How a small marketing team can achieve more (in less time)

Many of us have been there.

Working valiantly and tirelessly as a solopreneur, a lone marketeer or as one of a (very) small marketing team. Slicing through thick ‘to do’ lists like melting butter. One minute you’re a social media saviour. The next, a copying writing king. Then you’re email enabler and monitoring monster. several times a day, and back again. With your specialisms including everything and anything, as well as the kitchen sink.

Most days it can feel like there are just not enough hours in the day.

Maybe you enjoy the workload juggle. And LOVE the fact that you get to dabble in lots of different areas and projects. But the truth is, you probably don’t have the time to do everything as well as it could be done.

If bells are ringing loudly, don’t worry, keep reading.

These five top tips will help your small marketing team achieve more (in less time).

Know your goals

First and foremost, establish what your marketing goals are.

Whether you’ve had time to pen an official marketing strategy document or not, knowing what you’re trying to achieve will help you to focus your time, resource and budget.

For example, if you’re aiming to get more customers, you need to generate leads. To reach that goal, developing an easy to use, optimised website, supported by joined up email marketing, social media, advertising and press coverage, will help generate the all important web footfall you need to gain conversions.

Don’t be afraid to say, ‘no.’

Be realistic about what you or your team can achieve.

No one really wants to be a party pooper by saying no to a project. But it is important to be honest about your own and your team’s capabilities, ensuring you have the time, skills and budget to back up any plans you agree.

To better understand what you can achieve as a small team, start by calculating how many hours you have available each week and estimate, what can realistically be achieved in that time. If you’re a lone marketeer, it’s unlikely you’ll have time to develop and deliver five very separate campaigns, targeting different demographics and aiming for a variety of outcomes.

Keep your goals in mind to help give direction to your work.

Get organised

It might seem like an obvious tip but being organised is key to achieving more.

Creating a marketing plan that you stick to like glue is the best way to keep on top of ‘to do’ checklists, work allocation, collaborations and schedules.

Here at DP Marketing Communications, we love Basecamp for keeping track of workloads, outcomes and storing items centrally. Trello and GoogleDocs are effective alternatives.

If you attend a lot of meetings, where you often get tasked with additional work, take the plan along with you. This will help with identifying the best time for a new project as well as aiding any compromise negotiations you might need to make.

Schedule, schedule, schedule

If you regularly generate content for websites, email marketing or social media, you can become more efficient by learning to schedule and automate like a boss.

Platforms like Facebook and WordPress have diary capabilities which enable you to schedule directly on your profile, blog or website. However, platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social can help save precious time, and avoid task duplication, by allowing you to schedule content across multiple profiles in just one hit.

Message automation via email platforms such as Mail Chimp are also vital time savers. Allowing you to create content that goes to all new customers or campaign recipients, whether they sign up to your email list the day you create the content or several weeks and months later.

Outsource where possible

Getting support doesn’t have to be expensive.

You can hire specialist agencies and freelancers. Whether for just one campaign or one aspect of your marketing output or even on a long term basis.

From SEO to blogging. From social media management to PPC and web development. Agencies and freelancers could not only help to share the load but with their specialist skills and knowledge, they may even gain better results.

Need some help?

If your marketing team are stretched. Don’t worry. We can help! Our marketing strategists, social media managers and campaign creatives are ready and waiting to help your sales soar.

Book a free marketing review, strategy and planning session using the form below.