What to Do When Your Marketing Strategy Feels Like a Hot Mess

Times are changing. Aren't they always?

Which means brands everywhere are pivoting, pulling together, and scratching new marketing strategies and ideas every day.

At HyperSocial, we know the feeling of "one too many podcast ideas" or "is this so crazy, it might work?" really, really well. But sometimes, the idea overflow or the lack of hours in a day can leave your marketing strategies in a hot @$$ mess.

So what do you do when you feel like you're crumbling under a vast mess of marketing ideas and implementations you can't seem to get out from under?

Here's what I do (the shoulds and the shouldn'ts) to help you figure out what to do next:

Marketing strategies and the implementation of those strategies takes up space in your brain and space in your calendar. As a startup Chief Marketing Officer, I wear many hats (like most other marketers do), so there is almost no free time to let your mind wander without you feeling guilty about it. You may think a few of these bullet points belong in the opposite columns, but I highly suggest you try it the way I have it written down first and see if it does you some good.

Erin's Marketing Strategy Mess Shoulds:

• Set a routine: Yep, block out your Google Calendar based on your tasks. Focus on putting the tasks that you need the most brain power for at the top of your day to ensure that your killer creativity and awesome thoughts don't get beat down by the burden of the day before you.
• Don't check your emails (until later): Checking your emails first thing in the morning can be detrimental to your day. If you work with some clients, like I do, you can easily get caught up in the rabbit hole of fixing one person's mild issue instead of fixing what matters most for that day. Don't get caught in the email rabbit hole. Don't do it!
• Make room for Brain Space: I call this time in my day Brain Space because I need it every single day to do my job in the best way. This can be anything from listening to an inspiring podcast, grabbing a pen and brain dumping my latest ideas (work and personal) into my notebook, reading a chapter in a book, or doing yoga with a side of meditation. Usually this time is set aside in the mornings, but sometimes I catch it at lunch and find that I'm refreshed for more work after.
• Contribute to your job beyond your description: I know in most companies that your job role is your job role, end of conversation. But quite honestly, doing the same sh*t you do every single day gets boring and comatose in the long run. Instead of piecing together your next marketing strategy, it's important that you take time for other tasks that don't add to those particular tasks. This allows you to think creatively and outside the box, which helps you find new ways to be more efficient and helpful inside those marketing tasks later on.
• Map out your strategies: Mapping out every strategy from start to finish (we use a tool called Basecamp) to see who does what, when, and how, can help you break up your to-do list in a meaningful way without all the jibberjabber in Slack or in your inbox. You may be overwhelmed with to-dos afterwards, but you'll know that when things need to get done, who to remind when they're not, and how you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Eat real meals: Yeah, I know this seems strange to add to this list, but I can tell you, like almost any other person can that your brain slowly dies when you starve it of water and food. It's always easier to grab a snack or eat junk food, but having a real meal and taking the time to digest said meal can be the game changer you need to get out from under your to-do list. Take the lunch break. Enjoy your lunch break. Your marketing strategy can wait.
• Run the numbers: If you have the data to back up your strategy, it's cool to start working on said strategy. If it all goes awry, at least you had that to fall back on and not your gut. If there are pieces of the marketing strategy puzzle that you can't define with data or that you haven't seen trending in other data shown online or in your industry, I would mark them as less of a priority. This helps you find new and innovative ways to get to end goal of your strategy that doesn't end up with you banging your head up against the wall later.

Erin's Marketing Strategy Mess Shouldn'ts:

• Try to get it all done at once: When we rush things, especially in marketing, stuff can slip through the cracks. Whether it's the copy, the design, or the implementation, you can easily miss something that is crucial to the success of your marketing strategy. Instead, take your time, do it right, and if it's not done today, it can be done tomorrow, or even the next day because getting it right the first time is imperative to the success (and data!) of that strategy.
• Continue to ideate after you commit: I know I'm not one to talk, but continuing to generate ideas after you've already "full sent" into one idea can be more than problematic. You'll be spinning your wheels constantly and not getting anywhere. Instead, take any ideas you have and commit to testing out what you've currently built first before making any changes.
• Only base your decisions on data: Basing your decisions on data alone can be hazardous. As we walk into this new generation of marketing like humans, not like a sales robot, we realize that not all human behavior can be planned or tracked efficiently. Instead, use the data you have and really know your customer personas before making any changes to your marketing strategy. You don't have to know it all to understand that humans act erratically, so be sure you're thinking like one when you get ready to improve your marketing strategies.
• Don't get too far ahead of yourself: I love to plan. I plan all the things all the time, but when you start blocking off your calendar weeks in advance or planning out how every stage of the marketing strategy will look 3 months and even 6 months from now, you'll be wasting a lot of your time up front. Marketing changes faster than it ever has these days, so it's important to leave some wiggle room to make adjustments, scrap the original strategy and start over, or continue testing for a while before you get too far ahead of the strategy itself.

Hot Mess, No More!

I'd love to say that we get this right at HyperSocial all the time, but we're humans, just like you. These are just a few things I remind myself to do on a daily basis and hope for the best that I find myself eating lunch, making time for Brain Space, and being productive every day when we all know that some days are better (and worse) than others.

Take these lessons and ideas with you and remember to check back on these items often. Marketing now is harder to keep up with and can often feel overwhelming. You'll find yourself asking, "Am I doing it all?" and "Am I doing it right?" a lot, but you'll also find that sometimes those questions don't matter either.

Getting done what you can get done in a day is just as good, too.