A lot of the time, successful marketing is about balancing being creative (which I talked about in my last email) with having solid systems in place that can make implementation easier.
The more we can reduce the friction of thinking through how to implement, time and again, the faster we can get our creative ideas out there.
Great ideas are great ideas … but consistent communication is essential,
Here are some ideas about how to add systems and save time:
- Use templates – instead of starting all over at the beginning, have some documents that prompt you for plans, writing, social media posting, etc. Don’t start all over again at the beginning every time.
- Use project or task management software. Products like Asana, Trello, or my current favorite – ClickUp have a wealth of options for getting all your ideas organized in time and across teams if you need it. There are also automations and links to other software such as calendars etc.
- Batch your time. Instead of doing social media as and when the mood strikes you, aim to have a set time when you can produce a few different posts and schedule them. You can always add ideas on the fly, but having some forward planning can help take the panic out of social media creation.
- Automate repetitive tasks. Text Expander is my current favorite tool for this. It “expands” short pieces of text to longer words, phrases (or whole documents) that you specify. I currently have little shortcuts that automatically insert:
- my email address
- a link to my Zoom meeting room
- an online calendar invitation
- a long description of a group I am part of, which I often have to send to people.
All of these mean precious minutes saved – I don’t have to type (my typing has never been great) or having to go and search out info to cut and paste.
I would LOVE to hear about what systems you like to use to make your marketing and your business easier!