Optimize Your Marketing: How to Build Streamlined Systems for Consistent Results
I have been deep in a systems development cave lately and I wanted to share some of the systems we have been developing and refining in case it helps anyone else who may be feeling the pull to tighten up your workflows or streamline your processes.
I have always been a systems-loving person. I adore nicely organized things and appreciate it when I can set up a process that helps me work smarter instead of harder. We waste so much time on things that could be done more efficiently. Our time is SO precious and valuable, especially if we want to HAVE time to live our lives outside of our jobs. As someone who usually leans into the realm of over-working and going above and beyond with things I give my attention toward, I have found that things like marketing systems have helped me to rein in my people-pleasing tendencies as well as avoid over-working. Systems provide us with boundaries and those boundaries create more FREEDOM for us to enjoy life instead of just working our lives away!
In this article i'm going to share two marketing systems that we rely on daily as a Studio to help us streamline our management processes. Let’s get into it!
Marketing systems are structured frameworks and processes designed to streamline and optimize various aspects of a marketing department's operations. These systems encompass everything from strategy development and planning to content creation, distribution, analytics, and more.
They play a vital role in effective marketing department management for several reasons. Firstly, marketing systems provide a cohesive and organized approach to achieving marketing goals. Secondly, they enhance efficiency by automating routine tasks and reducing the risk of errors. Thirdly, these systems facilitate collaboration and communication among team members and with partners, establishing a more cohesive and enjoyable work culture. Lastly, they enable data-driven decision-making and creative designing by providing the tools to track and analyze marketing performance, allowing for constant improvement and adaptation.
Basically, marketing systems are the backbone of a well-oiled marketing department, ensuring that marketing efforts are not only effective but also sustainable and adaptable to the ever-evolving online biz world!
Here are the top two marketing systems that have helped bring balance into our Studio…
Marketing strategy + planning system
A planning and strategy marketing system is the foundational framework that guides all marketing direction! It helps you set clear objectives, define targeting, and establish a strategic path for your goals.
This system involves backend market research, analysis, and the development of an overarching marketing plan which includes your content calendar. It lays the groundwork for decision-making by outlining the strategies to be tested, choosing the right marketing channels for your brand, and specifying the messaging and positioning that will resonate with the intended community.
Your planning and strategy marketing system serves as a roadmap that ensures marketing efforts are purposeful, cohesive, and aligned with the business' long-term vision.
The marketing strategy + planning system we use as a Studio is multifaceted. Here's what ours looks like…
We have a Partner Profiles Hub that stores a profile for each partner we work with. Within each partner profile we house all of their important information, links and assets pertaining to their marketing department. This way, each team member can go into the profile of the partner they are supporting and access everything they need to support whatever tasks they are working on.
Each month we tag our partners in a planning and strategy form. This questionnaire captures all of the important information we need from the partner in order for us to strategize and plan upcoming marketing campaigns and content for them. Using a form helps us focus marketing efforts as a team, moving through months intentionally aligned to our partner’s goals + areas of focus.
We keep an active briefing page for each of our partners that is updated monthly with the partner's marketing direction and strategic planning session notes. This briefing page helps our team stay up to date with what's currently going on with each partner we work with, ensuring nothing falls between the cracks and tasks get delegated properly.
From there, we have all documentation needed to easily begin research and planning for their content calendar! The rest of our strategy + planning system involves building out the partner's content calendar for the upcoming month/s. The content calendars we set up brief out the partner's content ideas, hooks, CTA's, creative direction, caption ideas, angles, content formats and more. Once a content calendar is finished, we move into our content creation system (below).
Content creation system
The next system I want to share is our content creation system. This has been the most important system for us to build out as a Studio because, well, we create A LOT of content in many different forms for our partners marketing departments! From Instagram content, Pinterest pins and Youtube videos to long form blogs, email campaigns and podcasts… we always have a lot of content being designed at any given time.
A content creation system is a structured and organized approach to generating, developing, and delivering various forms of content as part of a marketing strategy.
Here's what our content creation system looks like…
Content briefing: This is where we pull from our content calendar, detailing out the content idea, rough draft laying out the concept.
Content designing: Once a piece of content is briefed, it's ready to be designed. Depending on the format, this could be setting up video content, designing graphics for a carousel, laying out the design for an email or blog, setting up Pinterest pins, etc!
Content writing: Designing and writing typically go hand in hand as many of our marketing designs have copy on them. We work directly with our partners to source copy, have them help direct copy, etc and then we take what they provide and run with it!
Content edits: Once a piece of content has been designed and written out, we are ready to tag our partner in to begin reviewing! Our partners receive 2 rounds of edit requests. This is often a very collaborative part of the process where we are working side by side our partners to finalize a piece of content.
Content staging: Once content has been green lit by a partner, the work isn't done! We then stage the content, meaning we optimize it for the platform it's to be published on. Since every marketing platform is different, we optimize each piece to get the best results based on the channel we will be publishing it on. This may include weaving in keywords, adding stronger hooks and CTAS, or even updating a design to make it just that much better.
Scheduling + publishing: Now we are ready to either schedule the piece of content to air on its designated day or manually publish the content for our partners right away!
There you have it! The two marketing systems rocking our Studio's world right now. Have a question about something I covered in this article? Reach out!
Until next time…
Natalie Brite - DoGoodBiz Studio
