My One And Only Wish For Marketers In 2016

 The end of a given year is a time to look ahead; to ponder what's over yonder; to prognosticate your prescience, if you will. And even if you won't. In laymen's terms it's the time of year where we try and predict the future. 

There are no shortage of fearless forecasts along the world wide interwebs such as this one curated by my man Jeff Cohen. or this one in which the author or editor felt the need for some hyperbole hence their use of the word "stunning" in the title.

I myself (isn't that redundant?) will be releasing my annual Forbes forecast piece - with a pop culture twist as per the norm, sometime in early January. 

However, for right here, right now... I want to share my one and only wish for marketers in 2016, as opposed to a prediction.

Paging Gene Simmons 

No, my wish has nothing to do with aging rock stars who play dress up while taking capitalism to dizzying heights. 

But my wish does have something in common with the elongated tongue-wielding rock and roll all niter. 

K*I*S*S

That's right kids, my wish is all about Keeping It Simple, Stupid. 

Ask your customers what they want. Then give it to them.

Simple.

Watch and learn from their habits and patterns. Then act accordingly.

Simple.

If your customers tell you they don't want something oh like, I don't know... 50 emails over a 3-day period... stop sending them so many freaking emails.

Simple.

This is not... yes I am going here... Rocket Science.

This is marketing. And for all the amazingly super-fantastic technological advances we have seen over just the past 12 months - plus all the amazingly super-fantastic technological advances we will see over the next 12 months - one constant remains. 

Simplicity. 

You promote/peddle/advertise something. 

They buy. 

Or they don't. 

Simple. 

Of course you need to utilize all the aforementioned amazingly super-fantastic technological advances. I am not saying not to - not by a long shot. But what I am saying is don't get so caught up in all those cool tech toys that you lose sight of the basic, fundamentals of a little thing I like to call human nature. 

So... while we all sit back and anxiously wait for the next big marketing term to sweep the nation and world - my money's on Digestive Marketing - marketing whereby all collateral must be ingested internally to reach maximum efficiency - just keep things simple. 

Don't be like most humans. Don't overcomplicate things. Things are complicated enough in our world. Marketing does not to be added to the list.  

And of course my Digestive Marketing is 100% farcical but isn't it funny how we marketers can't wait to get our hands or our plans on the next big thing or wave? 

I want to wish each and everyone of you a safe, joyous, prosperous and simple 2016. 

So Who Is This Steve?

A regular contributor to Forbes and Huffington Post, among other publications, He is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing and has been named one of 26 Content Marketing Experts to Follow. Follow him on Twitter @steveolenski or at the nearest coffee shop. The views expressed here are Steve's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle Marketing Cloud.

Image source: forbes.com