Checklist

There it was, stuck on the refrigerator, glaring and searching for me like the Evil Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings.

It was my dreaded weekend Honey-Do list.

I had a honey-do list of my very own, like taking Damien to the dog park where he could do some serious sniffing, followed by a few hours of playing guitar to try and nail down the third part of the Dill Pickle Rag, and then spending some quality time exercising my brain with the much tougher weekend Jumble. And assuming I got all of that done, I had a nap penciled in for 3 to 4 pm.

Instead, the list that captured me had things like, “fix the kitchen cabinet”, “mow the lawn”, “haul the bottles to the recycling place”, and “change the burnt-out lightbulb”, followed by a bold, all capitals and triple underlined “NO NAP UNTIL ITS ALL DONE” directive.

Sure … I’d rather be playing my guitar than mowing the lawn (who wouldn’t?), but the consequences of not doing my chores are a lot worse than the consequences of figuring out that tricky part of the Dill Pickle Rag. An unmown lawn today is the yardwork nightmare of tomorrow.

The point of all this talk about honey-do lists is that every agency or firm has a marketing honey-do list. Even though owners and partners might want to do something else – anything else – ignoring the list has consequences in terms of your ability to secure new accounts and grow your top line.

That dirty database of today is the missed opportunity of tomorrow.

PREMIUM CONTENT: The Compliance Landscape U.S. 2017

Your Marketing Honey-Do List

While there are hundreds of things that can be on your marketing honey-do list, I’ve picked out five that are particularly important. There aren’t too may shortcuts here … you’ve got to roll up yoursleeves and get to it.

• Get your marketing database clean, current, accurate and in shape
• Write your next blog post and make sure your last post was published and promoted the right way
• Start planning for your next lead generation campaign, from concept, to execution, to measurement, to sales enablement
• Get a week’s worth of Tweets and Facebook posts written and scheduled
• Add 10 new LinkedIn connections

Some of the items on this list are maintenance items, others are proactive, but the common denominator is that these and other types of marketing honey-do’s are never ending. You may have a few set it and forget chores, like putting together sales collateral that once done, is evergreen.  Other chores may require weekly or even daily attention.

Another common denominator of the chores on your marketing honey-do list is that they all require some type of investment, be it in terms of people or out of pocket expenses. Unless you have unlimted funds, that means prioritizing your list to accommodate the strategic marketing objectives you (hopefully) have.

Unlike the list of household honey-do’s, keeping up with and finishing your marketing honey-do’s can result in getting more visibility, leads and new business for your staffing agency or recruiting firm, and more money in your pocket.

MORE: Tackling the Four Biggest Culprits Blocking a Huge ROI from Marketing