We’re all familiar with the depiction of someone spinning a thousand plates in the air – if you focus too much on one, the others will fall.
Every marketer knows how this feels. We give our attention – blood, sweat, and tears – to a nascent project, nourish it, watch it grow and keep it thriving. But we have to do it for many projects simultaneously. It’s a lot.
Enter the reminder.
Here are some reminders that all marketers should have set in the background, whether you’re using Outlook or a project management system (PMS) like Wrike, Monday, Asana … just so you don’t forget about some of those spinning plates.
- Edit/Update Executive Bios. Whether on a website, in a brochure or just saved on a drive somewhere (for speaking engagements, award applications, etc.), executive bios should be updated regularly.
- Edit Your Media Kit/Sales Sheets. Whether your “leave behind” materials are hard copy or digital, set a reminder to read and edit them word-for-word every so often. Products and services evolve, along with the terminology we use, and you might be surprised what edits you find.
- Check General Email Inboxes. Ideally, any general email inboxes you manage come directly into your inbox. But if they don’t, check them daily.
- Send Your Boilerplate Through Approvals. Boilerplate paragraphs are easy to finalize and forget about. They become standard procedure and are easily overlooked. Set a reminder to send yours through approvals every once in a while to ensure it’s still an accurate picture of your company.
- Reevaluate Your Social Media Strategy. This might seem intimidating because it is one of those reminders that can have some hefty implications. However, scheduling a check-in on the success of your social media presence can inform any adjustments that need to be made.
- Revisit/Republicize Your Style Guide. Style guides aren’t effective if they aren’t updated. Schedule a regular, intentional edit, and then republish —and republicize – the updated version.
- Update Your Awards and Events List. Awards applications and speaker proposals can sneak up on you. They offer great publicity opportunities but require some planning. Pick a day to actively research the upcoming awards and events in your field.
- Investigate Media Editorial Calendars. If you engage in story pitching, make sure you always have up-to-date editorial calendars for your industry’s and vertical’s key publications. Effective pitching requires consideration of the goals of the publication, and editors will appreciate your attention to detail.
- Update Audience Personas. Regularly revisit your audience profiles or personas to ensure your marketing activities are targeting the right people. Make sure your assessment includes ALL audiences – employees, potential partners, current partners, potential customers, current customers, supplier contacts, consultants, affiliates, media, analysts … the list goes on.
- Perform a Brand Audit. The “old school” way of doing a high-level brand audit involved gathering all the print promotional materials you could find and spreading them out on a table to ensure they looked cohesive. Although this might be done digitally these days, the goal is still the same. Do your materials look like they go together? Is the messaging consistent? Does your brand’s personality still gel with the company’s current goals? A high-level audit can uncover needs ranging from minor tweaks to extensive brand revisions.
You might be wondering how often these reminders should be set to go off. A good place to start is quarterly, with the exception of checking the general email inboxes (daily). As long as reminders are scheduled, you’ll be prompted to consider whether now is the right time to do a brand audit, reassess your social media strategy, etc. The key is not to kick the can down the road forever – just hold yourself to the task because these things need our attention! If we “set it and forget it,” as they say, our audiences will as well.
