How to prioritise tasks as a digital marketing all-rounder 

Being a digital marketing all-rounder is hard. Very hard. What falls under digital marketing is expanding exponentially. Think generative AI, the emergence of yet more ad types in Google Ads and GA4. You feel like you have to know everything about everything. Or do you? 

You don’t need to be able to do everything. You need to understand how and why it works or not. In other words, it’s about skill sets and attitudes rather than knowledge alone. 

Once you grasp this, then prioritising where you focus your efforts will be far easier. We’ll cover the following:

• Skills and attitudes to succeed in digital marketing
• Changing your mindset
• How to prioritise tactics 
• Marketing should lead the way 

Skills and attitudes

The World Economic Forum core skills list includes analytical thinking and creative thinking in the top two slots for 2023. To be good at marketing, these are arguably the top two skills you need. They’re followed by technological literacy - the merits of this for digital marketing speak for themselves. Curiosity and lifelong learning are in fourth place. This game is changing daily. You’ll get left behind very quickly if you don’t enjoy learning. 

It’s worth noting, that all of these sit above AI and big data.

1. Creative thinking

Beyond 2023, creative thinking is predicted to overtake analytical thinking. Which makes sense when you consider the rise of AI. It’s being creative and harnessing it which will be the real power.

2. Analytical thinking

You don’t necessarily have to be able to manage Google Ads but you do need to know what’s working and what’s not. Being able to read the data correctly will make all the difference. You can spot if something is overspending and not driving the results you need. It can guide you on how to evolve your campaigns if you can read what it’s telling you. 

3. Technological literacy

 Tech savvy in other words. Tech is evolving faster than ever before, so no wonder that digital marketing is too. You need to keep up or be left behind. Savvy doesn’t mean being able to build a website or create an app, it means you’re willing to learn how to use it and harness it. 

4. Curiosity and lifelong learning

Far from needing to know everything about everything, keeping on top of trends at a high level is important. That way you know what to prioritise and what not. Again, you don’t have to get a PhD in it but a general understanding is enough to work out how much more you need to know. 

Make this learning broad - find 2 or 3 sources you enjoy and trust. TL;DR Marketing curates the hottest articles for you every day and the summaries are top notch so you know whether to bother reading or not.

Life-long learning is something we all need so we can successfully adapt to the speed at which workplaces and working practices are changing.

Changing your mindset

Don’t be a yes person. Just because you have the word marketing in your job title doesn’t mean you’re a specialist in it all. No one, and we mean no one, can do 100 things perfectly. This relates to the focus on skill sets rather than absolute knowledge. Being creative, analytical, tech-savvy and having an aptitude for learning will all help you. You’ll know how to critique designs, read data sets, use tools to be more efficient and work out what to prioritise and what you need to learn more about. 

How to prioritise tactics

With so many tactics to choose from now and tools to help you, how do you prioritise? You can’t just cut 10 items off your list. It will be specific to your business. So we’re not focusing on channels but on a set of skills that will help you decide. You can choose the channels later.

Multi-tasking is a misnomer

No one is good at it. Sorry to shatter the illusion. Humans function far better focusing on what they’re doing and doing it well. Use that to your advantage and keep it in mind when working out what to double down on.  

Time management

Not technically prioritising but if you’re focusing too much on one task, by proxy you’re not prioritising effectively. 

Plug the gaps

There’s no point in pumping money into the top of the funnel if it’s got holes in it. That’s a great starting point to make sure any activity you take part in is getting the best return it can. 
Make sure you’re well versed in CRO, the principles of good web design, UX and UI so you can direct teams working in those areas. 

Work out quickly what’s a waste of time

And give it up!

• Test, test and test again. Do it quickly. This is worth the effort and you’ll know where to spend your time and budget more accurately. 

• Start with a hypothesis (hunch) but back this up with data if you’re going to proceed. 

• It’s not a one-time thing. You need to revisit this periodically to check it still holds. 

Get curious about data

You don’t need to be a maths whizz. Formulas are there in spreadsheets and fancy data CRM systems to do it all for you. You need to learn how to read the data and notice the trends. This comes back to analytical thinking and curiosity. Why is that data doing that? If you ask why and dig you’ll find the answers.

Get feedback

This can come from your sales team too. They’re a mine of information about what customers and potential customers are saying. Data is incredibly important but so is feedback. It may highlight things you’re missing or give you the answers to things you’ve seen in the data but aren’t sure why they’re happening (or not). Don’t go in blind.

Marketing should lead the way

Don’t be seen as a function, be seen as the one (or team) with the keys to grow the business. You have the data. You have the audience at your fingertips. What you can see and know should be helping to shape the agenda rather than the other way around.

In summary

Being a digital marketing all-rounder can feel overwhelming with so many options and not enough time. Remember, you don’t need to be the master of all trades. What you do need to master are creative and analytical thinking; you need to be tech-savvy and have a passion for learning.

Focus on those and if you need more support to reach your goals, you’ll then have the data to back it up. We’re always here for that. Contact us to find out how we can help.

Back to insights