“What do you do all day?” Hmm. To be honest, that’s a difficult question, but it’s one I’m going to try to answer. I am an Inbound Marketing Specialist at New Perspective.
Working at a marketing agency means working for multiple clients, and because our clients have varied needs, my day-to-day tasks can vary quite a bit. So what does a day in my life look like?
The Job: Inbound Marketing Specialist
Truthfully, “Inbound Marketing Specialist” can mean a lot of things, but my position is all about content creation. More specifically, I’m always writing. Whether it’s blogs, marketing emails, website page copy, PPC ads, or any number of inbound materials, I spend much of my time jotting ideas and outlines in a notebook or attached to my computer, turning my thoughts into words.
So What Does an Average Day Look Like?
First of all, it’s important to note that no two days in my position will look exactly the same. That’s why I love it! But while the work I do varies regularly, the days tend to follow the same general flow.
First Up: Coffee and Contemplation Organization
I’ll admit it: I can’t get started on anything without my morning coffee. Once I’m fully caffeinated, the day can really begin! Each morning, the first thing I do is to organize (and prioritize) my tasks for the day.
New Perspective operates with an agile scrum methodology. With agile, we go into each week (and by extension, each day) with a plan: what needs to get done for our clients? Who is going to do it? Who should be reviewing that work for quality? Should anyone else be involved?
To manage it all, we use Jira, a tool which helps us lay everything out on neat, organized boards that look like this:
Each box represents an “issue,” or task, and each column represents a stage in finishing that task (Planning, Ready, In Progress, Internal Review, Acceptance, Done).
First thing in the morning, I take the time to look at my personal board: what do I need to do today?
Are there any roadblocks standing in my way? Knowing what’s coming helps me to plan and organize my whole day, and keeping my board organized ensures my coworkers can see what I am working on at any given moment.
Next: Morning Scrum
Each morning, the team gathers for a 15-minute standup scrum meeting. Most of the time we’re all in the room together, but if we happen to be working from home, we’ll jump on a video call.
The goal of scrum is for each person to answer three essential questions:
- What did you accomplish yesterday?
- What are you planning to do today?
- Do you have dependencies on any other team member?
This is a fast, simple way to identify and iron out any problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. It also ensures transparency for the whole team.
Depending on what comes up in scrum, my plan for the day may change; sometimes items are more urgent than I initially thought, or someone may need me to complete a task before they begin one.
Off to the Races!
After scrum, it’s time to get to work! Because I have lots of varied responsibilities, this phase (which makes up most of my time) will look very different from day to day, but some common highlights include:
Blogging. This is my favorite part! Whether I’m creating a blog from scratch or reviewing and editing something a client wrote themselves, blogging is never dull. It involves lots of research about varied topics—from energy-saving tips for your home to the equipment used in steel mills—then taking that research and turning it into an informative blog post targeted toward the client’s audience. Writing about so many varied subjects stretches my creativity, and I am constantly learning about our clients’ industries!
Emails. Not checking emails (although I do that too)—writing them! This is a way that I can still exercise my love of writing without getting into the nitty-gritty details. Maybe we want to tell a client’s leads about upcoming events or a new service, or maybe we simply want to show off their latest blog. Whatever the intention may be, marketing emails are a fun way to grab attention.
In-depth Content (And Conversion Paths). Any good marketing campaign includes in-depth content, such as ebooks or white papers, available for download on the client’s website. These contain more information than blogs or emails and are more valuable to the target audience, which means they take a lot more time and effort to create. On top of that, valuable content like this should be part of a conversion path designed to capture leads’ information, which means creating landing pages, thank-you pages, and thank-you emails in addition to the resource itself.
Social Media. Depending on the client, we may manage their social media accounts. This includes posting (and scheduling posts in advance), liking, retweeting, and following other channels, but it also involves monitoring their channels. Has there been a lot of engagement? Has someone made a comment or sent a message that needs to be addressed? Is there a trending topic that a client should be posting about?
HubSpot, HubSpot, HubSpot. This gets its own section because, as a HubSpot Platinum Agency Partner, it’s ingrained in everything we do here. We leverage HubSpot and all of its tools to help our clients succeed, though this can look different depending on the client. For some clients, it means using HubSpot tracking to monitor their campaigns, while for others it means building their entire site on the HubSpot platform. We even schedule social media posts and monitor social activity through HubSpot!
Odds and Ends. These depend on the day and on what’s needed of me. I may spend some time monitoring PPC campaigns, or writing paid ads, researching keywords, writing website page copy, or even join in on a client meeting. The possibilities are almost endless, which is why it’s so fun! There’s always something new going on, and I’m constantly learning. Which brings me to…
Professional Development
At New Perspective, there’s always room to grow. The marketing landscape is always changing, and we need to grow and adapt with it if we want to continue providing value to our clients, so we make the time to learn new things. There are many opportunities for growth, including:
Research and Reading. I follow several industry blogs that post consistently about the changing marketing landscape, and it can be relaxing and enlightening to take some time to catch up on the latest posts.
Certifications and Courses. Remember how I said we’re HubSpot Partners? That gives us access to HubSpot Academy, a resource filled with marketing courses designed to enhance our knowledge and skills. We have all taken several of these courses (and we continue to do so!). In fact, you can see all of our certifications laid out on our HubSpot Partner page. Right now, it looks like the picture below, but we’re gaining new badges all the time!
Breakthrough Day. Independent learning is great, but it’s not always easy to make time for it, which is why we’ve begun having a quarterly Breakthrough Day. This is a day dedicated to professional development, especially working through those courses and certifications.
Lunch and Learns. After we’ve done all that work to learn something new, we want to share our knowledge with the whole team! Lunch and learns are an easy way to get the message out there; a team member organizes a meeting during lunchtime which everyone is invited to attend. We then grab some food and listen to the presenter tell us what they want us to know. It’s a great informal way to make sure everyone benefits from all of our newfound knowledge.
Speaking of Lunch…
And hey! There’s another important part of my day. On days when we don’t have a lunch and learn and I forget to pack my own food (let’s be real: that’s most days), there’s no shortage of great restaurants near our office.
I have my choice of Greek, Italian, and Mexican (read: Chipotle) options, as well as a Stop & Shop within walking distance if it’s a nice day! Lunchtime is a great opportunity to take some time for myself or recruit a coworker to come out into the world with me for a brain break.
After lunch, it’s back to my board and whatever tasks I’ve said I’m going to get done for the day.
Room to Adapt
Part of our agile methodology is the way we organize everything we do. We plan our weeks ahead of time according to what our clients need, which makes it easy to plan each day. It’s all very structured.
But life isn’t always structured.
Things happen. Maybe a client calls with an urgent request or a coworker comes down with the flu. What then?
We adapt. All of our agile planning, daily scrums, and open communication with one another allows us to come up with a plan. We already know who has the bandwidth to take on some extra work, or which items don’t have to get done today. We know who has experience working with different tasks and who can help review them for quality.
So while most of my days follow a basic prep-scrum-work-lunch-work schedule, somethings things change. And that’s okay, because we can handle it.
All Work and No Play…
I do a lot of work throughout the day. We all do. New Perspective is seriously committed to creating a great experience for our clients, and that means we work hard.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!
We’re a small team with a strong culture; while we can rely on each other to get through the work, we can also count on each other to have fun! Whether it’s a simple game of ping-pong in the office, a trip out to play cornhole, or a night in Boston to see the Red Sox, there’s always room for fun here—and we’re stronger as a team because of that.
Seeing Yourself Here?
Are you looking for a position as an Inbound Marketing Specialist? We’re hiring!
If New Perspective seems like the right place for you to exercise your talents, grow your skills, and have some fun while you’re at it, take a look at the listing on our careers page or on Indeed, then email a copy of your resume and cover letter to careers@npws.net. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
