My three words for 2025: "Movement leaves marks"

Well, folks, we made it to a new year again. I wasn't sure that we would. Not that we would face another earth-shattering kaboom or see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding over the hills. But it seems as if we've been in survival mode for so long I wouldn't be surprised if we did.

As many of you know, I'm not a predictions kind of guy. Instead, I like to come up with three words that I use to set goals, address challenges, and guide my work life throughout the year. It's a tactic made popular by Chris Brogan, the marketing guru, coach, and author, one that I've shared with you in previous OI columns like this one: What are your 3 words for 2022?

This year, though, I'm switching things up. Instead of three individual words, like my 2022 choices ("Respect," "Yoda," and "Praise"), I'm borrowing a slogan from a Degree deodorant commercial.

No disrespect to Unilever's ad agency or its creative team intended! We marketers know inspiration can come from anything, from anywhere. Mine happened while I was zoning out during an unending stream of TV commercials one day during the holidays. But then I heard something that snapped me to attention:

"Movement leaves marks."

I didn't pay any attention to what came after that. I was too busy turning that phrase over in my mind. "Movement leaves marks." What could that mean for our email industry in general and for me individually?

For me, it means we need to focus on these three movements:

1. Technology

In 2024, we did not see much movement in technology across the entire martech spectrum, whether in net-new platform changes or brands onboarding new tech. Companies either paused their spending, cut back, or didn't invest additional budget.

It was almost like the entire marketplace said, "You have what you have. Use what you have. Don't do anything new."

And that's fine, for 5 minutes. But then it gets old. You're limited in what you can do to meet your goals and stay competitive.

Now, we all look at our platforms and have a list of features or functions we'd like to kill, fix or replace. What's on your list for, say, your ESP? Your automation platforms? Your CDP, if you use one?

This year let's look at where we can create movement that leaves marks on our technology. What can you put up with on your platform for one more year? Can you afford to have your marketing goals depend on it? If your answer is "No" or "Maybe," then you need to look at changing it.

Nature abhors the vacuum that is created by operating on technology that doesn't align with your goals, whether they're your team's goals, your CMO's goals, or your company's goals.

Movement 1 has to be looking at your technology honestly and the supporting services around that technology and making changes. Movement rarely happens without making changes. Shifting from apathy to movement means changing your mindset.

So let's look at our platforms honestly, doing a tech assessment about what we should change, why we should change it, and if we can or should change it. Sometimes, movement isn't the right choice.

In our RFP business with partner Chris Marriott and the migrations that we do for enterprise companies, we often talk companies out of doing RFPs because they're not using all the features of the platforms they have. For other companies, we can show them that their goals are on one level, but their platforms aren't powerful enough to get them where they need to go.

We're seeing a lot of price compression in the tech marketplace now. That means investments are going to pay for themselves sooner. With that as the final argument, let's look at movements that leave marks in the technology we use.

2. Education

Are you as smart as you need to be? I'm not asking if you are as smart as you think you are. Rather, are you keeping up with all the changes that are coming at you from every quarter in the marketing world?

I know I have knowledge gaps in different technologies and different applications and the experience that comes from me being on the front lines, pushing the buttons.

But I try to educate myself every day, whether through a webinar, white paper, conversation with another thought leader or influencer or a C-level person. I'm always striving to close the gaps and get ahead of the changes.

Is education part of your routine? Do you seek out new experiences? Or do you sign up for webinars but not attend or watch recordings, subscribe to newsletters but not read them, join Only Influencers but not attend the weekly members-only discussions?

I know you're busy. But an hour out of your day is not going to doom your program.

Knowledge creates movement whether you're learning something new in your niche or working to help teach others in your company about the effectiveness of email. Lunch-and-learns, internal white papers, and other presentations can help you create that movement.

3. Testing

A lot of marketers say they have incorporated testing into their email programs, but when I press them on this, it turns out they're just testing subject lines. That's not going to create genuine movement.

At a recent conference, a speaker described an amazing testing regimen. It had documentation, hypotheses, audience insights, everything you need for a viable testing program. One comment she made stuck with me: After testing everything, she went back and tested again to make sure she was valid in her results.

If we want to have movement with testing, we need to prove that it was meaningful movement, not a blip, coincidence, or error. How many times have you gone back and retested something? For many of us, when we get a win, we go with it and never check to make sure the result was valid.

Subject line testing is easy because it's built into most email platforms now. But movement takes work. If we want to create movements that leave marks on our performance, we have to be sure our assumptions are correct. We can do that only through effective testing on everything, not just the subject line.

If you're going to leave a mark, you have to do the work.

Wrapping up

If we want to survive in email marketing, we need strategy – the "why" – before we come up with tactics, which are the "how." This strategy is your top-level guide, your goal, or your North Star for the year. This three-word exercise can help you find that top level.

Define your three words first. Use mine – "Marketing leaves marks" – or come up with individual words that reflect your goals and challenges for 2025.

Then keep thinking about them as the year goes on. Check in at mid-year, as I did (Mid-year checkup: My 3 words for 2022 ), and if they aren't working for you, or if your business takes an unexpected turn, find three new words.

Focus on your top-level goals. We have 12 months to get there. Let's do this!

Photo by shraga kopstein on Unsplash