21 Habits Marketers Need to Ditch in 2021
Let’s be real: 2020 was not a great year. I don’t think I need to explain why.
Now that 2021 is officially here (yay!), it’s time marketers leave some habits behind in perhaps one of the worst years in the century.
I’ve listed 21 habits marketers should ditch in 2021 below, in no particular order. This list is based only on my opinions, but hopefully you’ll find this list insightful, inspired, and excited to elevate your marketing in 2021.
What to Ditch
Not creating monthly, quarterly, or yearly marketing goals: New year, new goals. What do you want to accomplish throughout the year?
Ignoring marketing metrics: spitting out anything (a social media post, a white paper, an email campaign, etc.) into the world without understanding its impact isn’t going to help you. Performance metrics are everything!
Only making things pretty: Marketing is more than making things pretty. It’s strategy, hard work, and lots and lots of coffee.
Sticking to that 8-5 schedule: Marketers are creatives. Creativity doesn’t always come during normal work hours. Some marketers do their best work early in the morning while drinking coffee at 6am. Others may do their best work while drinking coffee at 7pm. Make note of what time of day you work best and adjust accordingly.
Forgetting that you’re marketing to humans: You’re human. Your customers are humans. Don’t forget that.
Thinking you know everything marketing: News flash: no marketer knows everything. The marketing world is forever evolving. There’s always something new to learn.
Avoiding continuing education classes: On a similar note to the previous point made, continuously learning is so important to the growth of a marketing professional. I would recommend taking a few online courses on a quarterly basis (on Udemy or LinkedIn learning, for example) to elevate your marketing expertise.
Believing you know your customer, when you really don’t: Do you really know if your customers are satisfied with your product or service, or are you just assuming they are? A few great ways to understand what your customers think of your product include hosting forums, sending out surveys, or just picking up the phone.
Being an order taker and not a strategic thinker: Everything in marketing should have a reasoning behind it. Period.
Surrounding your SEO strategy only around keywords: Don’t get me wrong: keywords are extremely important in an SEO strategy. But, your audience is human, not Google’s algorithm. When producing a piece of content, make sure the piece is easy to read, digest, and is enjoyable to the end-user.
Avoiding taking breaks during the day: You’re not a robot. Staring at a screen and twiddling your thumbs when your creative juices are running low isn’t going to help you. Get up, stretch your legs, or get a coffee (…have I made it obvious that I have a coffee problem yet?).
Obsessing over competitors: It’s okay to track competitors. It’s not okay to copy everything they do. Make your brand’s marketing stand out from the crowd!
Forgetting to test marketing tactics: A/B testing is so important. A marketing tactic may work well in your opinion, but how do you know if something wouldn’t perform better if you’ve never tested it?
Posting a piece of content and not thinking about it ever again: Let’s say you’ve posted a video to your YouTube channel. Now what? Consider promoting it, optimizing it for YouTube SEO, transcribing it and posting the transcription on your website, etc. If the messaging of the video is meaty, you could break up the messaging into smaller, more detailed pieces of content later.
Which reminds me, I’ll probably take this list and turn many of these points into their own blog article in the near future. Make sure to subscribe below if you want to be notified when these blogs are published!
Tracking MQLs: SQLs are better.
Not engaging with the sales team: If your company has a sales team, it’s your job, as a marketer, to work closely with that team. Understand how you can help them sell your company’s product or service.
Burying yourself in a crazy amount of work: It’s okay to say no to a task sometimes. It’s okay to ask for help from your manager with prioritizing tasks. It’s not ok to sit behind your computer acting normal while you have a self-inflicted panic attack.
Reporting impressions : Eh, impressions are fine sometimes (depending on the scenario). But really, they are not a strong metric to report on.
Not setting KPIs: Key performance indicators are a great way to track the performance of a marketing channel or tactic.
Ignoring channel attributions: In regards to your website, do you know where your users are coming from? You should. This will help you understand what marketing channels are performing well vs which channels are not.
Doing the same things over and over: New year, new marketing strategies to employ. I’m not saying to ditch strategies that have worked before in the past, but considering trying something new. Again, marketing is constantly evolving.