Successful marketers don’t necessarily work more hours than you do or have advanced degrees. Much of successful marketing is the result of improved productivity, following the right habits, and committing to their top priorities. Take a note from successful marketers and engage in these six habits on a regular basis:
Write Down Your Daily Priorities
Each morning, make a list of the tasks you want to accomplish for the day, and follow the list in order. Prioritize by urgency, but also take into account how much time each task will require. This habit sets you up for success first thing in the morning and helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by midday. If you have too many tasks, delegate some to another team member or readjust your priorities and needs for the day.
Delegate Tasks
Speaking of delegating, make sure you actually do it. The most successful marketers don’t take on every project they need accomplished. They focus on their personal strengths and hire their weaknesses. If you don’t enjoy marketing, use an automation platform or hire a marketing assistant. If you have trouble staying organized, rely on a CRM or other technology tool to manage your contacts and paperwork. You’ll save time and see greater results.
Read the News
Both marketing and financial services are constantly changing. The only way to keep up and stay agile is to read the news. Get in the habit of aggregating relevant news feeds using an app like Flipboard or Feedly. This will help you sift through the thousands of articles published every day and focus on the topics that matter most for you, whether that’s social media marketing, investing, or another topic.
Check Your Numbers
The only way to improve your marketing is to know what’s working and what isn’t. Reviewing your analytics and running numbers are an important component of marketing. When you send out an email campaign, review the interaction and compare with previous campaigns. Monitor your social media profiles and respond to comments and questions. Look to see which of your website pages are getting the most traffic and why they may be so popular. Keep a spreadsheet of your monthly numbers so you can monitor your improvement over time.
Experiment
The best marketers take chances. They try new strategies and constantly adjust based on their results and client feedback. It can be intimidating to try something outside your comfort zone, but you may be surprised by the results. When in doubt, survey your clients and prospects to find out what type of content or communications they’d like to receive.
Get Feedback
Ask your clients and prospects how you’re doing. Do they enjoy your email campaigns? Is there something they’d like to see more or less of? The best marketers regularly engage with their contacts. A few months back, we sent out a survey to our newsletter subscribers (sign up here if you haven’t yet!). We asked them to rate our content and rank the topics of most interest. This really helped us understand the type of content you wanted to read more of and we adjusted our content calendar to reflect those wishes.
Marketing success is most often achieved through creativity, hard work, and perseverance. By following in the footsteps of other successful marketers and entrepreneurs, you can start seeing better results.