Have you ever woken up in a panic, remembering a forgotten report that never got sent out? Let’s leave those back in 2018.

We can find you some extra hours in the week, without compensating any of your marketing goals. By shortening the time it takes to accomplish some daily tasks, you’ll actually make it to that kick-boxing class (one New Year’s Resolution rescued! You’re welcome).  

This year, off-load a few of your marketing duties to some clever algorithms. Here’s your 2019 Marketing Automation Challenge.

1. Create a “Master Dashboard” to keep track of everything at a glance.

It sounds too good to be true, or even way too pricey, but programs like Cyfe are out there.. and there’s a widget for practically anything. Set aside an hour to load up Google Analytics, Adwords, social media profiles, and even Salesforce, then set your new all-encompassing dashboard as the startup page in your browser. Bam! You now have tabs on everything. Easy peasy. (Bonus: Cyfe allows for pdf exports for specific time periods. Hello, reporting upgrade!)

2. Make Google Analytics report to your inbox.

Set up your favorite Google Analytics dashboards to land directly in your inbox, choosing the email frequency that works best for you. It won’t tell you the whole story, but you’ll have reminders of all your key metrics at a glance.

And if you’d like to share some of those metrics, schedule some e-mailed dashboards for your team, too. Is someone the point person for social media? Have Google Analytics send them a report of all SOMO metrics, with conversions, weekly.

It might sound like you’re only saving a few clicks, but the data-obsessed know the risks of checking analytics only when you’re pressed for time. Feed yourself the vital stats, without losing two hours clicking deeper into reports.

3. Keep on top of brand mentions with email alerts.

Take a little extra time now to set up email alerts. Google, Bing, and many others allow you to set up custom notifications, so you’ll know when a blogger or news article mentions your brand (or your competitors’). 

The more you know, the more you can use for marketing exposure. (Insert imaginary rainbow emoji.)

4. Schedule social media posts in advance.

Invest in a tool like Hootsuite that lets you schedule posts in advance across all of your platforms. This way you can make sure your content goes out at peak times in every feed; no more interrupting Yoga class to post on Instagram. And you can do a week’s worth of posts at one time. 

Of course you should make an effort to post original content when you can. But there are also plenty of tools out there to help you curate quality, share-able stuff from others when you don’t have time for creative genius.

5. Get creative with sharing content via IFTTT.

Think of IFTTT like Hootsuite, with a little twist. It shares entire photo albums across mediums and can even create spreadsheets for you of hashtag mentions. (So useful for events, right?)

Set up applets in IFTTT so that special content you share on one platform automatically gets posted to another.

Do you post daily on Facebook but neglect Pinterest?  Set up a rule that automatically shares your Facebook photos on Pinterest when you use a specific hashtag. Done! 

Sharing blogs gets easier too. Have a WordPress website? Set up an applet to share all new blogs to your social media accounts. No #newblogpost left behind.

6. Optimize your email campaigns with automation.

Automate customer emails wherever possible. Booking notifications are a given, but consider other contact opportunities (like the first time they sign up for your newsletter or submit a contact form).

For every consistent “trigger” on Mailchimp, for example, you can create an automated email campaign with great info on your brand and reasons for potential visitors to connect further. After you set it up, it requires no extra effort – and makes a strong first impression for new followers. Think: How can this be used for gathering more reviews on Tripadvisor? So. Many. Ways.

It may not feel like you’re saving yourself a ton of time at first, but those daily clicks, forwards, log-ins and log-outs add up. With automated rules, you’re sparing yourself tons of manual marketing tasks over the course of a week, a month, and longer.

And now, you have that much more time and energy for the rest of your New Year’s Resolutions. 2019, we’re ready for you.