A lean set of resources requires, investment in time and energy on the most impact activities.
In an early startup or small business, a large marketing organization is a rarity. Odds are you have one, at most two, scrappy marketing employees wearing quite a few hats. And if you happen to be one of those folks, you know things can be challenging.
You want to put a strong strategy in place. You’ve got bold ideas. You want to help the business grow.
But with most likely minimal budget, being realistic about what’s possible is essential. And as you bounce between activities - content creation, social media, website, campaigns and more - you need to look at what’s working and where it makes the most sense to spend your time (or not).
The reality is you can’t do it all. Or at least not at the level you’d like. And having been in this situation, I can attest firsthand. You’re brainstorming new ideas, reading about the latest leading practices in marketing blogs - you wish you could do it all today.
But you want to be smart about how you invest your energy. So let’s take a look at a couple tips to help make the most of the time and resources you have.
7 Rules for the Scrappy One-Person Marketing Team:
1. Be Ruthless About Your Time
Focus on the highest impact activities and prioritize them above anything else.
Any marketer will always wish they could do more. One more blog post. A few more minutes tinkering email copy. A new explainer video for your sales team. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do in a day so invest your time wisely.
2. Plan Ahead
Set up an editorial calendar and layout your content and campaigns for the next month.
Then block off “writing” time on your calendar to make posts, articles or whatever you have lined up. And if you find yourself in a writing groove, knock out a couple pieces at one time. You can space them out over the course of weeks or the month - giving you some buffer and a steady stream of fresh content.
3. Continually Experiment
Being stagnant is a recipe for failure. Constantly test new ideas, measure (#6) and iterate accordingly.
Start small and be sure to isolate variables so you can walk away with tangible results. Consider A/B testing email subject lines or times of day you send email to evaluate open rates. Or test variations of landing page copy to see what converts better. Keep a log and constantly make refinements based on what you find.
4. Channel Your Inner MacGyver
You probably won’t have the luxury of a huge team or an agency that is constantly cranking out content. So you have to channel your inner MacGyver and be resourceful.
When possible, one piece of content should service many purposes. How?
Here are a three examples:
- Created an eBook? Break it down into a 3-4 post series on your blog and point back to the original gated content
- Wrote a whitepaper? Turn compelling research and stats into infographics or quick visuals you can share
- Have a few recent blog posts? Grab select soundbites and snippets to use as social media posts and link back to your post
Next- Rules 5-7 for a Scrappy Marketing team
.
5. Let Automation Work for You
Automation can help your team of 1-2 seem like a team of 30. Many tools offer automated workflows that will trigger actions when a customer or prospect completes a certain activity - say signing up for your newsletter or downloading a piece of gated content from your website.
Automation can be especially helpful when it comes to content sourcing (check out tools like Quuu, Flipboard and even Google Alerts), social media management (Buffer and Hootsuite) and email and drip campaigns (Drip, Customer.io, ConvertKit). Any tools you put in place should help free up time that you can focus on other key needs.
6. Don’t Be an Island
What good is all the great content and resources you’re creating if no one in the company knows they're available? Don’t be shy, ask colleagues and other teammates to help get the word out!
A quick retweet, share or like only takes a few seconds and can go a long way in amplifying your efforts. Give others a quick heads up when there’s new content to promote or a great brand mention to share.
7. Avoid the ‘Set It and Forget It’ Approach
Constantly look at your metrics to see what’s working (hint: do more of this!) and what can be adjusted. The ‘set it and forget it’ only works with slow cookers :)
Lean on the data to make informed, objective decisions. You want to be sure your time and resources are being spent wisely. If the goal is boost traffic, frequently check Google Analytics to see what sources and pages are performing best.
Impact of social?
Track activity on your social media posts. Lead gen? Keep a pulse on conversions and click through rate from any paid media to make sure dollars are being spent effectively.
No matter how scrappy you may be, it’s almost impossible for a one-person marketing team to do everything really well. Be focused and know your strengths. Be realistic and constantly evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Look for ways to extend, amplify and scale your efforts so you can work smarter, not harder.
With a lean set of resources, invest your time and energy on the activities that will have the biggest impact on your business today. Here’s to the scrappy one-person marketing team!
Related articles:
Limited Budget Marketing Essentials