How to Survive as a B2B Marketing Team of One at a SaaS Startup
Hi there lone Marketing Manager,
If you are anything like me in my first year as a marketing team of one at a rapidly growing startup, you might have already searched this very title in Google.
Though I’m no longer a lone ranger on my team, that time where I was taught me a few tricks of the trade (or “hacks” as I like to call them) that helped me do the work of a fully-scaled marketing team.
To help you along in your hustle, I’ve decided to share my top five hacks. Without further ado, here they are:
- Time Block Your Day
It can be really tough when you don’t feel like you have enough time in your day to complete everything you need to complete. And the truth is, even if you follow my first hack, you might still feel like that.
The value of time blocking your day is to focus on the most crucial tasks at hand and make sure you have time scheduled on your calendar to complete them. Treat it like you would any other meeting to ensure that time doesn’t get filled with something less important.
2. Obsess Over Organization
One of the most challenging things for me is when I feel like have tasks floating around everywhere. There might be some in my email, my notebook, my calendar, a paper napkin from lunch, etc.
One thing I did very early on in my role was to adopt the project management tool called Trello. This Kanban-style tool makes it super easy to manage and prioritize all of the tasks I need complete. I literally put every single thing I needed to do in there regardless of how big or small it was. My new favorite hack on Trello is a Chrome extension called Ultimello which helps me sort my lists by due date.
3. Streamline Social Media
Somewhere between the time Myspace and Snapchat debuted, marketers began to think they had to have a brand presence on every single social network. And if you can maintain that as a marketing team of one, you are my hero!
If not, then you have to pick a few channels that make the most sense to your brand. For us, it was Twitter and LinkedIn. For you, it might be Facebook, Instagram or any of the other emerging platforms that make the most sense for your industry.
Once you decide which platforms to invest your time in, pick a tool that helps automate this process. Buffer is a great tool and it’s free. They also have a great Chrome Extension to help you easily curate posts right from your browser.
4. Set Some Goals
You won’t know you are successful unless you set some goals to measure yourself against. Don’t worry if you do not have much data to compare against. The main idea is to have something to work towards and also something to reflect on down the line. Having goals in place will also help you to drive the business forward.
5. Get By With A Little Help From Your Friends
This one comes in two parts. One part is to get to know some great contractors. Though you can’t do everything yourself, you can utilize some great resources who can help you maximize your time and efforts. There are sites like Fiverr where people can do design work for as little as $5 per hour.
The second part involves real friends. I started a monthly marketing manager lunch because I began to meet others who were in the same boat as me. This was very helpful in exchanging ideas and working my way through challenges.
Being a marketing manager on a team of one is definitely challenging, but hopefully these tips can help you make the best of it and see success!
Cheers!
