If you’re looking toward 2019 wondering what you can do differently from last year, you certainly aren’t alone.

Reassessing your tactics is always a smart move, after all.

Think about it. You don’t want be the out-of-touch business on the block that looks like they’re stuck in 2008 because they refuse to change.

The reality, though? There are some significant changes businesses of all shapes and sizes should consider to make their marketing seem more, well, modern.

Doing so does double duty of making your business look like a bigger player in your industry, all the while sticking to the best practices of what makes your customers tick.

The question remains: where do you start?

Rather than totally reinvent the wheel on your marketing campaigns, instead consider how you can make some small tweaks to ensure you totally crush it in 2019. The following five tips, tactics and principles can help make it happen.

1. Go All-In on Video Content

If there’s a single takeaway from 2018, it’s that video content is king.

Facebook themselves noted that Live videos on their platform received the most engagement of any type of content by far. Couple this with YouTube’s traffic surge and Instagram’s investment in long-form video and the writing is certainly on the wall.

However, the boom of video extends far beyond social media. In fact, video marketing is associated with higher conversions and click-through rates when included as part of blog posts and emails.

“Video is dominating the digital marketing landscape,” notes Ajay Goel of Gmass. “So it’s no wonder that video content produces such a high click-through rate.

Businesses simply can’t afford to sleep on video anymore. Whether it’s bite-sized social video or in-depth tutorials that require a bit more production value, don’t be afraid to get your feet wet. Access to a smartphone and editing apps are enough to get started with basic vlogs, how-to’s and Q&As you can use to supplement your blog, email campaigns and social feeds.

2. Step Up Your Social Listening Game

Social media is much more than a place for businesses to blast and schedule content.

Channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have emerged as some of the biggest places for customers to sound off, too.

Praise. Complaints. You name it.

Customers now expect businesses to respond in a timely manner, meaning that brands should invest in social listening to monitor their mentions. Especially when dealing with complaints, timeliness could be the difference between a conversion and a lost customer.

The best social listening tools also double as social schedulers, providing businesses with the best of both worlds when it comes to social engagement. No matter what you’re using to track your mention, just remember that customers in 2019 crave a serious sense of immediacy.

3. Get Personal via Employee Advocacy

If all of your business’ buzz and news are coming from “professional” accounts, you have a problem.

For example, brands must go far beyond company newsletters and social feeds to break their own news. Instead, companies should strive for personal accounts to share news and give brands a boost.

The case for employee advocacy is stronger than ever. Having colleagues share your content expands your reach exponentially, all the while showing off the personalities behind your brand. Tactics such as sending company emails from “people” and encouraging social sharing from personal accounts are both a good place to start.

4. Rethink the Principle of Content “Quality” Versus “Quantity”

Conventional wisdom might tell us that brands need to push out as much content as possible to stay competitive in terms of share of voice and SEO, right?

Not necessarily.

Many businesses are seeing returns by investing in long-form pillar posts and video content that packs in a ton of value.

And likewise, that content needs to be shared time and time again over the course of months without growing stale. This is why you see ultimate “roundup” content that’s date-sensitive and oftentimes get refreshed in the New Year.

Breathing new life into content oftentime means repurposing it and “chunking” previews for the likes of social media. For example, you can use Piktochart to make infographics that tend to get shared like crazy via Twitter or Facebook, all the while pointing to your company blog without having to repeat yourself.

5. Stick to the Principles of Account-Based Marketing

The concept of ABM is nothing new, but the idea of outreach might be foreign to many marketers given the rise of inbound marketing. Businesses can give themselves the best of both worlds by collecting data via channels like social media or their CRM and then approaching directly. Rather than take an “if you build it, they will come” approach, it pays to be proactive.

Every business should take the time to ensure that they’re keeping their marketing campaigns up-to-date, especially in the face of a New Year. These principles can instantly modernize your marketing to ensure that they’re not only in line with today’s best practices, but also look like a million bucks as you roll out your campaigns.