Boosting your impact involves:<\/h3>\n\n- \n
Prioritizing your marketing initiatives<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Optimizing your marketing workflows<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Outsourcing applicable work<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Empowering your functional leads<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I will drill into each topic below.<\/p>\n
![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Mark-Hall-Digital-Experience-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
Create an initiative-impact table<\/h3>\n
To increase your team\u2019s impact, you first need to document all of the initiatives they\u2019re working on, and why you\u2019re doing them. Only then can you prioritize them and optimize their execution.<\/p>\n
\n \n \n 
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n Download our Individual Member Resource \u2013 Content marketing strategy guide<\/strong><\/p>\n This guide shows you both how to develop a strategy to deploy content across all your online marketing and gives practical tips to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Access the Content marketing strategy guide<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\nStart by listing all your functional leads (SEO, PPC, Email, CRO, etc.). Then do the following:<\/p>\n
\n- \n
Send them a shared spreadsheet containing these columns:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Project<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Initiative (project category)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Weekly burn rate (budget spend)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Customer (internal, external)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Deliverables<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Tell your leads to add all of their monthly and quarterly projects to this sheet.<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
After you get everyone\u2019s sheets, copy their data into your master sheet.<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Append the following new columns to your master \u2018prioritization\u2019 sheet:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Priority - High, medium, low (to be added later)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
How well each project aligns with a SMART marketing objective. Color-code as:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Green (highly aligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Yellow (somewhat aligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Red (misaligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Estimated financial value (revenue growth, cost reduction)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Estimated intangible value (brand image, customer loyalty, etc.)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Outsourceable work? (if you clearly define the process and steps)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Not familiar with SMART objectives? SmartInsights founder Dave Chaffey lays out how to write SMART objectives here ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/how-to-set-digital-marketing-objectives\/<\/span><\/a> )<\/span>.<\/p>\nFinancial Value is defined as \u2018the incremental financial value gained as a result of the marketing investment.\u2019 You should be able to get this by speaking with someone from your finance department and \/or your lead data analyst.<\/p>\n
Intangible Value is the non-monetary value of the work \u2014 how it builds things like your brand image or customer loyalty. (While brand image and customer loyalty often result in lower customer acquisition and retention costs, you don\u2019t need to include those here.)<\/p>\n
Now prioritize your initiatives by a combination of these five columns. Since you and other marketing managers should factor strategy into consideration, I prefer this to be a subjective judgment (vs. a purely quantitative decision).<\/p>\n
Now you can confidently focus on these initiatives. And \u2018put on your blinders\u2019 to cease the non-value-added work.<\/p>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
If you need to upskill in corporate finance, Coursera offers this highly-rated \u2018Finance for Non-finance Professionals\u2019 course.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking to go deeper, the University of California, San Diego offers an affordable online Finance Certification program through their Extension division.<\/p>\n
In either case, since you\u2019ll be studying online, you\u2019ll need to exercise some professional development time management discipline. If you haven\u2019t learned this yet, you\u2019ll soon need to, as more classroom courses transition to the online format.<\/p>\n
Optimize your marketing project workflows<\/h3>\n
Now it\u2019s time to optimize your marketing initiatives and projects. Start by killing the \u2018red\u2019 initiatives. They\u2019re burning precious team bandwidth while producing little value. What\u2019s more, by pulling team members away from higher-value projects, they have a high opportunity cost.<\/p>\n
Next, start to optimize your \u2018yellow\u2019 initiatives. For these, think of two types of optimizations: \u2018First-order\u2019 and \u2018second-order.\u2019 First-order updates boost your team\u2019s impact by the greatest amount. Second-order updates deliver a more moderate return on your team\u2019s time investment.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an analogy: when I optimize the conversion rates of websites, after first doing some customer research ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/customer-insights\/<\/span><\/a> ) <\/span> I do bold tactical redesigns that lift my baseline conversion metrics (conversion rate, revenue per visitor, etc.). Then, using this updated design as my \u2018conversion baseline,\u2019 I plan and run split tests that further optimize specific aspects of the user experience. In this example, the tactical redesigns are the first-order updates, and the split tests are the second-order updates. Strategic updates, like adding new marketing technology, often produce first-order impacts.<\/p>\nDocument your workflows<\/h4>\n
You could hire a top-tier business process reengineering (BPR) or customer experience (CX) consultancy to help with this, but these agencies charge steep hourly rates. So, unless you have a robust budget, you\u2019ll need to do this yourself (or outsource it; more on that later).<\/p>\n
The upside of the DIY approach: you\u2019ll become intimately familiar with each step, and how it fits within the larger workflow. So you\u2019ll be better able to optimize your workflows over time.<\/p>\n
As you optimize your flows ask yourself:<\/h4>\n
What workflows and tasks can be automated - either partially or fully?
\nHow can I optimize this workflow? (Hint: ask your project team members)
\nHow can I build \u2018issue triggers\u2019 into my project ground rules?
\nHow can I get my leads to promptly act on these triggers<\/p>\n
In this Smart Insights article ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/to-insource-or-outsource-a-critical-question-for-digital-marketers\/<\/span><\/a> ) <\/span> I dive into how to optimize your marketing project workflows. Building issue triggers is mainly a leadership act \u2014 encouraging open communication and not \u2018shooting the messenger\u2019 when bad news surfaces.<\/p>\nHow to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
If your project management (PM) app already includes a \u2018workflow documentation\u2019 feature, assign your leads to learn and use these features. PM apps Monday, Insightly and Asana have these built-in, as does Smartsheet. If you just need a stand-alone app, LucidChart is a good option.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t just stop with documenting workflows. Dig into where they\u2019re working well and where they aren\u2019t. Discuss with your project leads which gaps are most critical to fix now versus later.<\/p>\n
![\"Outsourcing](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Mark-Hall-Outsource-Digital-Marketing-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
Boldly outsource all applicable work<\/h3>\n
Always bear in mind: your team doesn\u2019t have to do it all! You only have so many hours in a day. So, when applicable, handoff projects (or parts of projects) to a freelance person or team.<\/p>\n
![\"Individidual](\"\/wp-content\/themes\/smartinsights\/images\/smart\/icons\/membership-premium-large.png\")
Become an Individual Member to access the latest channel-specific guides<\/h3>What is Individual Membership?<\/a><\/div>![\"Individual](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IM-Guide-Covers.png\")
<\/div><\/div><\/b><\/p>\nJust be sure to:<\/h4>\n\n- \n
Set clear expectations around:<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Expected outcomes<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Timing constraints (deadlines)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Specify (\u2018spec\u2019):<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
The task you\u2019re assigning<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Your internal owner<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Do frequent status checks (with project owners)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I\u2019m the first to admit that it can be tough to trust you\u2019ll get good, timely results when working with outsourced (perhaps even offshore) resources. But if you follow the above steps, it\u2019s more likely to happen. If a given resource doesn\u2019t meet your expectations or \u2018specs,\u2019 exercise some patience and try another one.<\/p>\n
While you may experience some frustration in the near term, your team will end up saving a lot of time and money in the long term. Better yet, once you lock in trusted resources, and repeatedly use them, you\u2019ll support gig economy workers who are suffering the economic effects of the Coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n
Reference the same article I mentioned above ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/to-insource-or-outsource-a-critical-question-for-digital-marketers\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 )<\/span>for further guidance on outsourcing.<\/p>\nA word of caution<\/h4>\n
When deciding what to outsource, I recommend that you avoid outsourcing tasks that \u2018carry a high communication premium.\u2019 Examples of these task types are strategic work like website redesigns or advert campaign creative. These tasks tend to require lots of in-person meetings and work product iteration.<\/p>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
Watch this two-minute video from digital marketing guru Neil Patel ( <\/span>https:\/\/youtu.be\/_CF6r_Ol3HA<\/span><\/a> )<\/span> to get two quick outsourcing platform recommendations.<\/p>\nSpend some time sifting through these sites looking for freelancers with strong skill sets and stellar reputations. Then pass these names along to your functional leads for consideration. Then continue with the try \u2014 assess \u2014 iterate \u2014 lock-in process I shared above.<\/p>\n
![\"Quote](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Mark-Hall-Bill-Gates-Quote-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
Empower your functional leads<\/h3>\n
The last way to amplify your marketing team\u2019s impact is by exercising your \u2018leader leverage.\u2019<\/p>\n
Armed with your SMART objectives, a task-level breakdown of their initiatives, and outsourced production resources, empower your various marketing leads to execute their tactical projects with confidence.<\/p>\n
Remember to include \u2018issue notification triggers\u2019 in your working ground rules so you\u2019ll be brought in to discuss issues sooner than later. And check in with your leads and project managers regularly to synch-up work across your marketing team.<\/p>\n
Make it clear that you\u2019re not the \u2018project firefighter\u2019 \u2014 that, at least for non-critical issues, you expect your leads to analyze issues and propose solutions before they coming running to you.<\/p>\n
A few other leadership best practices:<\/h4>\n\n- \n
Schedule regular \u2018coaching and feedback\u2019 sessions with your leads<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Write \u2018thank you\u2019 notes to people who are doing things well (or better than before)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Share feedback with the \u2018sandwich\u2019 method (praise, provide feedback, encourage).<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Your goal should be to get your team thinking and working more autonomously, thereby lessening their daily dependence on you over time. And by doing you\u2019ll develop the leadership skills of everyone on your team.<\/p>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
Smart Insights contributor Gavin Llewellyn offers great guidance on this topic ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/managing-digital-marketing\/personal-career-development\/how-to-transition-from-a-manager-to-a-leader\/<\/span><\/a> )<\/span>. Read and heed this to take your marketing leadership to the next level.<\/p>\n![\"Achieve](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Mark-Hall-Digital-ROI-4.png\")
<\/p>\n
Unsure where to start? Take our Learning Plan Assessment<\/h4>\n
Prioritizing your marketing initiatives<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Optimizing your marketing workflows<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Outsourcing applicable work<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Empowering your functional leads<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I will drill into each topic below.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Create an initiative-impact table<\/h3>\n
To increase your team\u2019s impact, you first need to document all of the initiatives they\u2019re working on, and why you\u2019re doing them. Only then can you prioritize them and optimize their execution.<\/p>\n
Download our Individual Member Resource \u2013 Content marketing strategy guide<\/strong><\/p>\n This guide shows you both how to develop a strategy to deploy content across all your online marketing and gives practical tips to make it happen.<\/p>\n Access the Content marketing strategy guide<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n Start by listing all your functional leads (SEO, PPC, Email, CRO, etc.). Then do the following:<\/p>\n Not familiar with SMART objectives? SmartInsights founder Dave Chaffey lays out how to write SMART objectives here ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/how-to-set-digital-marketing-objectives\/<\/span><\/a> )<\/span>.<\/p>\n Financial Value is defined as \u2018the incremental financial value gained as a result of the marketing investment.\u2019 You should be able to get this by speaking with someone from your finance department and \/or your lead data analyst.<\/p>\n Intangible Value is the non-monetary value of the work \u2014 how it builds things like your brand image or customer loyalty. (While brand image and customer loyalty often result in lower customer acquisition and retention costs, you don\u2019t need to include those here.)<\/p>\n Now prioritize your initiatives by a combination of these five columns. Since you and other marketing managers should factor strategy into consideration, I prefer this to be a subjective judgment (vs. a purely quantitative decision).<\/p>\n Now you can confidently focus on these initiatives. And \u2018put on your blinders\u2019 to cease the non-value-added work.<\/p>\n If you need to upskill in corporate finance, Coursera offers this highly-rated \u2018Finance for Non-finance Professionals\u2019 course.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking to go deeper, the University of California, San Diego offers an affordable online Finance Certification program through their Extension division.<\/p>\n In either case, since you\u2019ll be studying online, you\u2019ll need to exercise some professional development time management discipline. If you haven\u2019t learned this yet, you\u2019ll soon need to, as more classroom courses transition to the online format.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to optimize your marketing initiatives and projects. Start by killing the \u2018red\u2019 initiatives. They\u2019re burning precious team bandwidth while producing little value. What\u2019s more, by pulling team members away from higher-value projects, they have a high opportunity cost.<\/p>\n Next, start to optimize your \u2018yellow\u2019 initiatives. For these, think of two types of optimizations: \u2018First-order\u2019 and \u2018second-order.\u2019 First-order updates boost your team\u2019s impact by the greatest amount. Second-order updates deliver a more moderate return on your team\u2019s time investment.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an analogy: when I optimize the conversion rates of websites, after first doing some customer research ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/customer-insights\/<\/span><\/a> ) <\/span> I do bold tactical redesigns that lift my baseline conversion metrics (conversion rate, revenue per visitor, etc.). Then, using this updated design as my \u2018conversion baseline,\u2019 I plan and run split tests that further optimize specific aspects of the user experience. In this example, the tactical redesigns are the first-order updates, and the split tests are the second-order updates. Strategic updates, like adding new marketing technology, often produce first-order impacts.<\/p>\n You could hire a top-tier business process reengineering (BPR) or customer experience (CX) consultancy to help with this, but these agencies charge steep hourly rates. So, unless you have a robust budget, you\u2019ll need to do this yourself (or outsource it; more on that later).<\/p>\n The upside of the DIY approach: you\u2019ll become intimately familiar with each step, and how it fits within the larger workflow. So you\u2019ll be better able to optimize your workflows over time.<\/p>\n What workflows and tasks can be automated - either partially or fully? In this Smart Insights article ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/to-insource-or-outsource-a-critical-question-for-digital-marketers\/<\/span><\/a> ) <\/span> I dive into how to optimize your marketing project workflows. Building issue triggers is mainly a leadership act \u2014 encouraging open communication and not \u2018shooting the messenger\u2019 when bad news surfaces.<\/p>\n If your project management (PM) app already includes a \u2018workflow documentation\u2019 feature, assign your leads to learn and use these features. PM apps Monday, Insightly and Asana have these built-in, as does Smartsheet. If you just need a stand-alone app, LucidChart is a good option.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just stop with documenting workflows. Dig into where they\u2019re working well and where they aren\u2019t. Discuss with your project leads which gaps are most critical to fix now versus later.<\/p>\n Always bear in mind: your team doesn\u2019t have to do it all! You only have so many hours in a day. So, when applicable, handoff projects (or parts of projects) to a freelance person or team.<\/p>\n I\u2019m the first to admit that it can be tough to trust you\u2019ll get good, timely results when working with outsourced (perhaps even offshore) resources. But if you follow the above steps, it\u2019s more likely to happen. If a given resource doesn\u2019t meet your expectations or \u2018specs,\u2019 exercise some patience and try another one.<\/p>\n While you may experience some frustration in the near term, your team will end up saving a lot of time and money in the long term. Better yet, once you lock in trusted resources, and repeatedly use them, you\u2019ll support gig economy workers who are suffering the economic effects of the Coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n Reference the same article I mentioned above ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/digital-marketing-strategy\/to-insource-or-outsource-a-critical-question-for-digital-marketers\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 )<\/span>for further guidance on outsourcing.<\/p>\n When deciding what to outsource, I recommend that you avoid outsourcing tasks that \u2018carry a high communication premium.\u2019 Examples of these task types are strategic work like website redesigns or advert campaign creative. These tasks tend to require lots of in-person meetings and work product iteration.<\/p>\n Watch this two-minute video from digital marketing guru Neil Patel ( <\/span>https:\/\/youtu.be\/_CF6r_Ol3HA<\/span><\/a> )<\/span> to get two quick outsourcing platform recommendations.<\/p>\n Spend some time sifting through these sites looking for freelancers with strong skill sets and stellar reputations. Then pass these names along to your functional leads for consideration. Then continue with the try \u2014 assess \u2014 iterate \u2014 lock-in process I shared above.<\/p>\n The last way to amplify your marketing team\u2019s impact is by exercising your \u2018leader leverage.\u2019<\/p>\n Armed with your SMART objectives, a task-level breakdown of their initiatives, and outsourced production resources, empower your various marketing leads to execute their tactical projects with confidence.<\/p>\n Remember to include \u2018issue notification triggers\u2019 in your working ground rules so you\u2019ll be brought in to discuss issues sooner than later. And check in with your leads and project managers regularly to synch-up work across your marketing team.<\/p>\n Make it clear that you\u2019re not the \u2018project firefighter\u2019 \u2014 that, at least for non-critical issues, you expect your leads to analyze issues and propose solutions before they coming running to you.<\/p>\n Your goal should be to get your team thinking and working more autonomously, thereby lessening their daily dependence on you over time. And by doing you\u2019ll develop the leadership skills of everyone on your team.<\/p>\n Smart Insights contributor Gavin Llewellyn offers great guidance on this topic ( <\/span>https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/managing-digital-marketing\/personal-career-development\/how-to-transition-from-a-manager-to-a-leader\/<\/span><\/a> )<\/span>. Read and heed this to take your marketing leadership to the next level.<\/p>\n\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
Send them a shared spreadsheet containing these columns:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Project<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Initiative (project category)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Weekly burn rate (budget spend)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Customer (internal, external)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Deliverables<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Tell your leads to add all of their monthly and quarterly projects to this sheet.<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
After you get everyone\u2019s sheets, copy their data into your master sheet.<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Append the following new columns to your master \u2018prioritization\u2019 sheet:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Priority - High, medium, low (to be added later)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
How well each project aligns with a SMART marketing objective. Color-code as:<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Green (highly aligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Yellow (somewhat aligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Red (misaligned with objectives)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Estimated financial value (revenue growth, cost reduction)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Estimated intangible value (brand image, customer loyalty, etc.)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n
Outsourceable work? (if you clearly define the process and steps)<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
Optimize your marketing project workflows<\/h3>\n
Document your workflows<\/h4>\n
As you optimize your flows ask yourself:<\/h4>\n
\nHow can I optimize this workflow? (Hint: ask your project team members)
\nHow can I build \u2018issue triggers\u2019 into my project ground rules?
\nHow can I get my leads to promptly act on these triggers<\/p>\nHow to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\nBoldly outsource all applicable work<\/h3>\n
Become an Individual Member to access the latest channel-specific guides<\/h3>What is Individual Membership?<\/a><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/b><\/p>\nJust be sure to:<\/h4>\n
\n
Set clear expectations around:<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Expected outcomes<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
Timing constraints (deadlines)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
Specify (\u2018spec\u2019):<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
The task you\u2019re assigning<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
Your internal owner<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
Do frequent status checks (with project owners)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A word of caution<\/h4>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\nEmpower your functional leads<\/h3>\n
A few other leadership best practices:<\/h4>\n
\n
Schedule regular \u2018coaching and feedback\u2019 sessions with your leads<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Write \u2018thank you\u2019 notes to people who are doing things well (or better than before)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
Share feedback with the \u2018sandwich\u2019 method (praise, provide feedback, encourage).<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How to upskill yourself in this area<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\nUnsure where to start? Take our Learning Plan Assessment<\/h4>\n