Marketing can be stressful as it takes a lot of time and energy to execute. Even for those who seem to have a better mechanism to streamline their marketing processes, it can still be overwhelming and nerve-racking.
However, in spite of all the pressures involved, the results are worth the effort. Avoiding productivity landmines will aid you to simplify your day for greater impact. Nonetheless, you might be wondering, “what are the top productivity landmines you should avoid” to improve your marketing methods?
There are many of them, but we have assembled the top seven productivity challenges you must avoid to enable you to boost your marketing productivity. Here are some of the most common problems that are hurting your productivity.
1: Choosing The Wrong Business Partner Is a Productivity Challenge to Avoid
Your business partner should be someone with whom you have a friendly and sociable relationship. Your partnership is a long-term bond which one can compare to a marriage. People don’t get married with the hope to get a divorce because they have a profound understanding of each.
In consequence, they are willing to go through good and bad times together. Similarly, your business partner must be ready to work with you through favorable seasons and rough times. But if you choose the wrong person as your business partner, he may give up on you when the business is not going well.
In this case, you’ll become unproductive since you have to tackle the issues all alone. So when selecting a business partner such as a Co-founder, choose someone who business concepts agree with yours.
It will help you improve your productivity and accomplish more.
2: Spending Too Much Time in Content Creation
As a digital marketer, the primary marketing strategy for growing your business is likely content marketing. This marketing tactic implies creating a content strategy for your business. Your content strategy will include blog post writing, video content, and other content types that connect better with your target audience.
That is why 78% of marketers admitted that creating quality blog content is instrumental to their company’s overall success. Moreover, 90% of B2B marketers are utilizing the material to expand and grow their businesses. That is according to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs.
These marketing activities will assist you in building trust and credibility with your buyer persona. However, at some point, you get lost and spend valuable time thinking of topic ideas for your next blog content.
But did you know? You’re not alone in this situation as a study reveals. The survey shows that creating quality content is one of the biggest challenges for marketers. However, I recently wrote a post about how to consistently brainstorm blog topic ideas.
Generating more content ideas will help you spend less time on content creation and overcome the unproductivity that is associated with it for your blog or clientele.
3: Not Having a Focus When Creating Content
How do you improve your blog’s productivity when you have no concentration? It is impossible. You need to have a focus not only to become productive but also to help you thrive online. A non-focused blog with lost its readership because it is not clear to the reader what the blog or content represents.
You’ll hardly appear on searches since search engine bots will not understand your content. So having a focus will boost your productivity and grow your business faster because you’re producing content with your ideal reader in mind.
4: You Do Not Have a Sustainable Documented Content Strategy
Why do you need a content strategy? You need to create a content strategy because it will assist you in identifying your marketing objectives and how to achieve your goals. It helps you prioritize and concentrate on what is more important to scale your business.
In fact, the research mentioned above also indicates that the primary reason why several companies fail is the lack of a sustainable content strategy.
The study shows that 75% of companies have a content strategy, but only 37% have theirs documented. However, you should create one for your business to help improve your productivity.
Your content strategy takes care of the content planning processes, production, and management. It also governs the distribution of content. So to be productive and frequently create content pieces that connect with your target audience, you should develop a content strategy and document it.
For this reason, 72% of marketers who responded to the survey attributed their companies continued success year-over-year to developing and adjusting their content strategy.
5: Not Using An Editorial Calendar Is a Common Productivity Challenge You Should Avoid
One of the common reasons why content marketers are unproductive is the lack of an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar gives you the framework or arrangement for content creation and distribution for optimal results.
This marketing tool (editorial calendar) should be freelancer’s best friend and marketers in general.
It helps you accomplish your task and allow you to focus on other vital areas of your business. But who uses an editorial calendar? Businesses-big and small, bloggers, content marketers, organizations, publishers, etc.
You can use this fantastic tool to manage content production and promotion across various marketing channels. And the bottom line is that it will aid you to boost your productivity.
6: Not Asking for Help and Advice Is A Terrible Productivity Challenge to Avoid
Asking for help and advice is like cutting short the length of your marketing activities. People never stop learning, so there are situations where you get stuck along the way and need help to move forward.
Do you ask other experts for advice and suggestions on how to navigate your way to success? Don’t be afraid to ask. After all, they who have the habit of asking questions often performers better.
Failing to seek out the help of other marketers is a productivity land mine that is hurting your business. You have nothing to lose. Just ask! However, before asking, you need to build relationships with marketers in your niche. In that way, it would be easier for them to offer help and suggestions where needed.
7: You’re Not Delegating and Outsourcing Task
Delegating and outsourcing have a striking resemblance, but they are different in meaning. So we will address them accordingly.
Delegating Tasks
Delegating is the method of assigning work to team members for faster processing and quick returns. But you agree that some business owners prefer to do everything alone. It is a lousy marketing practice because it will only decrease your productivity and burn you out – resulting in not accomplishing more.
Delegating tasks to those of your team will help in many ways, including allowing team members to thrive in the stress-free workplace and improve their skills. Other benefits include:
- Increase communication in the workplace
- Collective success
- Saves time
- Builds an efficient team
- Increase productivity
- Achieve more
However, if you’re a small business owner, you may not have team members to delegate the company’s work. In this case, you can outsource your task.
Outsourcing Task
Outsourcing task is the procedure of gaining services from other sources on a contract basis. It might be the acquisition of products or services for your company or clients. Put differently; it refers to the practice of using an external enterprise, agency, or company to manage work your company would have done.
For example, many small and medium-sized businesses always outsource content creation and social media management to freelance writers and social media managers. One of my clients told me that he loves writing, but he doesn’t know how to write.
When he writes, his articles would contain plagiarized content. Outsourcing to qualified writers will tackle that issue and avoid plagiarism in your essay. The tactics enable you to carry out more work and increase production.
Moreover, it can help you enhance your time management strategies which will allow you to channel your concentration on other vital matters. Also, outsourcing comes with the following advantages:
- Increase efficiency
- Reduce labor costs for business owners
- Start new business ventures rapidly
- Focus on your business goals
- Etc.
Outsourcing gives business owners ample time to focus on the essential aspects of their business, which helps to improve productivity.
Wrapping Up
Here we have the seven productivity challenges that some marketers are facing. Evaluate these challenges carefully and avoid them to help streamline your marketing activities. Doing so will enable you to improve productivity and the effectiveness of your business.
What other productivity challenges would you like to add to the list above? Comment below.