We’ve talked about the importance of setting good habits, so today we’re giving you one that’s sure to improve your marketing and productivity: using templates for recurring marketing tasks.
Templates decrease messy moments in your business. Plus, they simplify and streamline work, which translates to less barriers to making progress and achieving your goals.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Content Strategy from Scratch workbook
[Meghan] There’s no business owner on the planet who wants their operational or administrative tasks to take up MORE time. Right? The goal is to get things done as fast as possible since time is money.
With that goal in mind, we immediately think of templates. And even checklists since they’re a template of sorts.
[Theresa] Templates and checklists are great because they make those recurring to-do items go faster with less friction. Simplifying and streamlining your work improves your time management and productivity.
Plus, templates are a way to systemize your business. That means you’re setting up processes that can eventually be handed to a team member or outsourced.
[Meghan] I love templates because you don’t have to start from scratch each time. It’s like filling in the blanks or having part of the work done already before I even begin a task.
Templates save time, but they also reduce my barriers to getting work done. That means I have fewer excuses to get started!
[Theresa] Fewer excuses—that’s music to my ears!
There’s a reason the KISS principle was invented. Keep it Simple Stupid is the original meaning of that acronym, but people nowadays also say variations like Keep it Super Simple.
The point is: the simpler a task is for you to do, the more likely you are to get it done without wasting time.
So, today we’re sharing some of the marketing templates that we use in our businesses. Hopefully, our insight improves your marketing productivity and reveals to you areas where you can employ templates to streamline tasks.
Marketing tasks weighing you down? Check out these 5 templates that can simplify and streamline your work to help you get more done in your solopreneur business.Click To Tweet1) Content Marketing Template
[Meghan] Ok, I’ll go first. Now, I know we’ve talked about this before. But, undoubtedly, templates for content creation are one of the marketing productivity hacks that I use most frequently.
Seeing a blank screen slows you down. Templates turn content creation into more of a process versus a spur of the moment task. They help you create content faster.
[Theresa] Also, templates remove the pressure of creativity and deadlines so that you don’t feel overwhelmed.
The result is that you end up tackling your content marketing over several days rather than feeling the burden to crank out a ton of work at one sitting or in one day.
[Meghan] Templates work for just about any content. I like them for blog posts, sales copy, and SEO. For this podcast, we have one for the episode content and one for the show notes too.
[Theresa] And actually the episode template pulls double duty. It works as a script outline as well as a blog post.
The podcast templates also help us stick to a format and remain consistent, which is another benefit of marketing templates. They help you meet recurring deadlines. And, they help you market more regularly.
[Meghan] Plus, you’ll deliver more consistent messaging since you’re not reinventing the wheel each time you create content.
[Theresa] Templates are awesome for both productivity AND marketing. I love that about them!
[Meghan] One last thing to mention here…say you can’t seem to come up with a content creation process of your own. That’s okay.
You can find examples online or even purchase templates, checklists and writing prompts to make it easier. Heck, you can even buy done-for-you content and customize it.
2) Project Management Recurring Task Template
[Theresa] Just about any time you open Facebook up these days you see an ad for content templates! They are so popular.
Ok, moving on. The next template is for managing and scheduling your recurring marketing tasks. Did you know that you can create a task in your project management app and use this task over and over again as a template? You can! And we do!
I created generic tasks in Asana. We duplicate them for each episode and edit as needed to easily manage our recurring podcast work.
It helps to include all of the moving parts that need to be accomplished as part of the task. Often, the broader you go, the less helpful. But that’s up to you.
For example, “promote podcast episode” is less helpful than say:
- Create graphic
- Write copy
- Post to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
[Meghan] I love the way Theresa set up the project management workflow for the podcast. It’s genius! It makes our content marketing tasks way easier to manage since it’s all right there each time. We duplicate tasks and—BOOP!—done. No need to create a task from scratch each time.
I use this same task template process in my business too, and it works great to stick to a schedule and keep my productivity high.
[Theresa] Yeah, when you’re trying to get everything done on your marketing to-do list, it really helps to be able to duplicate a bunch of tasks in your project management app and schedule them. It makes management of your workload way more achievable.
You can create templates for just about any recurring task on your to-do list. And, this will improve your time management, organization, and productivity.
3) Contractor Agreement Templates
[Meghan] Streamlining or systemizing the to-do list is always a win!
Alright, the next template we love for marketing is for a legal agreement. When you need marketing help in your business, you may avoid hiring a contractor or consultant because it feels as if it’s more effort than just doing the work yourself.
[Theresa] Actually, that’s a common objection to outsourcing. Solopreneurs avoid outsourcing because they believe it’s easier to take on everything rather than delegate some of the work.
If that sounds like you, definitely work on changing your mindset about that!
[Meghan] Well, maybe this template can help with that mindset. I know it helped make outsourcing easier for me.
The suggestion here is to work with an attorney or legal service to get an agreement or contract template in place for hiring contractors or consultants.
Although we’re focused on marketing templates in this post, just a quick side note: I also got legal agreement templates in place for proposals, client contracts, and for being a contractor as well as for hiring contractors. This made the legal administrative stuff less of a burden.
[Theresa] Legal agreement templates are certainly handy. You can tweak certain sections based on the contractor you want to hire or on the contractual terms you desire. Most of the sections are the same, so you end up tweaking just a few key areas.
[Meghan] But—and this is a big but—we are not giving you legal advice. We’re just sharing what we’ve done in our businesses.
Check with an attorney, invest in a legal service, and ask who you need to speak with about legal stuff based on your business type and your state. Employment laws differ and are complicated. In fact, legal rules are complicated in general. So, always consult a professional!
4) Graphic Design Templates
[Theresa] Definitely!
Here’s another area where we improved our marketing productivity with a template: graphic design. I’ve created graphic design templates for our blog posts using Canva.
[Meghan] We’ve mentioned it before, but design templates have been a huge time saver for us. It’s all about taking decisions out so that you’re not starting from scratch each time. So, there’s less deciding about colors, layout and fonts. The templates make the graphic design process way faster.
[Theresa] No kidding! Otherwise, we would go down the rabbit hole of creative ideas and waste tons of time.
And design templates are perfect for outsourcing. With an app like Canva, you can share the design templates and also share the workload.
[Meghan] Plus, this is another area where consistency matters. Graphic design templates standardize your images so that they communicate a consistent brand image, which is super important in marketing.
[Theresa] By the way, you’re not limited to using these templates for your blog only. Use them for social media, email newsletters, presentations, brochures—wherever you need visuals on a recurring basis.
We are big supporters of design templates because starting from scratch each time takes forever! It’s a real marketing productivity killer.
If you don’t have design skills, no problem. You can buy graphic design templates or download a design app and use their templates.
5) Client Deliverable Templates
[Meghan] This last one doesn’t seem like a template related to marketing, but bear with me.
I love using client deliverable templates. In other words, I have specific deliverables that I create as part of my services. For example, I have deliverables for content strategy, content calendars, and digital products like online courses. And templating these has saved me so much time.
Having a template for my client deliverables helps me avoid starting from scratch each time. It keeps me on track with what I deliver to each client. And, this template gives me boundaries so that I don’t overspend time on things I’m not getting paid to do.
[Theresa] OOOHHH, I love that!
Okay, so now you’re wondering: how does a client deliverable template help with marketing?
Well, if you’re a service-based business, you must be able to communicate the value and results you provide. It can be tough to sell services!
But a deliverable is tangible. So, having a consistent, repeatable deliverable makes verbalizing the benefits easier.
[Meghan] I know this one’s a stretch since client deliverables are not technically a “marketing” task of yours. However, for me, templating deliverables has helped me market and accomplish the marketing tasks related to promoting and delivering my services. So that’s why we included it.
[Theresa] By the way, developing a client deliverable template isn’t going to fit every business. But, if it fits yours, you may want to give this template a try. Whether or not it helps with your marketing, it will certainly help with your productivity!
Marketing Templates are Great for Productivity; Give Them a Try!
[Meghan] Look, if it can be templated, we will make it happen!
[Theresa] That is so true! The moment I even get a whiff of a new marketing task I’m already thinking about how to systemize and streamline it.
[Meghan] She’s telling the truth folks! Theresa is great at dissecting all of the moving parts of task management and coming up with a plan. That’s one of her many superpowers.
The takeaway from this episode is that nearly any and all recurring marketing tasks have the potential for being templated in some way.
[Theresa] So, the next time you’re performing a recurring marketing task, think about how you could make it easier with a template of some sort.
Your goal is to save time, streamline your work, and make things in your business more manageable. And ultimately, creating more templates now could support outsourcing in the future.
Templates have helped me to outsource, which has been amazing to my productivity, my marketing and my happiness.
[Meghan] On that note, I think it’s a wrap.
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