Note from Jennifer: First off, thanks to all my blog readers who participated in my 3rd Annual Winter Marketing Challenge! I am so happy to see so many people finding new clients and expanding into new niches by using my tips. I tallied up the points from the comment section, and Kirsten Akens is officially this year’s winner! Her prize is a $50 Amazon gift card, but she says the new business she’ll bring in from the marketing efforts is worth a lot more. Wait until you see how Kirsten transformed my list of marketing tasks into a detailed strategy to grow her business! Be sure to follow her on Twitter and visit her website, too. 

by Kirsten Akens

I might have joined the 3^rd Annual Winter Marketing Challenge for the chance to win a prize, but what I’ve gained in just three weeks has far surpassed the potential $50 Amazon gift card.

Here’s a short list of accomplishments (note from Jennifer: these are just a few of the 76 tasks in the marketing challenge for freelance content marketing writers):

• Touching base with just one former client … turned into an assignment within 24 hours.
• Asking two current clients for more work … turned into an assignment within one week, and a promise that “when the contract gets signed next month, you’re the writer for this project.”
• Outsourcing transcription work, a task that frustrates me to no end … turned me into a much happier person.
• And, following all of the recommendations in this piece by Carol Tice on updating my LinkedIn profile … turned into a 400 percent increase in views in one week, a lovely new recommendation from an editor, and a whole bunch of emails from PR companies that had obviously seen my new summary—some of which I think I can turn into work.

What helped me the most through this process was integrating Trello, an app I’ve been playing with for a few years, but haven’t used with enough regularity or to its capacity. (And guess what, using a new productivity app is #71 in the challenge!) I knew if I were going to follow-thru on more than just a couple tasks, I’d need to be organized about it.

I set up a “Marketing Challenge 2018” board, with a column for each of Jennifer’s categories. Below each category, I cut and pasted each task into individual cards. (See below.)

I used the labels function to color-code tasks. You can choose your colors and name them however you want. I went with yellow for In Progress, green for Completed, and red for Can’t Do/Already Done (for example, I already have a writer’s website, so I couldn’t earn a point for that).

I added columns at the end for completed tasks, those can’t do tasks, and additional tasks that I did. You can see the two I’ve added so far in the image below. Having a marketing accountability buddy in addition to Trello has been incredibly helpful.

If you’ve not used Trello before, individual cards offer lots of tracking and note-taking capabilities. Here’s a sample of what a card looks like when you open it up:

You can add due dates to cards, and, as I’ve recently learned, connect Trello to your favorite calendar and automatically sync the two. Trello works across devices, so it’s easy to check in and update your boards wherever you are. It also helps that all of these basic tasks on Trello are free. As an on-my-own freelancer, I’ve never needed to upgrade.

This challenge gave me a motivational kick in the butt to bring some focus to my business marketing, and help educate myself more about the kinds of tasks I could and should be doing. (And, of course, the competitive part of me still hopes I might win the Amazon gift card when this is all over.) Thanks to using Trello, I’ve not only been able to stay on task, but I’ve been able to track and celebrate my successes.

What do you think of Kirsten’s Trello board? How do you organize and stay on top of your marketing tasks?