Could Checklists Improve Your Online Marketing?

Some people simply find that performing tasks according to a checklist is much simpler than trying to be organized off the cuff. There’s something strangely satisfying about being able to tick a row of boxes on a sheet of paper or online document, and see the chorus line of checks staring back at you. Of course, not everybody loves checklists – some people find them to be incredibly boring and restrictive – but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be helpful for certain aspects of your life – or more specifically, your business.

What to Put in a Checklist

First of all, it’s worth recognizing that not every aspect of online marketing is something that should be seen as a weekly or daily habit. However, there are some important aspects that you might want to make sure end up in a checklist, such as:

• Essential things: Just because something is important doesn’t mean you’ll automatically remember it when push comes to shove. Even if you think it’s going to be the first thing on your mind when you wake up in the morning – if you think it’s important, write it down.
• Things that aren’t obvious: Web marketing is full of little details. Some of the things you do will be painfully obvious, such as checking analytics and ensuring your content is engaging. However, keeping a checklist of the less obvious things will help you to think outside of the box, and make sure you’re keeping an eye on the aspects of online marketing that don’t get as much automatic attention.
• Things that you’re prone to forget: Everyone forgets things sometimes. It doesn’t matter how essential or important that thing is, some concepts simply slip your mind at the worst possible times. Making sure you have a checklist on hand can help to ensure that your memory mistakes don’t lead to online marketing disasters.

Why Bother with a Checklist?

Perhaps the best reason why people use checklists is that it removes that nerve-wracking moment in web-marketing where you’re sat staring at your screen, wondering what to do next. When you’re in the process of analyzing metrics, it’s easy to come up with a solid list of things you’ll need to do – but once the analysis stops, you may find that you completely forget all of those ideas you came up with moments before. Checklists not only help you to keep track of your marketing ideas but also help you to prioritize them, so you don’t waste precious times on the things that are less important. The idea is to ensure that your time is spent on the tasks that will provide you with the most benefits.

Checklists can also lead to faster results, as you’re able to scan through options and select the most important aspects for any given site. Because you’re spending less time trying to come up with “What’s next”, you’ll be spending more time in action – actually making a difference. SEO isn’t so much about searching for the next problem to solve as it is about solving the problems you find. Keep yourself focused, and moving forward from one step to the next.

Keep Improving

When you have a checklist in front of you, you’re more likely to ensure that nothing important gets overlooked. You can even give these lists to the people working for you to make sure that tasks are completed on schedule. Remember, even the most experienced marketers’ overlook things every now and again, and a checklist can help to make sure you’re never leaving anything out.

Every day in the world of online marketing, you will be learning something new. Google might change their algorithm, or you may learn something about your target audience that you never knew before. By adding new things to your checklist every day, you can consistently improve the process of looking after your website. Without the tools to keep track, the things you learn tomorrow may be forgotten by the end of the day, simply because you didn’t have the means to write them down.