7 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers
Andy Crestodina
Co-Founder and CMO at Orbit Media | SEO, Analytics, AI, Content Strategy and Website Optimization
There are millions of us and we all have a common goal: create awareness and demand. It’s hard work and it’s always changing. To keep up, we study hard and read blogs like this one.
But this blog post isn’t about marketing. It’s about being a marketer.
This isn’t about a tactic or a channel. This is about your day. What you do, hour to hour, minute to minute. It’s about structuring your time and your activity for maximum results.
This post describes one way to do it. It isn’t the only way. But it’s how I approach my job as a marketer. I’m sharing the habits I’ve developed, hoping they’ll be helpful to you.
As a bonus, at the very end of this post, you’ll find an hour-by-hour day-in-the-life breakdown for various marketers. Enjoy!
1. Prioritize first
You have one day today, same as everyone else. What you do with it is up to you. Your actions are your priorities, whether or not you are decisive and focused.
Some work is urgent, some work is important. That’s why setting priorities is so critical.
“What is important is seldom urgent, what is urgent is seldom important.”
Those 12 words come from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Read them again and then think about your day.
Create a two-by-two matrix and you have the “Eisenhower Box,” a framework for responding to anything life throws at you.
Every possible action can be evaluated and assigned to one of the four categories: do it now, schedule it, delegate it to an assistant/robot/team member or just delete it.
If you’re thinking “I don’t have anyone to delegate to,” hang in there. We’ll get to delegation in a minute.
In marketing, some of our actions are so much more valuable than others, they should be prioritized, even when there is no urgency to do them.
- Your publishing calendar demands that you make something (urgent)
- …but updating older content would get you better results (important).
- The blinking cursor on the blank page demands that you write something
- …but recording a video would get you better results.
- Your inbox is filling up with emails
- …but writing an article would get you better results.
- Your friend on FB just posted something hilarious
- …but you have a job to do.
Let’s put that in a little chart:
DIGITAL MISSIONARY 📍 CEO, Sweet Tea Social Marketing 📍 Best-Selling Author 📍 Strategy & Leadership Expert 🫐 BlueberryJoyBoutiqueEtsy CEO
4yYes Andy Crestodina, I find starting each day as a marketer knowing how to identify what gets my time makes such a difference!!! Thanks for this.
Operations Executive Advisor∙I decode uncertainty, driving organizational change, by combining human and technical processes
4yOutstanding read. It’s always worth having a structure built to keep you moving forward. When you take the time to build it with intention, you stop worrying about what to do and just *do*. Totally liberating. Thanks for posting this!
Attract More Dream Prospects & Convert Them into Clients Faster | Financial Copywriter & Messaging Consultant
4yEfficiency is a top priority (and just between you and me, a frequent struggle) for me. Thanks for sharing these insights, Andy.
Marketer, Journalist and Social Impact Creator
4yThis was an excellent and robust read! Andy Crestodina The additional content from the link was great too.
Global Marketing Operations Manager
4yIt's about applying GTD methodology to your daily activities to focus on the right things at the right time.