We’re here to improve the lives of our customers through marketing software.
Not to learn how to use Pomodoro sessions!
But I would argue that productivity is the ultimate meta skill. If you can get this right, your ability to add value to your audience will compound over time and you will run rings around competing marketers.
Let’s get into it…
Step 1 – Understand The Different Types Of Work
In most marketing departments, there are two types of work:
- Value creation work
- BAU work
“Value creation work” is where the magic happens…
This could be things like:
- Writing copy
- Defining strategy
- Finding keywords
It is usually hard, mentally intensive solo work.
BAU work on the other hand, can often be done in groups, is less mentally intense, and adds less value:
- Emails
- Team meetings
- Social posting
To boost your productivity, we need to ensure that a chunk of value creation work happens everyday, on autopilot, for years.
Step 2 – Find Out When You Do Your Best Work
Now we know the type of work that needs to be made a priority, we need to understand when we are going to do this work.
For most people, your ability to focus on tasks will decrease throughout the day. Therefore, it’s best to schedule in these value creation tasks as early as possible.
Ideally before most people start work.
For me, this is before 9am, as this is when the rest of the team and clients come online… meaning that my ability to focus reduces significantly.
Step 3 – Ritualise
Once you’ve locked in the time that you know you perform the best and are aware of the type of work you need to improve your marketing, it’s time to ritualise this: essentially putting the value creation on autopilot.
Structure everything around these “golden hours”.
I have the willpower to do high quality knowledge work for approximately two hours per day.
So I wake up at 6am, run with the dog, shower… make a cafetière of black coffee and then sit down to get these two hours done before 9am.
I try to not have emails or Slack open during this time to reduce distraction.
If I get this right, the rest of the day can be focussed on BAU and other less important tasks as I know that long term, these value creation tasks are those that will move our marketing forward.
Step 4 – Compound
Explosive SaaS growth and sensational marketing is not built overnight.
You need to understand that these things often occur as a result of small improvements made over a series of years.
You have to declare a whole day as a success if you are able to make a 1% improvement to your:
- Content strategy
- Paid ad copy
- Landing page design
Because if you are consistent in making these 1% improvements over two years, you will find growth and develop sensational campaigns:
Tiny improvements over years > Big improvements over months
I hope this was valuable for you… trust me, if you get this right, you will set yourself apart from 98% of the other marketers.
Few people really understand this stuff