I have been asked a lot what it is like to be an online marketing consultant. This is why I thought it would be great to take you with me during my typical working day. So keep reading along 🙂
08:30AM
Although my working day starts officially at 09:00 am, I like to come half an hour earlier to gradually get into the work mode and sort things out before I get the actual work done. This usually involves looking through my planning and prioritise the tasks for the day.
09:00AM
Then as the time approaches 09:00 am, you will usually find me in the flow of going through all e-mails that I received between yesterday afternoon and the current day which I try to answer directly. They are usually queries of clients, colleagues and external parties with whom I work together for my clients’ projects. This usually will take up half an hour until forty-five minutes.
09:45AM
After my usual morning email check-up, I will spend my time diving into the online marketing strategy of different clients. As online marketing consultant I am very happy to work with companies from different industries for which I set up customised online marketing campaigns. Every working day is really not the same, which makes me love this job so much. Usually for each client I plan out several sessions of 3 hours per month to implement and refine the previous defined online marketing strategy, depending on the scope of the project. Before lunch I usually manage to optimise the online marketing campaigns of one or two clients. Each project is a unique combination of three different online marketing aspects so that they can supplement each other in attaining a specific client goal: Social Advertising (Facebook), Search Engine Advertising (SEA) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
To prevent this blog post turning into a complete explanation of what these concepts are, I have tried to keep it to a few sentences instead. SEA and SEO both have to do with the exposure that the company has on the search engine pages, such as Google and Bing. SEA pertains to the instant visibility of a company through paid ads in the form of a text, video or image. Except shown in the search engine, they can also appear on websites of the search engine’s partner network.
On the contrary, SEO is more scientific and relates to the unpaid natural, or organic ranking a website get in the search engine in the long-term which is influenced by many different factors. This is why there is no clear-cut formula to obtain a high placement in the search engine results page as unpaid result. Nonetheless, as content quality on the website is shown as one of the major factors to SEO success, I help clients to create unique and relevant content to engage visitors. This, in turn, will most likely be awarded by the search engines, in terms of higher organic search rankings.
Facebook ads are the ads you see in your newsfeed. They can take in the form of a video, one-image ad, multiple-image ad (a.k.a. carousel ad).
12:30PM
This is the most cosiest time of the day where my colleagues and I sit together around the table for lunch. I am grateful for having an arranged lunch buffet at the office that is served by a catering company. All the things that one can imagine to have for a midday meal can be found here, including breads & spreads, salads, fruits, juices and soups. It is great to chitchat with colleagues while enjoying my sandwich and small salad. Except talking with my colleagues about everything and nothing, I usually will also take this time to reflect on the morning that has passed so quickly.
01:00PM
After an extensive lunch, it is time to take a stroll around the neighbourhood and to catch some fresh air. It is indeed also a very good way to walk off those calories. Sometimes I also get the accompany of my colleagues, who I have infected with my healthy habit. More and more, I also see fellow workers doing the same in their breaks.
01:30PM
Back to business mode! Until 04:00PM I will use my time to focus on the online projects of two more clients. The best of my work as consultant is that I get to discuss and think together with my clients about their online marketing strategy, and to really implement this. To yield results for them is the most fulfilling and greatest part of my job.
04:00PM
It is teleconference time. Every month, I call my clients to go through and elaborate on the online marketing performance of the previous month. Beforehand, I send them the written report where they already can read the statistics and performance of that particular month. I usually plan these calls in the late-afternoon, as I experienced that this is the time that my clients are most available. Everytime, it is great to catch up with my clients and to ask how their business is going. Together we will usually think up of new approaches to the online marketing strategy. During this hour, I often get to call three to four clients, depending on their need for elaboration.
05:30PM
The last half an hour of the working day, I will dive in my mailbox again to reply my e-mails which came in after my morning mail check-up. I have the preference to set two fixed moments to reply my e-mail. If I would be looking at my inbox every time an e-mail comes in, it will distract me from the task on hand. By scheduling two moments per day, it will give me much more rest in my head knowing that I will get to my e-mails.
And the working day is over! How time just fly by once you are having fun with what you are doing.
I am also curious about your normal working day. Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to read them.
Until next time!
Love always,
Mee-Ling
