Productivity is one of the most important things you can manage and master in your business. One of the ways that you can achieve this is by developing shortcuts that not only save you time but also money.
Being an online entrepreneur is filled with tasks that demand a lot of your creativity, but there are also many that you can automate and replicate in a way that streamlines your workflow and helps you achieve more using fewer hours of your day.
Let’s talk about some of the shortcuts you can implement into your business in an effort to earn more and work less!
Effective Shortcuts That Save You Time and Money as a Marketer
As a marketer, improving marketing productivity is a must. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear makes the case that small changes lead to big results.
In other words, you don’t need to make sweeping changes to your marketing routine to reap the benefits. Only 1% of improvement every day can eventually lead to a 370% improvement in productivity.
But what are the most effective shortcuts you can start using today?
Templates
Never underestimate the power of a template. Whenever you can, create templates for emails, newsletters, social media posts, and more. These templates can be cloned over and over again and updated when necessary, saving you the time of recreating them from scratch over and over.
The same goes for the copy. If you’re creating something that will be sent out more than once, like welcome emails, create a master template that you can use as a starting point each time. This saves you both time and energy because all you have to do is update the variables like name, date, and content.
Batching Techniques
When it comes to productivity boost, batching techniques can be a real time-saver. Instead of tackling tasks throughout the day, batching allows you to focus on certain types of tasks at once.
For example, instead of spending 10 minutes writing one post and then switching to another task, devote an entire hour to writing posts. You can do the same for creating videos. Instead of having to return to your video recording space and project tools, you’ll have everything open and ready to go at once and you can batch the tasks together to make it a faster and easier process.
This will help you stay focused on the task at hand and get into a rhythm that significantly boosts your productivity.
Automation Tools
We live in an age of automation, which means there are countless tools out there designed to make our lives easier. Take advantage of these tools whenever you can.
Using automation tools to handle mundane tasks such as scheduling posts on social media, sending emails, or tracking analytics will save you an incredible amount of time and allow you to focus on more important tasks.
Automation tools like Zapier, Buffer, Hootsuite, etc. can be used to automate complex processes that would otherwise take a lot of manual effort. Or, tools to schedule posts in advance are a great way to optimize your time and effort.
The more you can automate, the more time you’ll have for other tasks!
Outsourcing
If you have the money to take this shortcut, you can outsource your tasks to someone else. There are virtual assistants (VA), ghostwriters, graphic design artists, and other experts who are ready and able to help you by taking projects off of your plate and handling them on their own.
Working with a VA to handle your day-to-day operations can be worth its weight in gold, freeing up more of your time and energy to focus on the bigger picture.
If you are on a budget but you still need a little bit of help with content creation, you might want to start investing in private label rights (PLR) instead of hiring a copywriter. PLR is a content shortcut where you purchase readymade content that you can tweak and put your name on as your own.
It’s much more affordable, and you can download and use it the same day, rather than having to wait over a period of time when you outsource your content to a ghostwriter and have to wait for deliverables.
Invest in AI-Tools
AI has been the buzzword of the past few years, and there’s no denying that AI is the future. Investing in AI-powered tools can save you hours of manual labor and give you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
AI can be used for tasks like image recognition, sentiment analysis, customer segmentation, and more. These tasks can be tedious and time-consuming, but with AI-powered tools, they become much easier and more efficient.
Invest in High-Quality Tools
Have you ever felt frustrated since the free plan you’re using doesn’t have all the features you need for getting your work done properly? Investing in high-quality tools can make a world of difference in your productivity.
High-end tools—with monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions—are great for marketers who need to stay organized and efficient. They come with more features, customizations, analytics capabilities, and integrations that could help make your job easier.
Instead of spending your time trying to figure out how to make a basic tool work with your workflow, you can spend your time focusing on what really matters and helps move the needle: creating content, growing your audience, and driving sales.
Final Thoughts
Productivity for marketers is a matter of optimization, not hard work and long hours. By knowing which shortcuts to use, you can significantly increase your productivity without having to sacrifice quality or spend too much time on tasks.
These productivity tips for marketers can help you get the most out of your day, so you can focus on what matters most: getting results. By taking advantage of automation tools, outsourcing work, and investing in AI-powered tools and high-quality software solutions, you’ll be able to enjoy a more productive and satisfying workflow.