#8 - 20,000 Foot View

Ahh the first week of 2024. Where new resolutions are made, and the slate is wiped clean.

I’d like to wish you a very Happy New Year, and can’t wait to see what goals you crush.

2023 has been an amazing year for me - from being promoted to Senior Marketing Manager, to being awarded the Pinnacle Performer, it has definitely treated me well.

Excited to deliver even better results for our clients, as well as go on even more vacations.

Today, I want to take you inside my head and show you the 20,000 foot view.

Running one of the biggest teams in the company has its pros and cons, but it comes with a lot of preparation, which I’ll hopefully show below.

The High Level Overview

Revisiting last year’s performance, testing and optimizations

The first thing I have my teams do is the above.

I know it’s tempting to ‘start afresh’, try new campaigns and test new angles, but that’s like throwing away the pile of gold you’ve already dug up.

We look at trends, deep dive into history, as well as track behavioral habits - allowing us to craft strategy that’s not shooting in the dark.

Next, we identify winning tests and optimizations, as well as push our new and updated best practices. As you know, Q4 is scaling season, so we rarely do overhauls of what’s already working.

Audit

Then, it’s audits next.

Contrary to popular belief, audits don’t only happen at the start of a client relationship.

It’s a constant process for us, as we look for improvements, compare our current performance against benchmarks, as well as engage in conversations with our clients on what their goals are for the year.

For some, the goal might not be increased revenue, but instead education, brand awareness, or even engagement.

That’s where the recalibration comes in.

Deliverability

Ooo this is a HUGE one. Especially so, with the Google and Yahoo changes slated to come in 1st Feb.

In essence, if you’re not adhering to the new compliance guidelines, you’re not going to be inboxing as often, which will mean a tank in your overall revenue.

Checking email health is crucial. Q4 is often a flurry of activity, where we push list utilization to its limit.

We’ll need to revisit sending habits, segmentation, domain health, and take the necessary steps to recover.

Also, make sure you’re looking at these:

• DNS records, DMARC implemented

• Having a dedicated sending domain

• Clearing out unsubscribers and unengaged segments of your list (also make your unsubscribing process easier, we’re implementing them in our body as well)

• Downloading Google Postmaster to keep tabs on your domain health

People

As you know, agencies are very much people based businesses.

It’s crucial I support my team, as they do me.

I’ve always had a strong dislike of leaders who are disconnected with the people on the ground. I feel it’s incredibly myopic, and shows a blatant lack of care for your people you’re supposed to be serving.

This is the time where I do more in-depth one on ones, and revisit the career goals my team has set, as well as map the path with them.

Nothing’s off limits, and our conversations typically head to how they’re feeling mentally, especially after a hectic Q4 (did you know we clocked our best BFCM for our clients yet?).

And that’s a wrap! 

There’s a ton to look forward to in 2024.

Not gonna lie, I’m planning quite a few vacations, as well as concert visits.

But I also can’t wait to kick even more ass for our clients, and make them even more moolah.

Here’s wishing you an amazing 2024.

I’m sure we’ll crush it, together.