25 Marketing Tasks To Do When Your Brain Has Checked Out for the Day

Rallying at the end of the day to get important tasks accomplished can be tough, but that doesn't mean that you should sit on Facebook and pretend to be working. There are tons of marketing tasks that you can do that don't require lots of time or energy to accomplish. When your brain has checked out, use this list of 25 marketing tasks to help you boost your productivity until the end of the day.

1. Clean Your Email

Your email inbox is an ever-growing pile of communication, tasks and to-dos, but having extraneous emails in your inbox can distract you and make you feel overwhelmed. Try adding new folders for common threads of communication, delete unnecessary emails or install an email app to help you organize, like Boxer or Google Inbox. Make sure to keep a lookout for old marketing ideas that you can bring back to the surface.

2. Organize Your Files

When was the last time you did a deep cleaning of your marketing files? File managers and marketing servers alike often get filled up with design files, images, promo materials, ebooks, white papers, etc. Spend a few minutes cleaning and organizing your files for easy access in the months to come!

3. Analyze Your Data

Taking a few minutes to look at your data trends can be a great way to see successes and find areas for improvement. Look for uncommon spikes or lows in your data and try to trace them back to an activity (or lack of activity). If possible, try to create a few to-do items based on your marketing data. Edit a landing page, launch a social media ad campaign, publish a new blog on a popular topic — just use your data as your guide!

4. Add New Keywords

Hubspot and Google Analytics both have granular reporting that allows you to see exactly which keywords are driving traffic to your website. Spend a few minutes looking for content opportunities based on common keywords that are leading people to your site. You can also use tools like SpyFu.com to see which keywords your competitors are targeting.

5. Clean Your Desk

So this might not be a true marketing task, but having a clean desk helps boost productivty and reduce stress. Take the opportunity to look at old marketing documents, make sure there is nothing that you have missed or forgotten about. You might even try to make a new organizational system for your documents or hang something new on the wall.

6. Throw It Away

Tossing old papers and files can be euphoric! Scan important documents, transfer notes and tasks to your central list, and then THROW STUFF AWAY. We often get stuck in the idea that we need to keep everything, but it can often make us feel weighed-down. You probably don't need the 103-page, 3-ring binder with the marketing plan from 1982. In the word's of Elsa, Let It Go.

7. Schedule Social Media Posts

Sharing your content to your fans and followers is an important part of the inbound marketing process. Schedule a week's worth of social posts, questions to your followers, quotes from your industry, or best practice tips. Your social media channels should be a wealth of knowledge and information for your ideal customers! Scheduling social media posts is a great way to ensure that you are consistently sharing, but it also allows you to take one more task off your plate throughout the coming week!

8. Read a Blog

Reading blogs can be a great way to get new ideas, jumpstart your creativity or learn about new trends in the marketplace. (Hey look—you are doing this right now!) Here are a few great marketing blogs to get you started:

• Hubspot
• Moz
• Quick Sprout
• The Daily Egg
• Unbounce
• Canva

9. Scope Out Your Competitors

Take a quick look at the sites of your competitors. Have they done a website redesign? Have they added any new content? Do they have any really engaging blog posts? What are their most popular posts on social media? Use this information to check your company and see if there are any holes in your strategy that you should address. Remember, you don't want to be a carbon copy of your competitors, so don't try to copy what they are doing exactly.

10. Learn from an Industry-Leading Marketing Company

When you visit the sites of some of the best in the business, there is always something new you can learn. Visit a site like Hubspot or Marketo, and look for the nuiances of what they are doing that separates them from the majority of websites on the internet. What questions are they asking in their forms? How do they encourage people to download their content? How would a prospect connect with a sales person? What kind of language are they using? These answers can often lead to great insights for your own marketing efforts!

11. Research the Trends

Wearable technology, virtual reality, marketing automation—in the world of marketing in the technology age, it's important to stay on top of the trends in technology, website and tools. Spend a few minutes looking at the new things that are available — don't get too overwhelmed by the possiblities. A lot of new technology is not right for certain companies, but it's always good to keep an ear to the ground in case something is the perfect fit for your prospect and customer base.

12. Network, Network, Network

When's the last time you spent a few minutes connecting with people on LinkedIn? Look for relevant groups, follow great pages, comment on a great article, share a facebook post, start a discussion thread. These are great ways to stay connected with your peers, in your area and around the world.

13. Learn a New Skill

You have access to anything on the internet. Watch a YouTube video, training video, read a tutorial — pick a skill that will come in handy for your job. Want to know how to make a profile video for Facebook? Want to create a click to tweet link? 

Here are a few other places that you can go for great training videos and courses:

• Lynda.com
• Hubspot Academy
• Code Academy

14. Brainstorm a Blog List

Creating a list of ideas can be a great way to jumpstart your creativity. Start with a broad list of topics and then work your way in to more and more specific ideas. If you really have no idea where to start, try Hubspot's blog topic generator!

15. Go Down a Google Rabbit Hole

Put yourself in the mindset of your prospect. Google a common term or basic keyword, click on a related keyword, check out the news stories, images, videos, etc. Are there content holes that your company can fill? Did you find what you were looking for? Did your company appear in any of these results?

16. Research Career Development Opportunities

Find a marketing event, register for a webinar, sign up for a great conference. Career development is such an important part of the process of becoming the best that you can be!

17. Listen to a Marketing Podcast

Sit back and relax while you listen to the thought leaders in the marketing industry! Don't know which podcasts to tune in to, don't worry, we've compiled a list for you!

18. Send Thank You Notes

Thank you notes have become a forgotten practice, but maybe it's time to follow the example of Jimmy Fallon! If you had a great encounter with a vendor, co-worker or customer, send them a quick note of thanks! Going the extra mile to send a note will speak volumes and help develop a better relationships!

19. Find Two Great Tweets to Retweet

It doesn't matter if it's on your personal account or your marketing account, retweeting is a great way to interact with other professionals and companies online! Add a comment to the retweet to take your interactions to the next level! 

"Pretend that every person you meet has a sign around their neck that says, 'make me feel important.'" - Mary Kay Ash #sales #marketing

— StoryTeller (@StoryTellerMN) December 22, 2015

20. Join an Engaging Conversation

Join a conversion on a blog, social media post, Quora question or Reddit thread. Ask other marketers what tactics have been really successful in 2015, offer suggestions or ideas to potential clients, give a suggestion to a fellow marketer!

21. Do Persona Research

Getting into the mind of your ideal customers is so important. Look for blog posts, social posts, discussion threads that help you understand more about your personas. Gather the notes together to help you create more in-depth persona development at a later point!

22. Google Your Company; Identify One Area of Improvement

Take a look at the Google results for your company; see if you can identify one area of improvement. Can you update the main meta description of your homepage? Ask happy customers to write a Google review? Update the default images that appear?

23. Update Something on Your Website

Websites should stay fresh and relevant, so take a few minutes to update something simple on your website. Change out a picture, add a new call-to-action, delete an unneccesary page. 

24. Subscribe to a New Blog

RSS applications are a great way to get the latest blogs without clogging up your email inbox with blog notifcations. Download an app like Reeder and subscribe to some great industry and marketing blogs!

25. Create a Comprehensive To-Do List

Writing out your to-do list is a great way to organize all the marketing tasks you have in motion. Having everything written in one central document helps you create priority and heirarchy. You can even create a ranking system or assign deadlines. If you want to get fancy, you could estimate the amount of time it will take you to complete the task; then, when you are looking for a task to complete, you could choose something that fits in the window of time you have available!