It’s the new year. You’re rested, and you’re clear … Now what?
Picking up where the last blog left off, we’re talking about how to prioritize your marketing tasks stemming from your strategy. Having a clear next step is more likely to bring real change, whereas “new year, new me” ground-zero changes usually fail. (High effort / low immediate ROI.) They are dreamy, amazing goals that don’t usually come with an action plan.
So instead of winging it with high hopes, here’s how we rank marketing priorities for ourselves and clients.
The “What Now” Matrix
There’s this (dangerous) preconceived notion that the best way to accomplish goals is to set your sights and just grind it out. Work as hard as you can until you hit your targets.
The problem is, you can run really fast and hard into the woods hoping to come out the other side, but without a map, you may end up going in circles.
At GreenCup Digital, we prioritize tasks with the lowest effort and highest impact first. These are your Step 1s. And continue from there with the same concept. Ask yourself, what is the impact vs. effort? Think of this way of organizing tasks as a four-quadrant graph.
The secret to a sustainable year isn’t working harder; it’s working on the right quadrant at the right time. Let’s dig a little into each quadrant.
Quick Wins: The Momentum Builders (Low Effort / High Impact)
Quick wins are those easy or simple tasks (things that don’t take much time or effort) that have huge payoffs. That dopamine hit you get when you get to check something off your list is amplified by how much these tasks move the needle for your business.
Consider these examples:
- Making your CTAs clearer
- Updating the CTAs on your website doesn’t take much manual labor. However, data shows clearer, more direct CTAs drive action. Tell them exactly what action they should take next with short and sweet “Learn More” or “Contact Us” or “Apply Now” buttons.
- Setting up an automated “Welcome” email for new subscribers
- This one-time task for “today” you does serious heavy lifting for “future” you. Welcome emails are valuable touchpoints for your clients. Setting them to trigger automatically? Huge time saver.
- Updating your Google Business Profile hours and photos
- If you’re ignoring your Google Business Profile, you’re missing out on some serious SEO low hanging fruit. Regularly updating your pictures, NAP info (name, address, phone number), and promotions tells Google you’re relevant and ready to engage with customers. Simple.
Small changes make a big impact! Identify the little tasks that have been piling up and check them off first! Getting them done not only helps you build momentum for the larger-to-tackle items, but it also accelerates your business with little effort from you.
Big Projects: The North Stars (High Effort / High Impact)
This is where that “new year, new me” energy goes to die if you don’t have a map. For example, you did your brand audit and realized your website is not aligned. EMERGENCY! You have to completely transform your website – right now. Right?
Simple answer? No.
While a website re-do deserves to stay on your to-do list, this is a project that also requires a lot of mini steps and will take a longer amount of time. Think: high impact / high effort. If you charge head-first into this project while ignoring everything else, you’re missing opportunities to make quick, impactful changes now.
Here are some other examples of high impact / high effort projects:
- Full rebrand
- Launching a new core product or service line
- Building an evergreen webinar funnel
These are all exciting and worthy projects, but remember to slow down. Pick one per quarter. Break each project into multiple “quick win” chunks so you don’t lose steam and don’t let them suck energy away from the low effort / high impact tasks.
Fill-ins: The Consistency Keepers (Low Effort / Low Impact)
These tasks don’t take much planning or strategy to complete, but they also don’t work that hard for you, either. It’s easy to get lost here because they mask themselves as things that will build your business, but actually don’t carry much weight.
Consider these tasks that can eat up your time, but don’t directly drive outcomes:
- General “lifestyle” social media posts
- They’re fun updates, but if you’re spending more than 15-20 minutes on them, the effort is outweighing the impact. Keep these as short check-ins!
- Standard weekly newsletters that just say “hello”
- Newsletters are great checkpoints with your audience, but they don’t generally drive action. Use templates and automation to expedite these!
- Adding random keywords to pages on your website
- Make sure your SEO efforts have a purpose. While meta descriptions and properly using keywords make a huge difference, make sure you’re choosing keywords that you can realistically rank for. Also ensure the pages you choose are the best fit for the keywords you’re using.
Don’t let these tasks suck up your days. Automate, delegate, or batch these whenever possible to speed up the process. Whatever you do, keep them out of your “deep work” time.
Time Wasters: The Ego Traps (High Effort / Low Impact)
These tasks feel innovative, fresh and trendy. But unless it’s relevant to your brand, it’s just a trap. Many marketers feel pressured to keep up with the Joneses, or do that TikTok trend everyone else is doing, but not all trends are created equal.
For example, if your brand sells caskets, maybe you shouldn’t do the aura-farming boat kid trend. (Maybe you shouldn’t be on TikTok at all… but that’s up to you.)
Here are some other examples of time-wasting ego traps:
- Perfecting a 20-page PDF lead magnet that your audience doesn’t need and doesn’t want.
- If you’re spending time on a lead magnet, make sure you have the data to support it!
- Joining a new social platform just because it’s “the next big thing”
- Don’t join a social platform because all your friends and family are on it. Join a social platform because your audience is on it. That’s the difference.
If it doesn’t make sense for your brand, it doesn’t belong on your to-do list. Stop. Delete. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
How to Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks
Before you get lost in the woods, audit your to-do list to make sure your priorities actually lead you where you want to go.
Follow this easy 3-step process:
- Step 1: The Brain Dump
- Get everything you think you should do out of your head and onto paper. This helps take the mental stress off your shoulders and helps you visualize it.
- Step 2: The Honest Plotting
- It’s time to edit this list. Be ruthless, like a dear friend who will always be honest with you. Always start with your data. Your data is your compass. If the data doesn’t support that high effort TikTok strategy will work for your B2B consulting firm, you’re operating on ego, not data.
- Step 3: The 80/20 Rule
- Identify the 20% of tasks (Quick Wins + Big Projects) that will drive 80% of your results. Do those first! Then, go down the list prioritizing the rest with the same thought process. Remember: Low effort / high impact first!
Strategy is About Sacrifice
You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Ranking your list isn’t about the lore of grinding it out or just smashing targets. It’s about being effective. And that starts with being strategic. If your to-do list is all “Big Projects,” you’re going to quit by the second quarter. If it’s all “Fill-ins,” your business won’t grow. Balance is the goal.
Need customized help structuring your marketing strategy? At GreenCup Digital, we work with our clients, acting as an extension of their marketing team to help them reach those big goals. Without burnout. Drop us a line today to find out if we’re a good fit for your business.
