Welcome to the wonderful world of a Marketing Manager.
Here’s a little overview:
- Spreadsheets
- Graphs
- Content scheduling (a.k.a. spreadsheets…)
- Making cool things to put on the Internet!
- Managing outsourced work (did we mention spreadsheets…😂)
Keep reading to see:
- What a week is like in the life of a Marketing Manager
- That we’re really not kidding about the spreadsheets
Depending on when your Weekly Report Meetings are (which we’ll go into more detail about later), Marketing Managers start their week differently. For this example, we’re going to schedule those meetings for Fridays (which seems to be common practice). This means that on Monday morning, you’re executing on everything talked about in that Friday Weekly Report Meeting.
(Responsible) Marketing Managers start their week by looking at their to-do list and scheduling out their day and week. Preparation is key in the hungry world of content marketing, so knowing what your week looks like is essential to keeping organized and to schedule.
After the schedule is set, Marketing Managers will start working on the most urgent tasks, either tasks given to them at their Friday Weekly Report Meeting or other tasks that are still at the top of the list after the meeting.
Here’s what Monday may look like:
- Catching up on emails and Slack messages
- Creating new reports for different statistics needed (based off of Weekly Report Meeting)
- Ex. The newest Facebook Messenger Ad funnel running to Level 2 traffic
- Checking the week’s content calendar to make sure all content is scheduled, available, and ready to publish
- Checking metrics from the last email marketing campaign
- Following up with freelancers on assigned work and assigning work
- For example, making sure that freelancers have all of the resources necessary to complete work, answering any clarification questions they have, and assigning them new tasks
- Following up on influencer/outsourced marketing efforts
- For example, answering any influencer questions and needed clarifications, organizing their incoming content, and preparing it to be used in more marketing strategies
Here’s what Tuesday may look like:
Content Planning:
- Researching blog and content ideas
- Creating scripts for video-based content
- Creating GIFs
- Giveaway ideas
Website Page Edits, Additions, Optimizations, or Mockups:
- Rewriting necessary pages that are outdated or out of line with the company’s new branding
- Adding in copywriting and content based on new customer avatar information
- Optimizing landing pages based off of newly successful templates
- Creating mockups of new website pages or existing website pages (if the company is rebranding)
Here’s what Wednesday may look like:
Content Creation:
- Filming videos
- Writing newsletters
- Writing blog posts
- Copywriting
Content Meeting with graphic designer to schedule out new graphic content needed for the editorial calendar:
- Socials
- Infographics
- Featured blog post images
- Website images
- Creating action items and scheduling due dates for action items
Receiving content from freelancers and organizing it in your queue to be edited (ahem, a spreadsheet).
Here’s what Thursday may look like:
Editing content for approval and scheduling:
- Blog posts
- Website content
- Scripts
- Social media posts
Updating Editorial Calendar (hellloooo, again spreadsheets!)
- All content is put into a spreadsheet and categorized by:
- Date and month to be published
- Actual publish date
- Format (blog post, ebook, infographic, video, etc.)
- Content title
- Category
- URL
Checking the week’s reports for any changes (good or bad):
- Creating a summary to explain reports: what they mean and what they’re telling us needs to be changed
- Remember: Marketing Managers can look at a report and understand it immediately, executives may need to have it explained to understand what it’s telling them
- Summary will be used at the Weekly Status Call (tomorrow) to explain the marketing reports to the upper management
Any other necessary preparations for Weekly Status Call:
- Specific paid traffic campaign reports
- Updates on past marketing meeting action items (ex. email marketing campaign click-through rates)
- Content that needs to be approved:
- Design
- Wireframes
- Copy
- Etc.
Here’s what Friday may look like:
Friday Weekly Status Call (usually about an hour):
- Meeting with supervisor or executives (depending on company size)
- Talking about the activities of last week
- Solving problems
- Getting necessary approvals for new content, web page design, etc.
Here’s what else you might spend Friday doing:
- Catching up on all work that wasn’t able to be completed
- Organizing for next week
- Learning
The best marketers know that they don’t know everything and there’s always room for improvement, so reading books, articles, marketing newsletters, and trending industry news is a necessity to staying at the top of their game
Marketing Managers make the content world go ‘round. With their expertise (and passion for spreadsheets), they’re able to take a product and create the content the product’s prospects want to see.
It’s their job to grow brand awareness, get more customers, and turn those customers into loyal fans. It’s also their job to make sure their company’s or client’s content engine stays well-greased and is running smoothly.
We’re grateful to all of you Marketing Managers, keep doing your thing!