Do you feel overwhelmed and stressed? Or do you feel a bit stuck in the mud with your career? If so, you might want to improve your delegation techniques!
You will work as hard as you are able to, but there are certain limitations to working alone. There are only so many individuals you can assist, and there are only so many hours in a day. Your success is constrained by the amount of work you can humanly accomplish.
However, people will expect more of you as you do better at your profession. As a result, you may feel overworked and under excessive pressure to perform above expectations. On the plus side, if you can figure out a means to get around this restriction, you're being given a huge opportunity.
Learning how to assign work to others is one of the most popular ways to get around this restriction. Strong and effective teams that are equipped to handle a tremendous workload can be created by good delegators. This is why learning how to delegate is so crucial, so keep reading to find out everything you need to know about how to delegate tasks in marketing!
Why Delegating Tasks Is Important
The ability to delegate tasks helps you to focus on the things that require your immediate attention without having to sacrifice the quality of your work.
You may think of delegation as shifting your responsibilities to someone else on your team, but in reality, it is a crucial step toward increasing efficiency.
It also demonstrates your appreciation for and value of your team members, which is bound to increase their confidence and motivation. Delegating responsibilities strengthens your company as a whole and boosts profits by increasing efficiency and productivity.
Your team's morale will soar, and your projects will be completed on time, thanks to the improved efficiency of your workflow.
When You Should Delegate Tasks
When tasks are delegated well, everyone benefits. But it doesn't imply you can hand over control of everything to your subordinates. There are five main questions you need to answer in order to figure out if and when delegating is the right move!
Delegation Question One
Is there another person who already knows this stuff, or who can be taught it? Is this something that can be delegated, or do you need to handle it yourself?
Delegation Question Two
Is there room for improvement and development in the assigned work? Can it be done better than it was previously?
Delegation Question Three
Is it likely that this task, or one like it, will be required again in the near future? Perhaps this particular task is a repetitive one or one that needs to be performed regularly.
Delegation Question Four
Do you feel like you're pressed for time and can't successfully delegate? There needs to be time built in for thorough instruction, plenty of inquiry and feedback, regular progress checks, and corrective measures as required.
Delegation Question Five
Is it something I could send to someone else? Long-term success requires your undivided concentration on tasks like building a strong team.
What Is The Delegation Verdict?
You have more than likely answered yes to more than one of these questions, so delegating this task may be a good idea. However, even if these factors are present, it's still possible that the assigned task won't be finished on time. You need to also think about to whom you will assign the task and how you will assign it.
Which Tasks You Should Delegate
The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful method for prioritizing tasks based on their relevance and degree of urgency. Using the tool, you can prioritize which tasks to complete first and which to put off until later.
You can figure out which to delegate to others, and which to get rid of altogether. To help you prioritize your work, there are instructions for creating an Eisenhower Matrix.
First Quadrant: Do
If a task is both urgent and significant, it belongs in the first quadrant, where you can get it done quickly. Place items in this quadrant of your to-do list that are urgent, have obvious repercussions, and have an impact on your long-term objectives.
As they are at the forefront of your thoughts and causing you the most stress, tasks should be quite easily arranged and put into this quadrant.
Second Quadrant: Schedule
The second quadrant, labeled "schedule," is where you should put activities that aren't time-sensitive but are nonetheless necessary to complete. Tasks that have an impact on your long-term objectives but aren't time-sensitive might be put on your to-do list.
After finishing the activities in the first quadrant, you'll move on to these. To complete the activities in this section, you can apply several time management strategies. Strategies like the Pareto principle and the Pomodoro technique can be useful.
Third Quadrant: Delegate
Tasks that are urgent but not crucial should be placed in quadrant three, which is labeled "delegate." Although they are urgent, these errands won't have any bearing on your long-term objectives.
Your lack of emotional investment in these chores plus the fact that they probably don't call for your unique set of skills make them ideal candidates for delegation. Effective time management relies on the ability to distribute work among team members and provide them with learning opportunities.
Fourth Quadrant: Delete And Erase
Following the allocation of jobs to the first three sections of the matrix, you will find that a small number of items remain. The remaining work is made up of less pressing or crucial jobs.
These trivial, non-critical issues are preventing you from making progress on what really matters to you. If there are any tasks left on your list that you don't absolutely need to do, move them to the "remove" column in the fourth quadrant.
How To Delegate Tasks in Marketing
So the question becomes: how do you enhance the procedures already in place? Delegation.
You can focus on the most productive areas of your business if you delegate the duties you're not good at.
1. Release Your Control
Even if you might be excellent at some things, you don't always have to do everything by yourself. Your commitment to finishing the task can occasionally prevent you from soliciting assistance from others. In other instances, your reluctance is caused by a worry that your team won't carry out your tasks as swiftly or successfully as you can.
Your justifications might be good, but if you want your company to grow, you need to pay attention to more important duties. In light of this, you must decide which tasks need to be assigned to others. Ideally, you should begin with the smallest chores and progress to larger ones over time.
For instance, social media is really important for marketing, but it requires a lot of time and work. Additionally, it calls for expert expertise. You have to manage many channels, interact with various audiences, monitor various analytics, and upload all kinds of material every day. As a manager, this is one of the tasks that would ideally be delegated.
There are more crucial marketing areas that demand serious consideration and experience. These could involve, among other things, lead generation, blog writing, and email newsletters. Together with other marketing responsibilities that consume too much of your time, give delegation some thought. You can concentrate on your strengths once you have some time to spare.
2. Work With Your Strengths
Spend some time figuring out where your company most needs you and where you need help. In the majority of cases, you will need to invest some time into developing a strategy, meeting with quality leads, forming bonds with your clients, and establishing your authority in your field.
Investigate your talents' alignment with your core competency as well. It's possible that you excel at developing plans but fail miserably at implementing them. Or perhaps you excel at lead creation but struggle with social media management.
But when it comes to making presentations, you might be unbeatable. But it seems like you always have trouble writing articles that are simple to read. Why not take a back seat and allow your staff to cover your inadequacies if something isn't your strong suit?
Alternately, employ those who may enhance your strengths by succeeding in areas where you falter.
3. Find Top Performing People
There are undoubtedly members of your staff who are more qualified to handle particular aspects of your marketing. You only need to learn who and where they are. If you have internal resources that excel at what you require, that is the best location to delegate.
When making internal hires, be sure to select people who are prepared and eager to accept increased responsibility. Next, determine whether the tasks fit with their skills and strengths.
4. Consider VAs or Freelancers
You can start by hiring a virtual assistant if you don't yet have staff and aren't quite ready to hire someone full-time. By the hour, you can pay a virtual assistant in place of a part-time or full-time worker. For companies operating on a tight budget, this setup works fairly effectively.
Having a virtual assistant has several benefits. They can keep an eye on a normal job, so the virtual assistant can check everyone's tasks instead of you having to.
They can check in with your social media manager on a new campaign or follow up with your graphic designer over a piece of unfinished artwork. A virtual assistant can therefore serve as a link between you and the marketing team.
Be picky if you opt to outsource. Start out cautiously with a modest task so you may carefully assess whether their skill set corresponds to your needs. Keep talking till the person has proven themselves.
Create precise job descriptions regardless of whether you are outsourcing or employing internally so that employees will understand exactly what is expected of them. Schedule frequent meetings and clearly define the tasks and deliverables. By doing this, you can be sure that jobs are completed faster and with better financial efficiency.
5. Make Instructions Very Clear
Even if the tasks seem simple to you, be sure to give specific directions for each assignment you offer.
Never rely on your staff to understand what you mean. Don't merely tell someone to "handle the email list," for instance. Outline specific objectives and expectations.
Be clear if you have any specific instructions for how the project should be done. Get right to the point if you have a deadline or milestones that must be met. This will ultimately prevent communication gaps and enable your team to carry out projects more successfully.
It's crucial to provide training to and effectively communicate with the staff members you assign work to. Yes, it can take more of your time initially, but if you invest the time and effort now, it will pay off afterward.
Your employees will immediately start to make your life easier and give you a lot more time to focus on the elements of your business that you are most passionate about if you clearly explain your wants and needs to them and thoroughly train them.
6. Share the Vision
Spread the word about the company's plans. Let your employees in on what your overall strategy is for the business.
Your team members will find more purpose in their work if they are working for a common goal. As an added bonus, it also serves to inspire people to work harder.
The moment you hand off a project, you should have faith in your team's ability to complete it in their own way. This gives them the freedom to carry out their duties in whatever manner they see fit. This ensures that they will be held responsible for their behavior.
However, don't be shy about checking in to make sure everything is moving along as expected. Trust that your team is at its best! If you gave a task two weeks ago that is due in a month, check in at least once a week, to see where they are and how things are progressing.
7. Find the Right Management System
The correct solution can make delegation significantly more efficient and effective in all contexts.
There are a plethora of promotional resources available, such as:
- You can make a decent workflow with Trello, a program that lets you make boards and cards that are color-coded
- Asana is a fantastic app for keeping tabs on collaborative tasks: delegating work in this way allows you to do it even when you can't be there in person
You'll save a ton of time by not having to check in with your team every time you want to see how things are progressing or if you hit a snag.
These Are the Marketing Tasks You Should Delegate!
If you're a business owner in the modern day, you've got a lot on your plate, and a lot of it has to do with marketing. With so many responsibilities and only so many hours in the day, it's smart to think about passing some of them off to others.
Some of the marketing work that has to be done could be delegated as listed below.
Studying the Market
Creating surveys, sending them out, and sorting the responses into usable data is a time-consuming process for market research, but a data specialist can help. This is true for a B2C market as well as within a B2B market.
If focus groups are useful in your field, this person can also organize and oversee them.
They can also investigate your target market and the competition to ensure you have all the data you need to move forward successfully.
Management of Social Media
Millions of people use social media daily, so making sure you're visible to them is crucial.
But you can't just publish something and walk away from it. Like, comment, share: all those requirements still stand.
This can, unfortunately, be a lengthy process. The good news is that these duties, along with maintaining an active social media presence, may be delegated to a virtual assistant or social media manager.
Graphic Design
Words can only get you so far, especially when you consider that visual content, such as photos and videos, performs better on social media. You've definitely heard the adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
This couldn't be more accurate when it comes to promoting your company. Handwritten communication with a great design can work as part of your graphic design strategy.
It might be time-consuming to capture or source appropriate images, modify them to meet your needs, and integrate them into the appropriate text.
And how do you fit it in when your days are already full of other obligations?
To boost the appeal of your material, hire a professional designer to search for relevant photos, edit them, and then include them in your text. Alternatively, you can use online tools like Canva that come with free and paid options to help you create graphic content.
Sales Lead Sourcing
Depending on the volume of leads you have, calling or emailing qualified prospects can take a significant chunk of time.
Consider using a virtual assistant to filter out low-quality leads and set up meetings with the good ones. You'll get a better return on your investment and have more spare time as a result.
Use a Lead Generation Service Provider
Lead generation services providers oversee marketing initiatives to locate prospective clients (leads) and assess their viability. A company's sales funnel can benefit greatly from these services, as suppliers can help initiate contact with potential customers and generate buzz about the brand (demand generation).
Several of these companies offer "lead nurturing" services, which involve sending out follow-up emails or conducting other forms of follow-up to increase the likelihood of a sale. Marketing departments can benefit from lead gen services by using the information gleaned from them to conduct more targeted outreach and advertising.
Compiling Newsletters
The ability to communicate effectively is crucial while working to expand your brand's reach.
The correct virtual assistant can aid you if you lack the time or expertise to publish an effective newsletter. This person can create the newsletter, edit it, and distribute it for you. Be sure to specify at least some of your needs.
An expert could finish this in a few hours, so there's no reason to devote an entire day to it.
Manage Your Contact List
An email list is crucial for any business looking to expand. However, it needs to be controlled so that resources aren't wasted on those who are no longer interested or on dead email addresses.
If you have a virtual assistant, they may maintain your email list to guarantee that your messages are delivered and monitor the efficacy of each email campaign.
If your contact list is healthy and the data is intact, then you can consider sending handwritten items to your database as well.
Planning Content
Knowing when and how to publish your material is just as crucial as creating exceptional content itself.
Ineffective sharing prevents your information from reaching its intended audience and providing value.
A content expert may choose what to write about, schedule when to publish, and manage reader feedback. All of this works together to boost awareness of your brand, an essential ingredient for success.
Distribution and Publication of Content
When the content is published, the work is far from done. Promoting that content to a wide audience is essential.
You need to take your social media strategy to the next level by including guest posts on social influencer sites and other measures tailored to your specific market.
A virtual assistant is perfectly capable of ensuring that your content serves as the effective marketing tool it was intended to be at the same time as generating leads.
Knowing How to Successfully Delegate Marketing Tasks
The key to successfully delegating your marketing tasks is to be realistic and to set expectations. Without goals in place, how will you measure the success of your task delegation?
Ensure that deadlines are communicated and goals are made aware to those in charge of their newfound tasks!
Still, do you feel like you need assistance with how to delegate tasks in marketing? Schedule a demo with LettrLabs and find out how we can help you manage your handwritten marketing requirements.