- Neighbourhood Post
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- Three 10 minute tasks ⏱️
Hey 👋
Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #39 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.
☀️🇫🇷 I go on holiday next week! Advance warning that I’ll miss the next couple of weeks, unless I fancy writing a newsletter from a sun lounger.
Which is highly unlikely. 😎
Anyway, on with today’s newsletter - we’ll be talking about quick tasks that can make a big difference.
👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.
📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.
Three little tasks with big impact 💪
It’s been a busier week than usual, which has left me a little less time to write.
But that made me think. 🤔💭
Can I write a newsletter in 10 minutes and still make it valuable?
The majority of leaders and marketers I speak to are tight on time.
It’s true we need a big chunk of capacity to make digital work, but what are the quick wins we can do here and there?
If you’re fighting to make space, but have a quick 10 minutes between meetings or bigger tasks, here’s how to make the most of it:
#1 - Track social media reach
With 10 minutes a month you can create a clearer picture of performance over time. Here are the steps:
Choose your highest-priority social media platform
Create a spreadsheet with columns “Month”, “Reach”, “No. Posts”
Starting with this month, fill in the data
In a fourth column create the formula =Reach/No.Posts
Create a monthly recurring task to add the data each month
Keep at it for 3-6 months and then look at the data. What was your most successful month? Go back to the posts and work out why.
In the fictional example above, I’d be asking how we managed to achieve a 46% increase in Reach per post for October compared to July.
Future you will be very grateful for that 10 minutes.
#2 - Learn from others in your space
Think about the biggest players in your space.
They don’t have to be identical to you in every way, but just close enough to be relevant.
The bigger the better, because bigger companies mean bigger teams with bigger budgets.
Open up a word doc, do some quick research, and write down any ideas that come up.
Look at their website:
How do they describe themselves?
How much copy is on the pages?
How many calls to action are there?
Sign up to their emails - do you get an immediate automated email journey? If so, how good was it?
Head to their socials - look at what get’s the highest engagement. What type of content are they sharing?
You can learn a lot in 10 minutes, and your biggest competitors are spending a huge chunk of budget on testing the best theories.
#3 - Look at your “Swipe File”
A Swipe File is a collection of interesting/inspiring/useful things you’ve saved for later.
I guess “bookmark” is the more universal language.
In your day-to-day, save anything you see that you like the look of. Videos you want to watch, social media that’s inspired you, websites to copy, articles on best practice, social media posts you like the look of etc.
Create tags and categories to organise it, and when you have 10 minutes, dive in and see what you’ve saved.
It’ll be far more valuable than wasting 5 minutes watching reels.
—
Stop the clock. 14 minutes. ⏱️
A little over the target of 10 minutes, but it’ll do…
Anyway, I’m off to find my passport.
See you in three weeks.
✌️
What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂
🎧 Dan’s off to watch Elbow at Ludlow Castle tonight, so’s been listening to 20 years of absolute gold all week.
📖 Podcasts have been an integral part of the digital marketing mix for many a year, but how are trends changing? This article is a great summary of the medium in 2024.
Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍