In this month’s Meet Your MAKER, we offer you a look into the day of our Digital Marketing Coordinator, Brandon. Since starting at MAKE 8 months ago, he has worked on a myriad of projects for us, ranging from email marketing funnel strategy to implementing content marketing pieces. In fact, we call him our very own swiss army knife because he does just about anything and everything for our team. We think his day will prove that.
Now, we will let him tell you about his day as your MAKER!
6:00 AM
I wake up in the early morning to a light alarm. As I lay in bed, I take a deep breath to center myself and mentally prepare for the day. I step out of bed and make myself a cup of coffee
6:30 AM
As I sip on my coffee, I scroll through my email to check-in on newsletters from different thought leaders in marketing—my favorites are Marketo, Litmus, and Hubspot—to learn a little more. I also use this to find exciting designs and ideas that could work as inspiration for future projects. You never know where a good idea can come from!
7:30 AM
I take a seat at my desk, review my to-dos in my task list in our project management system for the day, and plan out how to tackle each task for the day. My major to-dos for today will be to write a project brief for an upcoming email campaign we are going to create, running email content in Litmus to review, and make final checks before we schedule the email out and meet with a client to review MAKE’s first drafts for their new email designs. If I can work far enough in a day, I see what I could potentially knockout to get ahead on some other projects.
8:00 AM
While working on a project brief for an upcoming email campaign, I try to determine all the useful information for each teammate involved with the project. From login information to necessary insights, I need to give my team everything to help them be successful. I also look to find any previous projects that we have done that could give our team a head start or inspiration as they begin this endeavor.
9:30 AM
Around this time, I reach out to a client and provide our team’s first draft of an email design. We have been working for a few weeks on this design and are pretty proud of what we have brought to the table. The client feedback opens a dialogue between our team and the client, which allows us to have a collaborative approach. This feedback process shouldn’t feel like an “us” vs. “them” situation. Although we may like something we have done creatively, we can’t be overly attached to it. The client may not like it as much as we do, or they may not feel like that design will work well with their audience. Ultimately, both teams coming to the table with an open mind and a willingness to work together will help create the best results.
11:00 AM
After getting off the call with our client, I immediately head into our project management system to add feedback to the email design project in a way that will make sense for our design team. Part of my job is to translate “client speak” into something that our design team can understand and vice versa.
12:15 PM
Now it’s lunchtime! I grab my meal and sit down to catch up on my emails and see what else is going on with other projects during the day. This also allows me to mark things off my to-do list.
1:00 PM
TEAM MEETING! Our bi-weekly team check-in allows us to provide a rundown of the projects we are all working on and will enable us to ask questions about other projects that we will be working on soon.
2:00 PM
Coming back from the meeting, I start to run some of our email projects through Litmus to make sure our emails run smoothly through different email service providers. This service also double-checks our emails against industry standards on things like alt text, tracking codes, load speed, and identifying issues that could impact our deliverability. I love this because this tool can help us get our clients closer to the goals they want to achieve.
3:15 PM
After reviewing our Litmus service results, I go into our client’s MailChimp account to make final adjustments to their emails to ensure their quality and deliverability.
4:30 PM
My final task of the day is to review our clients’ Google My Business accounts and check for new reviews or potential service suggestions from Google. To make sure Google sees us as an active search option, I also add a post highlighting one of their services to give those that search an opportunity to see a service that could potentially pique their interest.
5:00 PM
As my day winds down, I review what I can knock off my to-do list for the day. Anything that I wasn’t able to do will be on my list the next morning. I’ll look through my emails and review anything that I will need to prioritize tomorrow and make a note to reach out to the appropriate parties.
6:00 PM
I get back home before my wife arrives, and I make dinner. We sit down to enjoy some salmon with rice and asparagus. I have a glass of Crown Royal and she has a glass of white wine as we discuss our days. As a teacher, her day sounds chaotic, and I can’t imagine how she does it. She loves it, though, and that’s all that matters.
9:00 PM
After finishing dinner and cleaning the dishes, we settle into our nightly routine of scrolling through social media while we cuddle with our cats. We end the night with Pirates of the Caribbean with our TV on sleep mode after 30 minutes so we can get some much-needed sleep after an eventful day. With no day ever being the same, I look forward to what tomorrow holds.
