A business won’t thrive, let alone survive, without marketing. However, regardless of which statistics you’re looking at, it takes time—a lot of it. Small businesses, for instance, need to spend at least 20 hours a week.
How do you reduce the time spent on marketing efforts, mainly digital marketing, without compromising quality and results? Here are four ideas:
1. Let SEO Professionals Handle It
For your digital marketing campaigns, hire an SEO company—period. Even if you have incredible knowledge of search engine optimization, keeping up with Google algorithm updates alone is time-consuming and exhausting.
According to MOZ, the mighty search engine improved search results over 3,000 times in 2018. It’s a far cry from fewer than a thousand in 2013. Some of these significant updates could mean an overhaul or quick changes on your website and SEO efforts.
2. Automate as Much as You Can
The Internet blesses you with many applications or platforms that can automate many digital marketing routine tasks:
- Schedule your social media posts with Buffer or Hootsuite
- Remind your clients and staff on their tasks and meetings with Google Calendar, Trello, and other project management tools
- Write blog posts ahead and schedule their publications in WordPress
- Send email blasts with AWeber and other autoresponders
- Run online ads, from Facebook to Google Ads, seamlessly using their respective dashboards
You can dedicate two to four hours a week for tweaks and updates and then let the systems do the rest!
3. Create a Content Calendar
Everything takes time, including idea development. Worse, you might find yourself stuck, such as you don’t know what to write. It only extends the time of doing nothing. To resolve that, use a content calendar.
A content calendar helps you achieve these:
- Determine the number of publications a week (you don’t need to write a post every day—three is often enough)
- Find relevant posts for your blog (this saves you from mental burnout and writers’ block)
- Create outlines for each to streamline your writing process
- Identify content variety, such as infographics, podcast transcripts, interviews, etc. (because you don’t want your content to be b-o-r-i-n-g)
- Run a tighter content marketing campaigns (for example, a mini-course)
Creating a content calendar need not be complicated. A spreadsheet or, if you’re traditional, a real calendar with ample spaces will do. If you’re looking for inspiration, Coschedule has some examples.
4. Hire a Virtual Assistant
What is a virtual assistant? They’re people who can handle many repetitive and usual tasks, such as:
- Bookkeeping
- Content creation
- Social media management
- Customer service
- Appointment setting
- Data entry
- Research
Many small businesses don’t want to hire VAs since they believe these are extra costs. However, most company owners spend as much as 16 hours a week doing all these.
That’s over 30% of their working hours if they operate at least 40 hours weekly. You can redirect your 16 hours to more critical areas of the business that will generate higher revenues and improve cash flow.
These days, many agencies can provide you with a VA for less than $7 an hour. You can also hire them part-time or full-time to give you greater flexibility.
Time is gold is a cliché, but it’s also true. You better use it wisely by learning how to do digital marketing hustle well.