives more successful. Would love to continue learning how other people are using all kinds of tools and processes to optimize and streamline their platforms and tactics.

Stephanie: I am curious about how customer targeting might evolve in this upcoming year. How will companies better target their emails so they find the right customers? How will customers change their ways of finding the companies that fix their problems?

Josh: I’d love to learn more about what makes the customer tick. Why does one click on one link vs. another? Why does one image perform better than a similar image? What will be the new customer patterns that emerge in 2016 and what can marketing do to make the most of those patterns?

Sheena: This year, I want to learn more about how to utilize and take advantage of more features of my existing tools–specifically: Smartsheet and Office 365. I feel like I have this great tool belt with lots of great tools that would make me more effective and efficient, and I’m just using the hammer…

Rebecca:  What will Google’s algorithm do next? We are heavy on content marketing and in the past, there’s been a huge focus on keywords and internal links. Seems like that is becoming less important with Google’s algorithm, so what’s the next big thing in 2016 to get your content in front of more quality people.

Sharon Ernst, Content Consultant at WeKnowWords: I am curious about what will happen to the role of copy in SEO as we move forward with websites optimized for mobile, with hardly any room for text. No text = no keywords! Plus it’s harder to move someone through web pages and content with hardly any text and maybe impossible in a responsive design on a smartphone? Makes it seem like copy isn’t needed. But on the other hand, I recently read blog posts that are over 1,500 words get significantly more shares than shorter ones…

What are you looking to learn more about in 2016?