A week in the life of a marketing person: How to use your marketing resource
In her recent blog post, my colleague Stefanie Gajdecki wrote about hiring someone who is better at marketing than you are. I couldn’t agree more.
Over the past few months, I have spoken with many entrepreneurs who are reluctant to hire a marketing professional because they don’t know what that person could or should be doing. From my experience with clients, this can create growth challenges when companies decide to completely outsource the marketing function and cross their fingers hoping that things will go well.
So, what does a marketing person in a small or medium-sized business actually do? I took the liberty of creating a scenario that provides an overview of the week in the life of a marketing person. I hope that after reading this, you’ll give some thought to the idea of having an internal person drive your business forward.
Setting the stage
For our example, I have come up with XYZ Corporation, which produces two lines of products for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry.
Overview of XYZ Corporation’s business
$7 million
Annual gross sales
60% of sales
Wholesale B2B product line, which is sold via distributors of industrial products
40% of sales
B2C product line sold directly to homeowners
2—3%
Annual growth rate
25 employees
Most of whom are in operations and production, but there are four salespeople working mainly with distributor groups.
Company XYZ has a good brand reputation within the industry, but the retail market continues to struggle with growth. The good news is they really want to grow and have set aside $250K to promote the business annually.
Hiring the right person for the job
They have experience working with a few content management systems, can add and update content to websites, and have experience running both Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. They know how to leverage a marketing budget.
They need some assistance from external partners for the creative development of ad and sales materials, but they know their way around a video camera and iMovie. They have also worked with public relations professionals in crafting messages and writing for the web.
A week in the life of your new marketing hire
Our marketer comes to work on Monday with a full docket of things to do for XYZ Corporation.
Now remember, this person’s role is to help fill the funnel with qualified leads for the salespeople to close. They should also support all the customer facing channels that might require a response from someone in the business.
This person must work closely with senior management to ensure there is alignment on every piece of communication from XYZ Corporation. They are accountable and responsible for the marketing strategy and plan for the year, as well as for properly managing your marketing budget.
The brand is everything for this person (i.e. How do our customers and prospects perceive us relative to how we present ourselves?).
With all that said, here’s a week in their life.
9:00 a.m.
Weekly sales meeting
- Listen to activities and opportunities in the pipeline from the salespeople as well as any upcoming external activities (i.e. trade shows, etc.)
- Provide sales team with a five minute summary of marketing activities from last week and what is happening this week
10:00 a.m.
Marketing meeting with senior management
- Provide an in-depth breakdown of marketing efforts and budget to date to the management team
- Explain the efforts for the week to come
- Provide relevant insights from customer inquiries or from marketing analytics/data
- Finalize content planning and schedule time with individuals for content review before publication (i.e. social media, newsletters, blog posts)
11:00 a.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from the contact us form on the website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
Noon
Lunch
1 p.m.
Begin writing this week’s blog post
2:30 p.m.
- Use social media management tools to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Search for prospective customers and engagement using tools like search.twitter.com and searching Instagram hashtags
3:30 p.m.
Meet with creative freelancer for updates and to brief about new projects
4:00 p.m.
Meet with Director of Sales to discuss the design of sales collaterals
5:00 p.m.
End of day
8:30 p.m.
Answer urgent customer service request from website contact us form and coordinate conference call with operations for the next morning
9:00 a.m.
Continue writing this week’s blog post
10:30 a.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from contact us form on website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
11:30 a.m.
Quick review of all website and social analytics tools for anomalies
Noon
Lunch
1 p.m.
Edit blog post and send to President for approval
2:30 p.m.
- Use social media management tools to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Search for prospective customers and engagement using tools like search.twitter.com and searching Instagram hashtags
3:30 p.m.
Work on this week’s email newsletter and get current offers from the sales team
4:00 p.m.
Storyboard video testimonial with client
5:00 p.m.
End of day
9:00 a.m.
- Post new blog post on XYZ website, including SEO tags
- Share on social media and publishing sites (i.e. Medium, Reddit, etc.)
10:00 a.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from contact us form on website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
11:00 a.m
Coordinate the creation of a client testimonial with salesperson
Noon
Lunch
1 p.m.
Sit in on important client pitch as part of the support team
2:30 p.m.
- Use social media management tools to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Search for prospective customers and engagement using tools like search.twitter.com and searching Instagram hashtags
3:30 p.m.
Proofread of this week’s email newsletter and send to Director of Sales for final approval
4:00 p.m.
- Finalize Facebook ad for this week, including new creative asset
- Create landing page on the website
- Setup Facebook pixel to track results on XYZ Corporation’s website
- Establish audience targeting
- Schedule ad review
5:00 p.m.
End of day
9:00 p.m.
Revise Facebook ad based on the President’s feedback
9:00 a.m.
Send out test email and do a final check on the email newsletter on the email platform (i.e. MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc.)
10:00 a.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from contact us form on website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
11:00 a.m.
Get final Facebook ad approval from President and send it out
Noon
Lunch
1 p.m.
Review email newsletter statistics from the morning and confirm Facebook ad placement
1:30 p.m.
Finalize details for Friday’s client testimonial video
2:00 p.m.
- Use social media management tools to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Search for prospective customers and engagement using tools like search.twitter.com and searching Instagram hashtags
3:30 p.m.
Do an in-depth review of all website and social analytics tools
4:00 p.m.
- Respond to social media complaints from B2C customer.
- Get support from operations to clarify the issue and promise a resolution
5:00 p.m.
End of day
7:00 p.m.
Respond to additional question from social media complaints and thank customers for their patience and business
8:30 a.m.
Post official response to customer complaint on social media
9:00 a.m.
Greet testimonial client while getting setting up to film the testimonial
9:30 a.m.
Record the video testimonial with the client, President and Director of Sales
11:00 a.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from contact us form on website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
Noon
Lunch
1 p.m.
Edit video
2:00 p.m.
- Use social media management tools to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Search for prospective customers and engagement using tools like search.twitter.com and searching Instagram hashtags
3:00 p.m.
Edit video
6:00 p.m.
Attend HVAC industry networking event with sales team and post Instagram stories and a Facebook Live session
9:00 p.m.
End of day
1:00 p.m.
Complete final edits for testimonial video
3:00 p.m.
- Review social media channels for engagement
- Review overnight website traffic
- Check for emails from contact us form on website
- Check social media listening tools for mentions
- Respond as needed or forward to appropriate resource
5:00 p.m.
Send edited video to team for review and approval on Monday
An investment that pays off
In my opinion, this is a typical week for any marketer. It’s also just a fraction of what an experienced marketing person can do for you.
Your marketing person can help educate you on the right marketing strategies and tactics, as well as do a deep dive in the data to provide customer and sales support to open up that sales funnel.
It will cost money to bring them in, keep them motivated and give them a budget to work with, but a good marketer with a strategic mindset will take that ball and run with it.
I’d like feedback as to what you think? Is there enough work here to keep someone busy and add some value to your brand and business?
Marketers: Does this sound remotely familiar to you?
Let us know your thoughts.