How to Supercharge Your Productivity Using the 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)
Business owners are always trying to be more productive. You constantly get bombarded with tips and tricks for getting more done in less time. However, you may have the wrong perspective. It’s not about putting more hours into your work; it’s about applying energy in the right places.
It’s an idea that’s at the heart of the 80/20 rule or “Pareto Principle.” In a nutshell, the theory illustrates how 20% of your input produces 80% of your output.
The 80/20 rule is an excellent method to improve your productivity, but how do you determine your 20%? Plus, how might the 80/20 rule strengthen your digital marketing to boost productivity and creativity?
The following information and life hacks explain how to supercharge your productivity and creativity using the 80/20 rule:
What is the 80/20 Rule?
The 80/20 rule is something you can apply to virtually anything in your life. It’s a concept coined by a management consultant named Joseph M. Juran back in the 1960s. The rule or principle states that 80% of consequences occur from 20% of causes or actions.
It’s a widely used concept in the business world. And it has helped entrepreneurs optimize their work and waste less time on activities without actual returns.
It’s trendy in the business world because it’s a type of effort-result distribution. It can get applied a lot to things like software development. (80% of people only use 20% of a program’s features) and sales (80% of profits come from 20% of all clients).
Interpreting the 80/20 Rule
You’ve probably figured out by now, you make the most progress from just 20% of the things you do according to 80/20.
You might be pondering how to interpret the 80/20 rule from a digital marketing perspective. For example, should you only work one day on your marketing campaigns instead of five? Perhaps you should decrease your time spent on each strategy by 80%?
It’s really pretty simple when you break things down. The 80/20 rule is generally about improving your productivity and creativity to focus on the 20% effort that increases your sales by 80%
How Can You Find Your 20%?
Let’s face it. Everyone that practices digital marketing wants to determine how to find the magic 20% sweet spot. No one wants to waste time on work that doesn’t get results. Understandably, people want to focus on activities with a good return on their time and energy.
The problem is how to find your 20%? Keep in mind that there isn’t a hard and fast way to find out your answer. Instead, you need to understand where your effort goes each time you’re conducting digital marketing activities. Measuring and testing your results is ultimately essential.
For example, how much billable time do you dedicate to specific tasks each day? Which of those activities dominate your working hours, and which ones don’t? One way to get those answers and more is by using activity trackers.
Automatic activity trackers, app-based timers, or even an old-fashioned stopwatch and notepad can help you manually monitor where your time is spent.
How the 80/20 Rule helps Digital Marketing
When you record how you spend your time on your digital marketing activities, you’ll soon see patterns in what takes up your time. You may even have a good idea of the tasks that produce the best results.
So, how do you apply the 80/20 rule to digital marketing? One way is to deconstruct each task into its individual components. You can then determine which ones make the most significant impact on your day.
If you’re looking for advice on various digital marketing aspects, take a look at the following life hacks to help you streamline your efforts. As a result, you’ll waste less time doing things that don’t work for you:
Pump up your website’s performance.
Your website’s performance and functionality indirectly influence your digital marketing efforts. So, yes, the design and layout of your website are essential. But boosting your website’s performance improves your visitor’s experience.
Search engines like Google or Bing place great emphasis on a website’s page loading speed to determine how well it ranks for relevant search terms. Therefore, making your website fast, accessible, and ensuring it’s mobile-friendly will boost traffic and improve your search engine rankings over time. For more information, check out our article on Pagespeed, “7 Easy ways to improve your company’s website speed.“
FUN FACT: 63% of Google users search from a mobile device.
Create a Solid SEO Strategy
Business owners many times neglect their website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Still, it plays a significant part in how your website ranks for relevant terms in search engines. Therefore, your digital marketing campaigns should incorporate a solid SEO strategy to reduce wasted effort and advertising budgets.
An astonishing 68% of all Internet sessions begin with a web search. However, some sources suggest the percentage could be as high as 93%. If your target audience can’t easily find your site or the things you sell on it, your digital marketing efforts could be a waste of time. Even the most negligible improvements in SEO could have
Use a CRM to improve your customer marketing.
Another tool that can help you refine and discover your magical 80/20 sweet spot is a CRM. Most businesses use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to help manage their dealings with customers.
CRMs generally collect data like demographics, contact information, and social media profile details. Therefore, using a CRM can reduce your time finding your target audience for each digital marketing campaign you launch.
Be a good citizen and build a positive online presence with reputation management.
Are you trying to sell products and services online? If so, make sure you’re on your A-game with reputation management. For example, did you know that customers are more likely to purchase a product with positive reviews than negative ones (or none at all)? Word-of-mouth advertising and referrals can be a powerful ally for improving your business perception.
Don’t Spam Your Social Media Followers.
Lastly, don’t waste your time spamming people on your social networking profiles with advertising. 80% of your posts should relate to engaging with your audience, while only 20% should promote your brand.
Final Thoughts
The 80/20 rule is something you can easily apply to your digital marketing efforts. It should be treated as a tool to improve your products related to digital marketing. Understanding the examples above can streamline your efforts, make your time more productive, and bolster your marketing creativity.
