1. I will become a strategist, not just a tactician

I will stop thinking about my online marketing in terms of isolated tactics (“Hey, Bob, you know what we really need? Foursquare campaigns…Why, you ask? Well, because everyone else is doing it.”) 

I will plan  ahead, putting a 12-month strategy in place for my online marketing and not just rely on campaigns driven by the above-the-line marketing cycle. 

I will endeavour to fully understand my customers, their experiences and conversion funnel, and will make sure that I am using online marketing to help build my brand, not just to sell my product. 

2. I will stop making Facebook tabs for the sake of it

I will stop building online assets without understanding what I hope to achieve with them, or knowing how they will fit in with the rest of my online brand experience . 

I will ensure that I set clear objectives and KPIs for everything I do on the web and keep an open mind about better ways to meet those objectives, instead of just sticking with what I know.  

3. I will educate my CEO

As frustrating as it might be, I will invest time in educating my wider team (including my CEO) about the importance of digital for the company’s long-term success. I will embrace the fact that I need the whole company to buy-in, in order to succeed with online marketing. 

4. I will give up vanity metrics and respect insightful data

I will stop obsessing about vanity metrics (like the number of followers I have on Twitter) and start tying back all of my activities to meaningful ROI-based data. This will ensure the company continues to support online marketing. 

I will bring in an analytics  expert to ensure that we’re tracking everything our users are doing on our web properties and online content, and I will spend time every single month drawing insight from that data.

5. I will stop being an ostrich and put that social media policy in place

I will put a social media policy in place and I will educate the whole organisation as to where, exactly, the lines are drawn, therein; I know it’s better to be prepared than to do crisis control after the fact.

6. I will be more agile with my technology investments

I will accept that the rate that technology changes increases constantly, and therefore I will hurt the company if I make investments in technology that I won’t be able to change for the next 5 years. 

I will use more cloud-based software and more custom-built CMSs that I can update as I need to and, in addition, will not allow my IT department’s capabilities to keep me from choosing the best marketing solutions. 

7. I will start developing for the local market

I will embrace the fact that I live in South Africa, and our users’ needs are different to anywhere else in the world. I will leave the pointless race of trying to catch up with what Europe/the U.K./the U.S. are doing, and I will create apps that are relevant and useful to my consumers.

8. I will increase my online advertising spend

I will stop expecting online marketing to deliver enormous ROI with miniscule media investment, and I will break up my advertising budget based on where my consumers are and where conversions are most likely to happen. 

I accept, though, that the balance between production and media spend is more production-heavy in the online space than it is in other advertising channels and will I not be part of the one-third of South Africa’s largest advertisers that do not advertise online at all.

9. I will start integrating my marketing

I will make sure that my above-the-line, below-the-line and on-line teams are all kept in the loop about what we’re doing. 

I will mandate integration and I will not accept petty squabbling amongst my agencies. I will, in addition, allow all of my teams to have input into creative ideas so that we can create truly integrated marketing campaigns, successful on every channel.

10. I will give my online marketing agency lots of presents and throw them a big party with balloons and a miniature pony and a giant inflatable slide…

Okay, made that one up, but a girl can dream.