4 Manual Marketing Tasks That Are Eating Up Your Time

Manual marketing tasks require a lot of your valuable time. We know it can be difficult to hand someone else the keys to some of the most critical functions of your business, marketing oversight and marketing research. Especially if you've developed your business from inception! However, it's likely that your business could be more profitable by delegating these tasks to others.

Here are four areas to help you pare down the time you invest in marketing tasks, allowing you to focus on more important matters in your business.

1. Writing Ad Copy

Unless you have spent a lot of time devoted specifically to the tactics of marketing, you're better off engaging professionals to handle this one. Consider all the hours you've spent writing:

• Press releases
• Product descriptions
• Radio spots
• Website copy
• Blog content
• Print ad copy
• Social media content
• Direct mail or email campaigns

Tally up all that writing and you've probably spent some serious time grappling with these essential needs of your business.

In most cases, the organization you're advertising with has a department very skilled in writing the right kind of copy for the media. Spend twenty minutes talking to a professional, provide them with a rough outline of the message you want to deliver, and let the pros handle it. You'll be amazed by how much less work you need to do.

2. Agonizing Over Website Traffic

Website traffic is crucial for most successful businesses, no secret there. But if you're spending more than an hour per week reviewing your statistics with a microscope and combing through traffic metrics, you're likely wasting valuable time.  You should consider engaging dedicated professional services for this part of your business. The guidelines for what to do and how to do it change so quickly, it is not efficient to try to take this on yourself or grab one of your employees to do it in addition to other duties. 

Explore our SEO articles for more help on this topic.

3. Re-hashing Customer Service Issues Beyond Resolution

Customer service is obviously a key factor in your organization's success, and it actually functions as a part of marketing to your current customer base. We're not telling you to avoid conflict resolutions, nor to forget to follow up with your clients. But once you've done all you can to make it right for your client, move on. Don't continue to harangue yourself or your staff over a mix-up.

You're better off focusing on new solutions for your clients, using mishaps to make improvements, staying ahead of the curve, than agonizing over individual incidents that cannot be undone.

4. Spreadsheets Full of Marketing ROI Calculations 

We're not telling you to not track your marketing ROI, we're suggesting you change the way you're doing it. Time spent coming up with complicated spreadsheets and custom avenues for gathering data is time that could have been spent on more profitable tasks.  There are apps and software platforms today that make this task easier, even when you're using a variety of tactics and strategies.  

With the right software, in-house team members can be trained to help you monitor KPIs (key performance indicators) while you outsource other tactics to professionals. This gives you the oversight you need while being able to take advantage of expertise that doesn't exist within your own staff.

If you're feeling the pain of wasted time chasing around marketing and sales data and using it to figure out your next move, you will appreciate our Definitive Guide to Modern Marketing. It's a comprehensive view of the technology innovation that can help with these tasks and it is sure to help you sort out the shortest route for business growth.