Prioritizing your long list of marketing to-do’s

by | Feb 5, 2014 | Content

I just landed at a smaller company working with some great people with a great idea and a great offering.

After many years working for large companies like Aon and Vertafore, I was looking for a small company where I could really make a difference. LexBlog is truly the home I was looking for.

Now that I’m settled in, the big question is what to do first? Marketing folks are faced with this question a lot. There are so many options, advice and methods out there that you can’t possibly do it all, nor should you. And, particularly when you’re new at a company and/or you’re a department of one, like I am, the decisions you have to make can be heartbreaking to the “wish I could do it all” type. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Steve Jobs once said, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” Great. But how do you decide, Steve?

Here’s what I do:

  1. Start with strategy—what are the three things the company needs to achieve in the next year? Make them specific. Ie: Not “increase revenue,” but more like increase revenue by 20% from our top 20 clients. This list could start as ten things, but whittle it down to the three true needle-movers.
  2. Get buy-off from leadership and any other stakeholders who are influencers that these three things are the things.
  3. Make a list of everything you see that need to be done. Absolutely everything.
  4. Now, what’s on that uber list that supports your three main objectives? If something doesn’t, put it on your “nice to have” list that you’ll revisit someday when you have extra time…
  5. Then you make your marketing plan—that’s a blog post for another day

Edward Hess in his book Grow to Greatness says this:

“Successful business builders institutionalize “firehouse time,” that is, time that they get away from the daily fighting of fires to think about “working on” the business instead of working in the business. They use this time to think strategically and tactically about growth, processes, controls, and building their infrastructure.”

I love this—marketers need it too—time to think strategically each week will save you from running reactively from one fire to the next.

In marketing, everything truly matters. Especially at a small company where your time is so valuable. Email signatures may seem trivial, but are unifying and brand-supporting.

Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Sure you want to get a lot of things done and show your value as quickly as possible. However, since this effort won’t be over any time soon, create a pace you can sustain and chip away at the list the right way, not the fast way.

Spelling, grammar, formatting and appearance all reflects on you and your company brand. So it’s ok to be crazy grammar lady/guy. Embrace it. I do.