Time management guide for email marketing

Effective time management is important for email marketers to handle the demanding tasks of managing email marketing schedules, implementing campaigns and providing timely responses to subscriber actions.

In this article, we'll discuss some practical strategies to streamline your email marketing efforts, reduce overwhelm and improve overall efficiency.

These are the signs…

As an email marketer, recognising the signs of poor time management is a must if you’re going to maximise productivity and efficiency.

This is how to know if you’re not managing your time well enough as an email marketer:

• Missed deadlines: Constantly missing email campaign deadlines or sending emails at the wrong time can indicate a lack of effective planning and time allocation.
• Repetitive tasks: Spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks like manual data entry, creating the same email templates repeatedly or handling routine customer enquiries may signal a need for streamlining processes.
• Neglected analysis: If you find yourself rarely analysing email performance metrics or failing to adjust your strategies based on data insights, it could mean that you're not allocating time for critical analytical tasks.
• Lack of automation: Failing to use automation tools for tasks like campaign scheduling, segmentation or follow-ups can consume unnecessary time and hinder your email marketing efficiency.

So, what must you do?

It’s easy when you follow the right time management tactics. So, here goes…

1. Define clear objectives

Start by defining your email marketing goals and objectives. Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve will help you prioritise tasks and allocate time effectively.

Your goals could include increasing website traffic, boosting sales, building brand awareness, nurturing leads or improving customer engagement. It’s all up to you.

We suggest making your objectives specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

For example, set a target of increasing email click-through rates by 15% within the next three months.

2. Develop an email marketing schedule

Create a well-structured email marketing schedule that includes planning, content creation and deployment. Break down your tasks into daily, weekly and monthly segments to maintain a consistent and organised approach.

If you don’t know how to do that, here’s what we think you could do:

BREAKDOWN

Daily tasks

• Inbox management: Dedicate time each day to manage your inbox, respond to customer enquiries and handle any urgent issues quickly.
• Content ideation: Set aside time to brainstorm and generate new email content ideas, ensuring a steady flow of fresh and engaging ideas for your campaigns.

Weekly tasks

• Campaign planning: At the start of each week, plan the email campaigns you'll run for the following week (if you send out a weekly newsletter like we do). You can even plan your campaigns in advance if you are using evergreen content.
• Content creation: Allocate specific days for content creation, such as writing copy, designing visuals and preparing any necessary content elements.
• A/B testing: Select a day each week to conduct A/B tests on different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, CTAs or visuals, to optimise performance.

Monthly tasks

• Performance review: Set aside time at the end of each month to conduct a comprehensive review of your email marketing performance. Analyse the results of A/B tests, overall campaign success and adjust your strategies accordingly.
• List cleaning: Regularly clean and update your email list to remove inactive or unengaged subscribers, ensuring that your future campaigns target an interested audience.
• Long-term planning: Use a monthly slot to plan for long-term email marketing goals and strategies, aligning them with upcoming events, holidays or product launches. We all know that Black Friday is coming up in November; now’s the time to start planning for your campaigns if you participate in it.

Automation and scheduling tools

• Use automation: Use your Mail Blaze account to its fullest capacity. Leverage automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks such as scheduling campaigns, segmenting lists and sending follow-up emails.
• Scheduled send: Take advantage of scheduled send options to ensure your emails are sent at the most opportune times, even if you're not available to manually hit the send button.

3. Use email marketing automation

As we’ve said before, use email marketing automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks such as sending welcome emails, drip campaigns and any reminders, like abandoned cart reminders, for example. Automation will save you time and effort while ensuring timely and relevant communications. We strongly encourage you to use automation for behaviour-based emails.

RESOURCE: How to set up your automations

4. Segment your subscriber list

Divide your subscriber list into segments based on various criteria like demographics, interests or engagement level. This allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.

For example, if we go back to the timing thing, you could use segmentation to:

TOP TIP: Consider time zones. If your subscriber base spans multiple time zones, segment your lists and schedule emails according to the recipients' local times for improved engagement.

5. Craft evergreen content

Develop “evergreen” content that remains relevant over time. This type of content can be repurposed and reused in future email campaigns, reducing the need for constant content creation.

6. Use email templates

Email templates don’t just look good. They also save time! Creating new emails from scratch can be time-consuming, especially when you have regular campaigns or newsletters. With our email templates, you can quickly start with a pre-designed layout and only need to customise the content, making the process more efficient.

Email templates help maintain a consistent and professional look for your brand. By using predefined templates, you can ensure that each email aligns with your brand's visual identity, logo placement, colour scheme and font choices.

Many email templates are designed to be responsive, meaning they automatically adapt to different screen sizes and devices. This ensures that your emails look great on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones without requiring additional adjustments. This, too, will save you time!

7. Set realistic response timeframes

Define realistic response timeframes for subscriber enquiries and feedback. Inform your subscribers about your response policy to manage their expectations. That’s a good way to go about it if you want to keep both you and your customers happy.

8. Delegate and collaborate

If possible, delegate certain tasks to team members or collaborate with colleagues to share the workload and enhance productivity.

Identify tasks within the email marketing process that can be effectively delegated to team members based on their expertise and skills. Tasks like content creation, graphic design, data analysis or list segmentation can be assigned to individuals with relevant strengths, ensuring that each aspect of the campaign receives specialised attention.

9. Learn to say no

Recognise your limits and avoid over-committing. Saying no to unnecessary tasks or projects can prevent burnout and allow you to focus on essential email marketing activities.

Over to you…

With these email marketing time management tactics, the power is in your hands!

We know that managing your email marketing schedule, crafting campaigns and making timely responses may seem daunting, but with effective time management strategies, you can overcome these challenges.

By defining objectives, using automation and prioritising tasks, you'll achieve well-organised and efficient email marketing campaigns that engage subscribers and drive results.

Remember, consistency and discipline in time management are key to achieving success in email marketing. Tell us which of these time management tasks you’ll be including in your routine going forward.