Seven habits of successful marketing managers

When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you do?  

Perhaps you’re an early riser, taking the dog out for a walk as the sun climbs over the rooftops. Or maybe you stay in bed for as long as possible, hitting the snooze button until you absolutely have to get up? 

So, rather than ticking off points on your to-do list, being a successful marketing manager means focusing on routine and habits that let you keep on top of things that you should be doing every day. 

As a B2B inbound marketing agency, we’ve adopted some great habits into our daily routine to make sure our clients’ marketing strategies are working at their full potential.  

We’ve worked with many marketing managers over the years, starting with their very own free marketing report and consultation (which you can enjoy here too), and have seen all of the ups and downs, so we know from this experience what works best, and what doesn’t.  

From the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep, there are things you can do to make your day as a marketing manager more seamless.  

In this post, we highlight the top seven marketing habits that can help you stay organised and at the top of your game. 

Seven habits of successful inbound marketing managers

1. Start the day off well

The best way to keep up to date with the latest industry news is by, well, reading it! The easiest and quickest way to do this is by scrolling through an online industry magazine, through Twitter hashtags, or even just by doing a quick Google search. A couple of Angelfish favourites include www.searchenginejournal.com and www.seroundtable.com/ - they send out some brilliant daily updates! 

This needn’t take longer than ten to 15 minutes - so you could do it while your coffee is brewing, or even as you have your breakfast! Another great way to start the day is by checking up on your competitors - what are they posting about on social media at the moment? What are they writing about on their blog?  

Having a clear vision of the current market is essential in order to keep up with competition and react quickly to changes. 

2. Time to make a plan 

Once you’ve done your morning’s research, the next step is to make a plan. As multitasking is an essential skill to have, you need to keep on top of your to-do list.  

Will you get through everything on your checklist? In all likelihood, probably not - so make sure you prioritise any tasks that have high urgency and importance.  

As a B2B inbound marketing agency, we use tools such as HubSpot, Trello and WorkflowMax to help us stay on top of the daily tasks so that nothing slips under our radar. Trello is especially good at notifying you when a deadline is due whilst giving you a clear overview as to where each project is at.  

This way, we can keep our clients informed and ensure the prompt delivery of all our projects. 

3. Catch up with your team

A vital part of being a successful inbound marketing manager is ensuring your team know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. As with any marketing strategy, you’re all working towards the same goal - yet sometimes this can get lost in the day-to-day running of your business.  

Being a good leader comes with experience, but this skill can also be honed - talk to your team openly and have regular conversations about workload. Getting the most out of your team requires creating cohesion between different personalities and skills.  

That’s why, here at Angelfish Marketing, we hold a team meeting every day at 9:00am to make sure things kick off to a good start and stay that way, resolving issues as they arise rather than accumulating problems which just get bigger over time.  

Therefore, when it comes to delegating tasks, make sure that you give the right jobs to the right people and have daily catch ups to ensure the morale within your team stays high. 

4. Revise your strategy 

You know your marketing goals. You know them well. However, the path you take to reach them could change over time. With the world of marketing constantly evolving, it’s important to stay on the ball with industry trends and buyer behaviours so that you can adapt your strategies accordingly. 

For example, ten years ago, outbound methods such as cold calling and print advertising used to be very effective when it came to making sales. But things have changed. While sales still has a big role to play in B2B marketing, people, this now works in conjunction with people doing their own research online, rather than being the sole driving force.  

It’s all about pulling customers into your business by offering engaging and informative content to help them solve their questions. That’s why the inbound methodology was created, to help businesses attract, engage and delight their customers.  

Start by creating a simple gameplan to help plan out your 12-month marketing activities, including your goals and steps in order to reach them. As a b2b inbound marketing agency, we work with marketing managers in adopting these techniques, helping them to work to full capacity. 

5. Brainstorm new content ideas 

You don’t need to do this on a daily basis, but thinking about new blog post ideas should always be at the forefront of your mind. Make a note of the questions you or your clients ask regularly; these often make the basis of good blogs.  

Also, carry out some research into what people are googling to find an answer to their questions in order to form great content around this. After all, your content is a big part of how you will pull in those all-important leads. 

Adopting a topic cluster strategy can also help you to keep your content on brand and relevant to your business - and it will also do wonders for your SEO ranking, too!  

Ensure that every piece of content you produce is optimised for a relevant keyword so that Google recognises your post as quality. Your keyword should be included in titles, meta descriptions, heading tags and image alt tags, as well as naturally throughout your content. 

6. Compare month-on-month results 

As an inbound marketing manager, you have to truly embrace the data! You need to know the results of your marketing efforts inside-out, which means tracking your conversions, social media advertising, email open rates, click-through rates and website traffic.  

This will give you a good idea of your ROI and where you could be improving. Doing this on a regular basis will allow you to compare results easily while testing out different techniques to see what works best for you.  

Use software such as HubSpot, SEMrush and Google Analytics - they’ll do all the hard work for you! 

7. Get help with your marketing output  

Working with a marketing agency or external contractors does not mean giving up responsibility. In fact, it means utilising the support of marketing experts who can lift the pressure from your shoulders.  

They’ll keep on top of industry trends, as well as the results from your marketing campaigns, and also help to write blog posts and implement SEO on your website so you can boost your ranking and increase lead generation.  

Hiring an inbound marketing agency or contract support team will help you organise your time effectively, get your core campaigns going out on time every month without worry and, most crucially, accelerate your results.  

Next steps

Open and honest communication with your external team is key. At Angelfish Marketing, we pride ourselves on helping marketing managers adopt the inbound methodology and see amazing results over time.  

If you want to ‘try before you buy’ and see how we can help you, why not request a free marketing report and consultation from us? 

Your report will review your website’s: 

• Links and authority 
• Technical fix recommendations 
• Search rankings 
• Local listings 
• On-site SEO
• Social channels 

Plus, you’ll get a free, one-hour consultation with one of our B2B inbound marketing experts. Being a successful inbound marketing manager is all about adaptability and identifying areas of improvement to truly get the best out of your business. So, talk to a member of our team today.