Hubspot recently put out some results of a survey it conducted in an attempt to get an idea of how much time marketers spend on the following tasks: building/maintaining marketing lists; monitoring/responding/analyzing social media; creating/sending email; building landing pages; and collecting/organizing/analyzing marketing data.
The survey found that the average marketer spends roughly 16 hours per week on “routine tasks” or about a third of their time completing repetitive tasks. They spend 3.48 hours a week sending email and 3.55 hours a week collecting, organizing, and analyzing marketing data from different sources.
Landing pages, social media, and list management all get less time spent:
Sam Balter, who conducted the survey, estimates that by reducing the amount of time spent on such tasks from a third of work hours to a fourth of work hours, marketers could save about 250 hours a year.
“Imagine what you could do with 250 additional hours,” Balter writes. “Whether that’s a website redesign, a new AdWords strategy, hosting an event, or just getting some R&R, a small reduction in time spent on a routine task can have a huge impact on your performance.”
“Every marketer is different. The demands of the job, the technology available, and the size of the team all have a huge impact on how you can save time,” Balter adds. “But if you focus on simplifying, delegating, or even removing some routine tasks from your day-to-day, it’s very possible to work a little smarter.”
Balter advises marketers to identify the most important metrics, invest in reporting software, and “get less creative”. By that, he means utilizing successful templates, text, subject lines, etc.