5 Must-Know Time Management Tips for Marketers

Marketing is a profession that requires perseverance, a base to present to, and enough research to ensure you consistently appeal to that base. All this can take a lot of time. So it’s important to always try to find ways to streamline your efforts. Having a routine in place can greatly reduce repetitive time waste. And, it can provide a keener sense how your projects are developing.

Approaching your schedule with organization and objectives that structure your workload to be streamlined will give you an efficiency in most essential tasks, regardless of client or product.

What follows is a collection of strategies for completing your daily (and long-term) marketing tasks while saving time and minimizing waste.

1. Moderate Your Social Connections

Certainly, failing to use social media and its various platforms is a mistake for marketers. You need them. Exposure by opening profiles/accounts in places pertaining to your market allows for a more focused effort, greater exposure for your brand, and more opportunities to connect with your target audience directly.

However, too much time spent on social media and in the use of communication tools like email can negatively impact performance.

Many of the best marketers out there limit the number of times they check email and social media per day. Often, this involves checking once in the morning and once before the close of the business day. This can reduce the amount of time wasted by checking your accounts multiple times throughout the day and the time lost to task switching.

2. Use Content and Social Media Calendar and Scheduling Tools

Building a schedule has always been a great way to organize. Though it can feel tedious and as though you’re spending a lot of time setting it up, investing this time upfront can save you time in the end. And honestly, there’s really no excuse not to with the number of services and applications available to help like Trello, Evernote, Asana, Basecamp, and even Google Calendar. Learn more about maximizing your calendar for time.

Your organization methods should be linked to your social accounts. Notifications allow for the quickest response, and there are many ways to interconnect the services you use, like through the very powerful IFTTT. Management of clientele and assignments have become big business and enhancing your productivity for free is something any savvy business person should not overlook.

3. Keep Research and Development a Priority

Researching and preparing content ideas in advance and in bulk gives you the opportunity to better parse out work and keep up to date. It also allows you to evaluate your needs and plan accordingly. Research is one of the more time-consuming aspects of marketing. But news aggregators like Feedly give you the ability to keep up with the latest news in your field via relevant articles. This acts as an excellent source of idea generation as well.

Development of your target market may be time-consuming, but it is well worth the effort. Yes, you’ll need to invest more time upfront to establish suitable ideas, prospects, and outreach opportunities for a few months, but that means you won’t have to focus on those tasks for several weeks. Plus, you then have the benefit of completed research at your fingertips to help guide your schedule. Investing in a comprehensive time tracker can also help you stick to deadlines and let you know where you stand in certain processes and projects.

This is why keeping a databank of your development is essential, as well as adding to it when the time is available. There are many sources and methods to keep any data in a safe spot. The best place is a trusted cloud storage system. They tend to offer great security, accessibility (throughout applications even), and a maintained system that won’t lose files. Of course physical drives you own are ideal, however they lack some features of cloud storage, like accessibility across mobile apps. Your best bet is to use both cloud and local storage.

4. Use a Messaging App Instead of Email

A tip for more efficient communication, is to get comfortable with instant message services. Having the quickest way to respond and be notified of communication is absolutely key. Email is still formally important, but instant message software has the edge. Many companies opt to use services like Slack or Teamwork Chat to stay connected throughout the workday.

5. Delegate Tasks

Knowing when it’s time to hand the reins to someone else is vital for successfully running a marketing campaign. For instance, delegating tasks like social media posting, blog writing, and press release writing can save you a world of time each day. And it gives you greater opportunity to focus on the planning stages of marketing. That whole working on your business rather than in your business thing.

Conclusion

The end of the path will always hold one thing true: time management saves in all aspects of life. As for marketing, better managing your time means more time available for tasks that can grow your business. And that’s well worth the initial investment.