A new year, time for new thinking and new approaches. While this coming January may feel different than others, it still is that time to pause and reflect and define the goals for the coming year.

If you don’t have a formal process for annual strategic planning, consider a strategic assessment.

Do your customers know everything you can do for them? This is a question I ask at the beginning of consulting engagements. The answer is usually some variation of, “No, most customers don’t really understand everything we can do.”

This is a big challenge for in-plants. Educating customers and senior leaders in your organizations about everything you do - and can do - to support the strategic goals of your organizations is a critical role for in-plant managers. If senior leaders don’t understand what you do and how it benefits the larger goals of your organization, it’s a slippery slope to outsourcing.

Direct mail continues to be a critical component for many marketing plans for both B2C and B2B products and services. It’s always more effective than digital-only channels like email or social media ads. Three trends are driving new strategies in direct mail marketing.

• Consumer expectations for brands to know my preferences

• More data and tracking to understand the correlation between online and offline transactional behaviors

• Inkjet technology driving improved and complex workflow

Does every manager and team leader understand the marketing strategy for your company? Some owners of companies challenge me when I ask this question. “Why does our IT manager need to know our marketing strategy”, they ask. A concise marketing strategy is the basis that drives activities, decisions and investments in sales, client service, operations and finance as well as marketing.