We asked some of the greatest content marketing minds at Content Marketing World to share their top productivity and overall growth tips for entrepreneurs. Here’s what they had to say…
Ian Cleary from Razor Social said, “Get writing. You need to produce good content, and the best way of doing that is through a blog.”
Stephen Spencer, SEO expert, author and speaker, shared a productivity and time management tip: “I’m a big proponent of GTD (Getting Things Done). What it is about GTD that makes you more productive is you assign context to all of your activities. You figure out what’s your next action, what are your projects, what are someday/maybe’s, and so on.” He uses this in tandem with “Things,” an app for iPhone, iPad and Mac to assign context to his tasks and easily search for actions, which comes in handy when he has some unexpected down time. He also suggested breaking large projects into “single next actions.”
Amy Higgins, content and social manager at Concur, suggests blocking out sections on the calendar for your own projects. “I block sections on my calendar so I can get my own work done without anyone booking time.” Her favorite productivity tool is Concur for automatic expense tracking and reporting.
Chris Ducker, entrepreneur, author and founder of Virtual Staff Finder, said, “Stop living in your inbox. Do not use your inbox as a to-do list. Stop wasting time in your inbox pretending to be busy. And when clicking and opening your email, you have a 3-click rule. You either reply to it or forward it, archive it for later on or delete that bad boy and move on with your life.”
Kim Higdon, social media manager at Off Madison Ave., uses Divvy HQ, which she said is like a shared content calendar that allows you to collaborate with teams and organize all of your content. “The fewer tools that you have to use to accomplish the same goals, the better.”
Heidi Cohen, chief content officer of Actionable Marketing Guide, advises entrepreneurs to build their brand early on. “My biggest piece of advice for an entrepreneur is to start building your brand from the start. Most people think that you actually have to be a big company to talk about a brand, but one of the things you should do is be very consistent. Pick some colors, pick some fonts. Make sure you’re consistent.”
Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Online Marketing, recommends Evernote for productivity. “A lot of entrepreneurs wear many hats, one of which might be marketing, and writing blog posts can be very difficult. Trying to find an hour or two of uninterrupted time just isn’t going to happen for a lot of folks.” To combat this he uses Evernote, adding ideas to it whenever he has a spare moment. “I like to keep 5 to 10 different blog posts running at the same time, adding to them little bit by little bit. Ultimately you end up being in a situation where you can publish an entire robust blog post that you contributed to just a few minutes at a time.”
Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder of Orbit Media, suggests getting up earlier to accomplish more. “Wake up and write something awesome before you look at your email. It’ll change your career.” For more awesome Andy-isms checkout, “How to Unlock the Power of a Content Hub.”
