So you have a lot of ideas swirling around in your head, and many of them have road maps to completion. If you’re the kind of person who gets marketing ideas often, perhaps you are having a hard time sorting through the good and the bad and clarifying what’s most important, so here’s a cheat sheet, or a framework, for getting the ideas that need to be a priority out on the table and implemented.
First, make a list of all of the marketing ideas and projects you want to do or are doing currently
By getting every single one of your marketing projects out on a piece of paper, you can rest a little easier and free your mind up for creativity and problem solving rather than subconsciously always trying to make sure you’re remembering this list of projects.
Next, add the specific and simple next step for each of those marketing projects
To take your idea out of the hypothetical realm, you can add a nitty gritty next action to each—taken from the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, this method helps me keep my mind in the reality of the work ahead rather than getting overwhelmed with the big picture when I’m trying to accomplish quite a bit in a given time period.
Next, add a couple columns next to your list that say “difficulty,” “time,” “reward in exposure” and “reward in sales”
Rank each project by these four factors.
- Add a value of 1–10 under “difficulty” for how much effort the item in question will take. How much will you have to exert yourself to get it done?
- Add an anecdotal value under “time,” e.g., a 1-hour project gets a 1, a 20-hour project gets a 5, and, say, a 500-hour project gets a 10.
- Add a value under “reward in exposure.” In relation to the other items on your list, where does this rank in getting exposure for your company?
- Same with “reward in sales.” In relation to the other items on your list, where does this rank in getting sales for your company?
For each item, multiply the fourth column by two and add it to the third column. This is the number that should dominate your priority list, but, of course, time and effort will play a factor in all of this. We need to get the things done that will help us the most right now.
[bctt tweet=”The opportunity is often lost by deliberating. – Publilius Syrus”]
Lastly, for the sake of determining which items will bring expedient results, subtract the first two columns from your number for each column
Once you have this weighted number, check the projects that much of the next steps will center around. Take your highest numbers and those that are weighted toward delegation and get rockin’ as they will have the highest returns, and, in the case of the delegated items, they will likely need more lead time to get the ball rolling. This is, of course, not an exact science, but it will help you put some parameters around what you’re already thinking. You can then plot the next step items from each of the top projects for the next couple days on your calendar whether you’re workshopping some items with key members of your staff and/or seeking the implementation you need to start yourself.