5 Tips to Manage Your Digital Marketing Overwhelm
Digital marketing can be overwhelming, especially when you have a long to-do list to do everyday. It's daunting to know if you're doing the right thing for your brand and utilizing the right tools. But don't worry, I'm here to help. Let me take some of the overwhelm out of your digital marketing efforts. Here are a few ways to stop feeling so overwhelmed:
1. Take the time at the end of the month to set yourself up for success in advance
In Marketing we are constantly on the go, go, go. If you can set yourself up at the end of the month for the next do it, utilize the tools available to you and plan ahead. You will feel less overwhelmed day to day and if you do set up your content plan in advance then you will have more time to create engaging stories, and interact with your audience, and work on growth tactics day to day. Here is a list of tips that I rely heavily on to make sure I am getting myself and my clients closer to their markeing goals.
Embrace automation: AI-powered tools are not just about overwhelming you with new technology; they are designed to make your work easier. Zapier and Hubspot have honestly became my best friends in the last few months. No matter what you want to streamline I swear there is a zap for it and they just integrated AI which can help to automate routine tasks and let you focus on the strategic parts of marketing.
Educate yourself constantly: The digital marketing landscape is ever-changing. Regularly learning about the latest trends, tools, and tactics will help you stay ahead. You can take advantage of free online resources, webinars, podcasts, and digital marketing blogs or newsletters. Check out my blog https://healthydashofsocial.com/blog we update it weekly with new marketing tips.
Tip: Schedule in time each week specifically for learning I use these platforms a lot to continue learning on a weekly basis.
Udemy
Cousera
LinkedIn Learning
2. Know your analytics so you don’t feel like your efforts aren’t getting you anywhere and if they aren’t you will be able to refocus on where you should be putting your efforts
I can’t say this enough, if you are not looking at your data on an ongoing basis you are just creating content for the sake of creating content. Your data tells you everything, your data shows you what your audience is doing so make sure you are utilizing it as much as possible. You might really like to post visually appealing photos but in reality they may not be getting any engagement because it isn’t relatable enough for your audience. Take note of what is working, adjust when you need to, and continue creating content that is going to resonate because in 2023 a pretty photo doesn’t cut it anymore, we all want to see content that makes us feel seen, heard, and fixes a pain point we have.
The biggest thing that I stress to anyone I work with is that we need to test content, yes it’s important to have your brand visual and your brand identity set up but its even more important to see what is resonating with your audience when you are building one. Every week I go through my content and my clients content for the past week to analyze what did the best, and what we are seeing from our audience. Our costumers and consumers that we are trying to reach are marketed to every second of the day they want to see realness, relatable, entertaining content that is why you see TikTok gaining so much attraction because it’s real. My advice to you is to go through your content weekly, ask your audience questions to determine what they want to see, bring your audience in your growth let them be a part of your growth and your brand, build a real community.
Action step: We are reaching the end of the month and its time to run reporting on your marketing efforts I prefer to use Sprout Social, Databox, and Google Analytcs and review
Content Insights
Growth and engagement on social media channels
Website Traffic sources
I use a system:
Pull reporting
Review my list above (your list above may look different depending on your goals)
Create the content plan for the next month based on what results I am seeing (In Canva)
Adjust any marketing tactics that aren’t benefitting our goals (In google doc I write out the plan for the next month)
Now my advice is to set up goals/KPI’s that you can measure against each month so you can make sure the marketing tactics you are using are bringing you closer to your goals.
3. Use systems that help you stay organized and consistent such as later, Trello, slack, google drive.
I thrive on systems, in Marketing we are constantly keeping up with everything changing, new tools coming out, new changes to social channels and add in content calendars, copywriting, growth tactics, community management, and content creation its hard to keep up. A system just allows every month to have a process we go through. Mine is as follows if you want to try it out:
The System:
Review Analytics - Take note of the content doing the best
Create the content plan and content calendar and content distribution process for the next month
Set up the content plan (In my case that includes social posts, blog calendar, LinkedIn newsletter, Email newsletter) in Trello and set up deliverable dates so I stay on track
Create (real-time content) and work with a graphic designer to create that upcoming content if you don’t have access to a designer Canva is great
Schedule that content in Later or Sprout Social (Add links, hashtags, CTA’s)
Repeat monthly, I prefer to do this monthly because I work with clients but you can do this process weekly, bi-weekly, or if you post daily you can set up a content distribution plan it all depends on what works best for your business.
Key note: Later and/or Sprout Social make my life that much easier because I can schedule content and preview it all right there. Having the image, the copy, the hashtags in one place is really nice. In later they have added an AI feature - I have used it I am not the biggest fan of it right now I prefer Notion, Copy.ai, and ChatGPT to help write “outlines” or brainstorm and summarize my thoughts into a formatted post.
4. Take the time each week to engage set aside time, schedule it in your calendar. Connect with your audience. Schedule it out so you don’t feel overwhelmed by another last minute task.
This is extremely important, and a lot of times I think we overlook the importance of engaging with our community. Not only that but a lot of times a social media manage is expected to do everything and it is hard to also be the community manager or put a lot of energy there. Engaging with your audience is going to make them feel heard, you can start establishing more trust with them, you can start asking them questions and bring them deeper into your brand as you grow so they feel a part of something. However you see fit for your business include your audience and give, give, give before asking for something in return.
Action Step: Schedule three time blocks per day for 5 minutes when getting started to jump in and engage with your audience.
5. Find your community who is doing similar things as you do you have people who understand how overwhelming it can feel.
No matter what industry you are in, their is a group for you on LinkedIn, on Facebook, in a slack channel. Find it, and engage, and learn from other people doing the same thing as you. It’s very easy to get discouraged when our marketing efforts are not bringing us results but being surrounded by people who have been there or are going through the same thing is unmatched.
Last tip of the day: Consider outsourcing or delegating tasks, If there are areas of your digital marketing strategy that are not your strong suit, consider outsourcing them to a freelancer or agency (Hi, I would love to help you.) Alternatively, if you have a team, delegate tasks according to everyone's strengths. This can free up your time to focus on the tasks that you excel at and enjoy doing. You can quickly find a prompt to use in ChatGPT to help delegate tasks to your team if this is something that you are newly forming a process for.
What are a few things you do to help you stay centered and less overwhelmed when it comes to your digital marketing efforts?
