You’ve developed your marketing strategy and created your plan, but you’re still struggling to keep up with it all. What could possibly be the problem? And how can you fix it?
Read on because today we’re going to reveal how you can prioritize your marketing tasks so that everything is more manageable.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
[00:36] Introduction
[01:48] Marketing Strategy Missteps
[02:50] How to Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks
[10:00] You Win When You Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks
[11:03] Bloopers
Introduction
[Theresa] You spent a lot of time developing your marketing strategy. At first, your motivation to implement it was super high. However, as you work your plan, you discover that you’re struggling to get all of your marketing tasks done.
[Meghan] Now, you find yourself feeling frustrated and somewhat less motivated. And you’re not quite sure how to move forward.
We get it. And we’ve been there many times ourselves. It’s disheartening. Our first piece of advice? Don’t give up!
[Theresa] Meghan is so right. Just because you’ve hit a snag with your implementation doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel. Instead, it’s time to edit your plan so you can set better priorities.
Setting priorities in business is critical to good time management. And it’s especially important to prioritize your marketing tasks.
So today we’re going to share with you a process that will help you identify the priorities in your marketing. That way your efforts are more focused. And that will make everything easier.
Marketing Strategy Missteps
[Meghan] As we always say, any meaningful change starts with awareness. So before we dive into this process, we want to point out some reasons you might be struggling in the first place.
The first reason is you didn’t set clear enough marketing goals. Unclear goals lead to unclear plans. So, if you haven’t set your marketing goals, do that before you make changes to your strategy.
[Theresa] The second reason is you simply overplanned. You think, “I’ll just add this one quick item in.” Before you know it, you’ve added 10 extra tasks to your marketing to-do list. There are serious consequences when you over plan.
In this case, remove some of those extra steps for now. You can always add those tasks back later.
[Meghan] The third reason is you underestimated how long your plan would take to execute. That’s understandable when you’re doing something for the first time.
If that’s the case, adjust the time blocks on your calendar. You may also want to break up any larger tasks into smaller ones. Believe it or not, doing this will increase your speed.
How to Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks
[Theresa] If after considering the issues above you’re still struggling to prioritize your marketing tasks, you may need to do a little more investigating. We’re going to share a process to help you dig deeper.
[Meghan] While this process is easy to do, it will require some time and effort. So, make sure to schedule time on your calendar to go through this method. Make a commitment to doing it.
Once you’ve completed this process, you’ll clearly see how to prioritize your marketing tasks. This is going to help you streamline and ensure that you’re getting the right tasks done in the right order.
Step 1: Track Your Tasks
[Theresa] Step one is to track your marketing tasks. I promise. This is the most time-consuming part of this process. But it’s also the most important.
Tracking will give you the data you need to complete the rest of the process. So, you will want to complete this activity.
[Meghan] That’s right. Don’t skip this. This exercise reveals what you’re doing and how long it’s taking you to do it. So important!
This is an opportunity to figure out how to prioritize your marketing tasks AND save time overall.
[Theresa] Here’s what you’re going to do first:
- Choose a method of recording. (Excel spreadsheet, Google Sheets, notebook)
- Write down each main marketing task. (Pull out your marketing plan for this.)
Then, over the next five days:
- Note all of the subtasks for each main marketing task as you’re doing them.
- Be specific.
- Track the start and end times for each sub-task you complete.
[Meghan] It’s essential to track the amount of time you’re spending on each sub-task. If you forget, make sure to do it the next time you perform those functions.
And now a word of caution—set your expectations before you begin this process. It’s going to take time. It is tedious. You will most likely feel resistance. That’s all normal.
But if you go all-in on this piece, your marketing productivity will improve dramatically.
Step 2: Categorize the Tasks You’ve Tracked
[Theresa] Once you’re armed with all of the data from your tracking, the job at hand gets much easier. Because in step two, you are going to analyze and categorize.
This is the fun part. Maybe that’s my inner geek coming out, but I love analyzing the data.
In this step, you are going to divide your list of marketing tasks into four categories: Dump, Defer, Delegate, and Do.
Here’s how it works:
#1 Dump the Tasks that Don’t Matter
First, Dump any tasks on your list that aren’t really serving a clear purpose. Just go ahead and cross those off the to-do list.
Pay attention to tasks that don’t seem to serve any real purpose or that are redundant. Those are things you don’t need to spend valuable time doing. So dump them.
[Meghan] You also want to think about the results you’re creating with the tasks you perform. The problem might not be with execution, but rather with results.
In other words, you could be implementing parts of your process well, but you’re not really seeing any results from those efforts. If that’s the case, then you should definitely dump those tasks as well. This will give you back much needed time and improve your overall productivity.
#2: Defer Tasks for Later
[Theresa] Now it’s time to go back over your data and do a little more trimming. So next you’ll Defer some tasks for later. When you defer a task, you’re not dumping it, but saving it for a later date.
There are a couple of reasons you may want to defer a task. First, you may not have the resources to execute the tactic right now, at least not well. That could be because a strategy or task is too advanced for your stage of business.
[Meghan] Another reason you may want to defer a task is that there may be a step you’re missing that should come before the one you’re trying to implement now.
For example, trying to create a sophisticated marketing funnel before you get the basics of list building down.
You’re not saying no, you’re saying not now.
In both instances, the best course of action is to remove the tasks from your current marketing strategy and add them to a project management tool, like Asana, to revisit at a later date.
#3 Delegate Tasks To Free Up Time
[Theresa] At this point, you will be left with the marketing tasks that need to get done. And even though you may be a team of one, you’ll still want to complete this next step, which is to Delegate some of the remaining tasks on your list.
You might be wondering why you should bother with this next step if you don’t have any team members. And that’s totally fair.
[Meghan] You might not be ready to outsource any parts of your business just yet. However, it’s important to identify now which pieces of your marketing you could—and probably should—offload later. This becomes your wish list.
These are the tasks you’ll create systems and processes for first. So, when you’re ready to hire, you’ll be prepared. Knowing what skills to hire for makes it easier to find the right person. Plus, you’ll be ready with training materials.
#4 Do What Only You Can Do
[Theresa] Figuring out which tasks to delegate also helps you determine which parts of your marketing can only be done by you.
This leads us to the final step of analyzing and categorizing—Do what only you can do.
Once you’ve dumped, deferred, and delegated, you will clearly see which marketing tasks fall in your camp.
Discover how to identify the right actions to take in your business so you can successfully prioritize your marketing tasks.Click To Tweet[Meghan] If you have a virtual assistant or small team, your list of to-dos will be much smaller. However, if you’re a team of one, you’ll have to add in the tasks from your delegation wish list.
But regardless, what you’ve removed from the Dump and Defer activities will leave you with the marketing tasks that matter most to your success right now.
And once you are aware of that, you can complete the last step which is to prioritize your marketing tasks.
Step 3: Prioritize Your Remaining Marketing Tasks
[Theresa] Now that you know which marketing tasks are essential to the success of your strategy, step three is to prioritize them. One reason you may be struggling is that you’ve not put your tasks into a logical sequence. When you jump around in your strategy, you waste a lot of time.
This happens to me when I don’t follow the process for writing, which Meghan gently reminds me of every time I lament about it.
For example, I may start writing before doing the necessary research. Then, I’ll go look for some data or a statistic to support a point I’ve made, only to find out that I’m totally on the wrong track. This will lead to me starting over or having to completely pull apart what I’ve already written. That’s a huge waste of time.
[Meghan] And who has time to waste? Not you!
So, look at the tasks you have and put them into an order that makes sense. It will prevent having to redo work and will help you work more efficiently.
You Win When You Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks
[Theresa] If you’ve been struggling to keep up with your marketing tasks, it’s time to stop, take a bird’s eye view, and streamline your marketing strategy. When you track, categorize and prioritize, you create the time and space to get what matters to your marketing done. And that’s a big win in my book.
[Meghan] And that’s really what it’s all about. Making the time for what’s really important. Doing everything isn’t manageable or realistic.
Focusing on what is actually important allows you to prioritize your marketing tasks. That means you’re doing less of everything and more of the right things.
[Theresa] That’s a great thought to end on.
We’d love to know the most surprising thing you discovered by tracking your marketing tasks. Did you find out that you were taking too much time to do certain tasks? Were there any strategies or tactics you needed to dump or defer? What’s on your wishlist of tasks to delegate? Let us know in the comments.
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