This is the only checklist you'll need if you're a marketing manager.
Running a marketing department is challenging, especially when you are a team of one (or two). There are so many pieces to a cohesive marketing operation, and everything is always changing.
You want to deliver results for your company while juggling everything at once.
Need some help to make sure you're not forgetting anything? We got you -- here is the ultimate marketing checklist you need.
Email marketing can be automated or outbound, depending on what your campaigns, your personas, and objectives are. Some things to pay close attention to include:
Contact List: Segmenting your lists and the quality of contacts
Email Distribution: Sending emails at the right time and frequency
Subject Lines: Keeping your subject lines short and engaging
Templates: Leveraging templates for efficient and scalable marketing efforts
Here are some KPIs and metrics you should keep an eye on:
Open Rate
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Source of Traffic via email (Google Analytics)
Goal Completions (Google Analytics)
Unsubscribe Rate
Spam Score
We all know social media is important for your brand, but which platform does your buyer persona use? What type of content do they want to see? Understand your buyer before you build your social media program, and consider the following:
User Preference: Preference of platform and content types, all based on your buyer persona.
Cost vs. Value: You're looking for impressions and results. Ask yourself the following questions; Is your acquisition cost worth spending? Do other platforms offer an opportunity to generate equal or higher qualified leads, for less cost?
Formatting and Messaging: Again, this is dependent on the social platform your posting on. For example, LinkedIn generally gets better engagement with longer post copy, whereas Twitter has a character-count limit.
Here are some KPIs and metrics you should keep an eye on:
Cost per Result / Cost per Lead / Cost per Conversion
Cost per thousand (CPM) - Price for 1,000 impressions
Days and Times when most followers are online
Organic reach and engagement
Blogging allows you the opportunity to answer prospect's questions, address pain points during the buyer's journey, and establish yourself as an industry expert. When blogging, it's important to consider the following:
Keywords: Research what search phrases will connect the user intent with the purpose of your blog post.
Formatting: Your blog should be easy to follow, with main points clearly outlined as headers and important information bolded.
Content Gaps: Your blogs should be purpose-driven, based on the buyer's journey of your ideal prospect. It should address their pain points and questions, guiding them from an awareness of their need to the selection of their solution.
Check out this E-commerce case study our team wrote to see how we leveraged blogging for massive organic growth.
Here are some KPIs and metrics you should keep an eye on:
Page Views (per day, per week, month, etc.)
Sources of Traffic
Your CTA (call-to-action) Conversion Rate
Content is crucial for many reasons. It helps your site establish credibility and relevancy in the eyes of Google, and it is the start of a conversation with your prospects. To do it right, some questions you should ask when creating content include:
What questions does it answer for your prospects?
When viewing this content, what stage of the buyer's journey would your prospects be in?
Is it clear and easy to consume? How do graphics, design, and formatting impact this piece of content?
Does your tone accurately represent your brand? Does your tone resonate with your intended prospect?
How many similar content pieces will this compete against?
Search marketing is often an underappreciated and overlooked component of a company's marketing strategy. Your visibility in search results has a direct impact on the leads and sales generated from your website.
Here are two aspects to consider when implementing search marketing:
Sometimes you need to take a deep dive into your website to uncover problematic areas. This is an opportunity for a comprehensive SEO audit.
Creative elements make your brand stand out; whether it's planning and editing your social posts, designing print materials, or website design-- there's a lot to consider. You don't have to be an art major to make appealing content. There are certainly enough free tools on the Internet to help you achieve the basics. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Traditional marketing can be a great addition to any digital marketing campaign, but making sure they complement each other is the key. These examples are billboards, radio, print advertisements, TV ads, etc. Keep in mind:
Here are some KPIs and metrics you should keep an eye on:
Sales collateral is a crucial part of client acquisition. Providing the right materials, messaging, and marketing at the right time can make the difference between a sold opportunity and a lost opportunity. You can use tools like HubSpot's 'Documents' that allow you to track opens, how long they view the document, etc.
Being fluent in graphic tools like Adobe Creative Cloud to design and create marketing pieces
Having intimate knowledge of all product and service offerings
Having a clear understanding of the buyer persona and all their pain points
Having the ability to attribute specific sales outcomes directly to marketing
Here are some KPIs and metrics you should keep an eye on:
A Press Release is a great opportunity to promote or announce big news from your business that you'd like your industry or community to take note of.
Make sure to:
Reporting doesn't have to be a task you and your team dread every month. In fact, reporting is an opportunity to discover quick, easy wins to make your job easier. It's also an opportunity to win over key stakeholders, earn more budget, and even toot your own horn a little bit.
To do this, you'll want to assess the performance of your earned media (referrals, brand mentions, etc.), paid media (Google AdWords, Facebook advertising, etc.), and your owned media (website traffic, blog, etc.). Bottom-line metrics our agency is most concerned with include:
And if you're looking to automate your reporting every month, check out a tool like Klipfolio, which will allow you to build custom dashboards based on virtually any data source.
As you can see, marketing today has multiple moving parts and can be overwhelming for a small team. Some things can be handled in-house, but you may find it more effective to partner with a marketing agency. Our clients partner with us to access our team of specialists at the cost of one full-time generalist. We are here to help! To learn more, check out our marketing retainers.