71% of marketing executives report feelings of burnout. The most common complaint is that they don't have enough time. What can you do to improve your time management as a marketing executive?

1. Time Management
For Marketing Executives
Courtesy of Antle & Associates: http://www.antleandassociates.com

2. What You Will Learn:
• Why marketing executives are so pressed for time
• Five core principles of time management for marketing executives
• Use the 80-20 Rule to reduce your workload
• You don’t have to be everywhere at once
• Automation is your friend
• Get help
• Maintain yourself for peak performance

3. Why are marketing executives so pressed for time?

4. Why marketing executives?
More to do
• Content marketing and growth
hacking have increased the workload
of marketing departments
• Constant communication with
customers creates more opportunities
for marketing, but also more work for
marketers
Less to do it with
• The lean startup ideology has led to
companies of all sizes cutting positions
across the board, so marketing
departments are smaller
• The budget of marketing departments
for advertising and marketing has
decreased, even as the marketing
expectations have increased

5. Content Marketing and Growth Hacking
• Content marketing and growth hacking are two techniques pioneered by
small startup companies without much budget for traditional marketing
techniques. They are extremely effective in supplanting traditional marketing.
• Content marketing and growth hacking require a different skillset than
traditional marketing, so experienced marketers are having to go “back to
school” and learn a lot of new skills.
• The volume of content and the amount of work involved in growth hacking
requires a lot of manpower for content creation and curation.

6. Customer Pressure
• Customers fully expect that companies and businesses will be available 24/7
via social media and email. When these companies aren’t, customers will
respond with complaints on social media, which can seriously damage your
brand.
• In today’s global marketplace, an international market requires marketers to
devote time and energy to meeting the needs of customers in different
countries and time zones, which requires greater manpower than in a more
localized market.

7. Lean Startup Ideology
• The lean startup method emphasizes a minimum viable product, meaning that
marketers are expected to begin their work before a working prototype is even
complete.
• Lean startup thinking has led to cuts in companies of all sizes, and the marketing
department is often bears the brunt of these cuts. This reduces the workforce and
man hours available for marketing.
• A focus on cost-cutting often neglects the most important point: Time is money.
Many free or low-cost marketing methods require significant investments of time.

8. Expectations have grown
Budgets have shrunk
• In the pre-Internet days, no business expected to be profitable within the
first few years. Now, businesses expect to be extremely profitable in under a
year.
• Because many modern marketing techniques reduce the cost of ad spending,
it is often presumed that the cost of marketing will decrease.
• Money that used to be spent on advertising is now spent on labor, but not
enough money is allocated.

10. Five Core Principles of Time Management for
Marketing Executives
• Use the 80-20 Rule to reduce your workload
• You don’t have to be everywhere at once
• Automation is your friend
• Get help
• Maintain yourself for peak performance

11. Use the 80-20 Rule to reduce your workload
• The 80-20 Rule (Pareto’s Principle) states that 80% of your profit will come
from 20% of your customers. Likewise, 20% of your marketing efforts will
yield 80% of your results.
• The key is to focus on the 20%, increasing the time and energy devoted to
the productive 20% while decreasing or eliminating the unproductive 80%.

12. 80-20 Rule (Example)
• Anna is a social media manager for Intellion Software, a fictional company we’ll use
in our examples. Anna decides to apply the 80-20 rule to the company’s social media
strategy.
• As it stands, the company is actively posting and engaging on Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn.
• In any given month, Twitter results in 25,000 unique hits on their landing page, but
only 1% of those convert to join their mailing list (250). Facebook results in 15,000
hits, but 3% of those convert (450). LinkedIn results in only 10,000 hits, but 7% of
those convert (700).

13. Anna and the 80-20 Rule (continued)
• The company gets more hits from Twitter, but they get more conversions from
LinkedIn traffic. Since the goal of a landing page is to get email signups (not hits),
their LinkedIn page is the most productive social media channel for boosting
signups.
• Anna estimates that Twitter requires about 180 man hours per month. Facebook
requires about 90, and LinkedIn requires about 70.
• Anna decides that the company still needs a Twitter and Facebook presence, so
they’ll continue to post to both platforms but will greatly reduce engagement.

14. Anna and the 80-20 Rule (continued)
• Therefore, Anna reduces the Twitter time from 180 hours a month to only 5,
and she cuts the Facebook time from 90 hours a month to just 10.
Meanwhile, because LinkedIn is such a productive channel, Anna increases
engagement on LinkedIn from 70 hours to 140.
• Anna saves 85 man hours per month.
• Before the change, Anna was getting 50,000 landing page hits per month, but
only 1,400 conversions. After the change, Anna is only getting 28,612 hits,
but she’s getting 1,520 conversions.

15. How to use the 80-20 Rule
• First, set up clear goals that align with the goals of your company. If your
company’s goal is to increase revenue, you need to be looking at sales data,
not website hits. If your company’s goal is to increase brand awareness,
website hits might be an appropriate metric.
• Second, examine how each customer acquisition channel meets the end
goals. For example, if your email list converts 10% of subscribers to
customers and your website converts 1% of store visitors to customers, it
might be best to focus on email acquisitions more than store visits.

16. How to use the 80-20 Rule (continued)
• Once you identify the best-performing customer acquisition channels, adjust
the priorities and time allotment of your team to focus more time and
attention on the best-performing channels.
• Finally, continuously monitor, analyze, and adjust your strategy. Customer
acquisition rates will change over time, and sometimes an increase in
marketing time doesn’t result in a commensurate increase in favorable
outcomes. Make sure to continue testing and experimentation.

17. You don’t have to be everywhere at once
• Anna learned a very important lesson when looking at her metrics. She
originally believed that it was important for her company to be active
everywhere. Her metrics revealed that time spent on Twitter wasn’t as
important to her success as LinkedIn.
• Social media networks multiply like rabbits. Some of us still remember when
MySpace was a thing! These days, you have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, What’sApp, Whispr, Snapchat, Google+,
YouTube, Vine, Reddit, Flickr, Yik Yak, and Periscope, just to name some of
them! That’s a LOT of places to be!

18. Where should you be?
• As a general rule, everybody benefits from Facebook and YouTube. Other
networks may or may not be necessary to your network.
• For general principles, companies targeting Millenials should be on
What’sApp, SnapChat, Whispr, Vine, Yik Yak, and Reddit – while it’s not
necessary to be on all of these, these are a few networks targeted at
Millenials.
• Companies targeting tech and gadget users will benefit from Reddit,
YouTube, and Google+.

19. Where should you be? (continued)
• Companies targeting Generation X and Generation Y should consider a
more active Facebook presence, as well as Twitter. If you’re targeting females
of these generations, Pinterest and Periscope are good networks to consider.
• Companies with a strong B2B market will almost always benefit from
LinkedIn, and Google+ is a good idea for companies in the Internet or tech
sector in B2B and B2C sales.
• While these general principles may give you some ideas, it’s important to
constantly test and adjust based on your own company’s metrics.

20. Automation is your friend
• We’ve all been victims of bad social media automation, particularly on
Twitter. But automation is not all bad.
• For Twitter, SocialBro is an excellent tool for helping to automate
engagement.
• For multiple social networks, HootSuite can help you to automate your
broadcasts.
• BufferApp can help you automate Twitter posting and integrates nicely with
Feedly, making it ideal for content curation on Twitter.

21. Automation is your friend (continued)
• Moz is virtually mandatory for SEO marketing, as their tools are very
valuable for SEO marketers.
• HubSpot is an ideal tool for automating the customer acquisition process.
• IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a wonderful tool for automating virtually
everything.
• Marketo and Zapier are highly recommended automation tools that may help
to decrease workload.

22. Get help
• This one is easier said than done, but it may be the most effective time-saver of all.
• Depending on your budget constraints, it may or may not be possible or cost-
effective to hire an additional person in the marketing department. Using a
freelancer might be a more cost-effective option.
• You don’t always need to focus on getting help professionally. A virtual assistant
may be able to help with personal items as well, like buying birthday gifts for family
members, making medical appointments, and other personal tasks.

23. Freelancer vs. Employee
Freelancer
• Usually higher quality creative
work, as freelancers must
continually prove their worth in
order to stay in business
• Paid only for delivery of the work,
not for hourly wages
Employee
• Greater loyalty, meaning that any
training or professional
development you provide will
benefit your company
• Paid wages and often entitled to
fringe benefits such as healthcare

24. Freelancer vs. Employee (continued)
Freelancer
• Usually works from their own
office with their own equipment,
negating the need for your
company to purchase them
• May be difficult to supervise or
oversee
Employee
• Usually works in your office,
making meetings and
communication more convenient
and timely
• May require ongoing training or
professional development

25. Maintain yourself for peak performance
• Marketing executives are stressed out and unhealthy. According to an Axxon
media survey of marketing executives, 71% reported feeling burnt out.
• As the leader of your marketing team, you may have a tendency to work
harder than others to set a good example. However, this can impair your
judgment and make decision-making, strategizing, and creative work more
difficult.
• Sleep deprivation, unhealthy eating, and a lack of exercise increase stress and
health difficulties.

26. Getting enough sleep
• SleepCycle is an app that helps track your sleep and awakens you at the right
point in your sleep cycle.
• Establishing a healthy and consistent bedtime routine can help to prevent
insomnia, and avoiding caffeine in the evenings can help you fall asleep
faster.
• Leaving the office at a reasonable hour and putting work behind you gives
you time to relax before getting ready for bed, making it easier to sleep.

27. Eating healthy
• Healthy eating can be a challenge when you’re pressed for time. By
outsourcing some or all of the meal preparation, you can eat healthy without
spending too much time.
• Services like BlueApron can deliver all your ingredients plus cooking
instructions. Many of these services specialize in quick meals, healthy meals,
or other specialty cooking.
• Amazon delivery can often help with grocery shopping, as well as delivery
from your local grocer.

28. Eating healthy (continued)
• In most major metro areas, there’s no shortage of restaurants that deliver. In
many areas, a move toward healthy eating has led to the development of
more healthy and nutritious meal delivery options.
• Companies like Healthy Chef Creations can deliver pre-made chef-prepared
healthy meals to your door.

29. Not enough exercise
The owner of Antle & Associates, Holly, doesn’t usually like to share her
personal stories, but she’ll make an exception. When she first transitioned from
outside sales to digital marketing, she was very healthy from all the walking she
did during her sales runs. Within a month of switching to digital marketing, she
had gained 16 pounds and developed chronic neck and back pain. She
attributes this to the increase in time spent behind the computer and the
decrease in physical activity.

30. Not enough exercise (continued)
• Find ways to get more physical activity in your workday. Using a standing
desk, an exercise ball instead of a computer chair, or a below-desk exercise
bike can help you to remain active while working.
• Take frequent breaks, and use those breaks to be physically active. Step
outside for about 10 minutes each hour and just walk around.
• Use time on the treadmill or elliptical to catch up on podcasts, listen to
audiobooks, and expand your professional development.

31. Final Thoughts
• Understand that you’re not alone. Overwork is a feature found in virtually
every marketing department in the developed world. Every marketing
executive feels overwhelmed and overworked at times.
• Be willing to admit that you’re overwhelmed and work to find solutions to
your time constraints.
• Work with your spouse, friends, or family members to maintain your
relationships with them. They can often be a valuable resource for helping
you control your overwork.

32. Thank you!
For more information,
or if you need some help with your content creation or copywriting, contact us at:
http://www.antleandassociates.com