Who the heck are we to prescribe some kind of happiness formula?!
We don’t know you like that.
So this comes with a healthy dose of humility.
We also recognize that this time of year is full of “expert advice” on all fronts, to the point where all our heads are probably spinning already.
Which is why we keep it simple.
From our past experiences as marketing leaders – and with a strong sense for how things will play out in a year like 2023 – we bring you two specific suggestions.
To add to the list you already have. Of things to do for a happy and constructive 2023.
Just for kicks, let’s start with the second one:
2. Build a process for hypothesis-driven growth experiments for optimal learning.
Here’s what most marketers end up with:
A process with a list of activities.
That’s not even remotely close to what we’re talking about here.
We’re talking about a highly specific process with a crystal clear goal.
This is how you can change the precision of your marketing and learnings to get to efficiency faster AND get closer to exponential growth because you can now safely learn about the most impactful stuff.
Also, a process for hypothesis-driven growth experiments sets the foundation for what you’re even doing in the first place.
Plus it gives you a place to capture those learnings.
So many of us have lost learnings and repeated initiatives that don’t lead to sustainable growth simply because initial learnings weren’t captured properly.
There’s no more room for wasted cycles and wasted budgets.
Watch our CEO Jay Baron’s passionate plea for this!
Now, this assumes you’ve already checked an even bigger box.
Which brings us to what we think every CMO should do next month:
1. Go have dinner with your CEO.
This assumes the two of you are at least on the same continent. But get on a plane if necessary.
Another Zoom call ain’t it.
Same with a quick lunch.
The word “alignment” isn’t strong enough here, so we’ll just say this:
The level of clarity you want to establish with your CEO to ensure the level of focus you need in order to execute the way required to get the learnings that matter most must be fully appreciated by both of you in 2023.
In the past we’ve made lots of assumptions about how our CEO views what we’re up to. We may have even applied some wishful thinking.
This is the time to kill all that
It obviously doesn’t have to be a dinner.
But a more intimate and focused setting like that is sometimes needed to drive the honesty required to get to complete clarity.
And we don’t have to bother the CEO all the time. We just need to fully connect once in a while. To make sure we’re truly looking at the same things.
Have we:
- Defined the primary way the business will grow this year?
- Talked through team & resources with honesty?
- Decided on what we’re cutting now?
- Revisited my future?
You get the idea.
There’s no better time than next week to call up your CEO and invite him/her to a nice dinner where you’ll have time to talk about what it really will take to be successful in the new year.
Even if one person does this and sends us a quick note, we’d be thrilled!
We believe the new year will be tough. It’s not an optimal time to be a marketer.
But we believe to our core that these two suggestions can help most marketing leaders have a less turbulent 2023 than they otherwise might.
With that, from all of us to all of you…
Happy New Year!