According to Charles Darwin, “a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life”. Darwin wasn’t known for his marketing nous, but he had a point. You want to leave the office at 5 pm and go to the pub or see your family. You don’t want to stare at an empty document, wondering what to write in your next email.
It’s all about maximising your time when you’re at work. And the best part is, the better you get at valuing your work time, the more value you get out of it.
We’ve been banging on about this for a few weeks, but Pareto really is your best friend. Following his principle, 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
It explains the uneven relationship between input and output. The principle also explodes the sporting chestnut of “giving it 100%”. Even if a top Premiership striker gives 100% effort for 90 minutes? He will only see results from 18 minutes of play.
While we often apply the principle to sales, it also applies to time. Because time is the one thing we can’t make more of. We can only maximise what’s available.
So if you spend four hours a week on marketing tasks, then, in theory, only 48 minutes produce results. It depends on what those tasks are. They might all be important to running your business.
But for measurable results, you get them from whatever you did in those 48 minutes.
It’s Vital to Place a Value on Your Time.
Identify what you did in those 48 minutes that produced results. Then do more of that and less of everything else.
But I know what the maths geeks among you are thinking.
If I then spend four hours on marketing, and 96 minutes doing those tasks? Surely the 80/20 rule still applies?
Yes. But you also know those tasks produce results. If permission marketing relies on sending the right message to the right person at the right time? You need to know what that message is before you can send it. And you must work out when that right time is.
59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective revenue-generating channel. So why wouldn’t you prioritise your email marketing efforts?
4 Ways to Maximise Your 20% of Effort
It’s easy to get sucked into working in your business, rather than on your business. Especially where marketing is concerned. New tactics pop up every day. Social media algorithms mess up your strategy, so you write a new one. And things like GDPR change how you do your marketing so you need to evolve your efforts.
But don’t worry. Here are four ways you can maximise your time to squeeze the most out of that 20% of effort.
1. Delegate Tasks You Don’t Need to Do
Sometimes, it’s easier for us to do a task than ask someone else. Maybe we do it faster. Or more accurately, so it doesn’t need to be redone later.
But your time has a value. Say you can generate £1,000 of sales with an email you write in 48 minutes. Should you spend those 48 minutes on something meaningless?
Ask yourself if you really need to do that task. Can you hand it onto someone else who doesn’t generate as much in sales? Spend more time explaining the task upfront once. Yes, that means investing your time. But you save yourself that time next week, and the next, and so on.
If you spend a little time writing checklists for repetitive tasks? You’ll save that time – and more – every time you don’t have to do them yourself.
2. Partner with Companies Who Can Help Save You Time
Maybe you still want to do certain things yourself. As a marketer, you know your company’s brand ‘voice’ better than anyone. It makes little sense to delegate writing emails to someone new.
Partner with an email marketing provider who makes sending professional emails easy. Websand offers a range of design frameworks so your emails always look amazing.
77% of consumers still prefer receiving promo messages by email, rather than social media. Focusing on email is still your best marketing bet.
Spend less time designing them and more time writing them. That translates as switching your efforts to the task more likely to generate sales. Pareto would be proud.
3. Try Productivity Cycles
No one can work flat-out for a solid period. Try a productivity cycle like the Pomodoro technique instead. Set a timer for 25 minutes and work on your task, and only that task. After 25 minutes, take a five-minute break. Walk around the office. Make a cuppa. Check the headlines. Your choice.
Rinse and repeat. You’ll check your emails or fiddle with social media platforms less. That means more time spent on tasks that generate income.
If the 25/5 split doesn’t work for you, try 20 minutes of work and a 10-minute break. Or 30 minutes work and a 15-minute break. Whatever suits your working patterns best.
4. Work in ‘Chunks’
‘Batching’ is a common term among bloggers. It means chunking together similar tasks. If you run your company blog, you might spend one chunk finding the images for your next four posts. Another chunk might be adding keywords and working on SEO.
Email marketing automation lends well itself to chunking. Draft an email sequence in one chunk. Spend another crafting emails for a specific segment. Or another creating segments from your Eventbrite integration.
Working with an intense focus on similar tasks maximises the time you spend on them. Getting back into the mindset of a different task wastes time. Chunking saves switching back and forth.
Put a Value on Your Time to Get Value out of Your Time.
Follow any of these suggestions to switch the focus back to what generates income.
Here at Websand, we want you to spend less time fretting about marketing and more time doing it. If you’re struggling with your email marketing, or you want a partner to help you 1-up your strategy, get in touch.
Did we mention we’re GDPR-compliant?