A simple way to keep everybody motivated and on track

It’s much easier to set marketing goals than to actually achieve them. We find that success mostly comes down to the motivation of the individuals involved, and we’ll be honest: even bad ideas have the potential to achieve great results with highly motivated people behind them. Especially in areas like outreach and content creation – we have found that the harder we work, the luckier we get.

However, we all have trouble keeping that fire lit, especially midway through a challenging project. It’s so much easier to sit back and think about all the things we’re going to do… eventually.

So rather than focusing on the outcome of your goals, make a habit of seeking out the wins during the process, however small, to create a powerful, positive force that will push you and your colleagues closer to achieving those goals. Here’s why:

1. It creates positivity and motivation

The more everybody does, the more they feel like they can do. That motivational boost can be a powerful tool by changing the way you think. Instead of thinking “that’s not enough, we need to do more”, try switching to “look at what we’ve already achieved, let’s use this momentum”. The positive version is far more motivating.

2. It boosts your confidence

We often look at long to-do lists rather than done lists. Regularly reflecting on everything you’ve crossed off and completed over a month or quarter can be incredibly motivating and result in a burst of well-earned confidence.

Large to-do lists, mistakes, failures and results that are out of your control are all common in digital marketing and can knock your team’s confidence to continue. Balance out that negativity by tracking and celebrating those wins to see what you’re capable of and what you can achieve.

3. It lets you track your progress

Working towards sustainable, long-lasting results takes time, patience and hard work, but when progress is slow, it can be incredibly demotivating. Especially when you’ve picked to do what is right for your organisation and audience over quick spikes in success and doing what’s easy. By recording every win, you have both a benchmark and a timeline of success, making it clear to you how much progress you’ve made.

4. It enables you to repeat successes

Take a look at your list of small, individual wins and identify any particular patterns that you can use again to achieve similar successes – these could be anything from a more thorough way of planning out parts of a project to a particular outreach technique that generated higher conversion rates.

5. It teaches you about your team

Every failure is a learning experience, but we often forget that each of our successes is too. Wins don’t happen by accident (well, most of the time) and being curious about how you reached that point is what will help you develop your team further and improve future projects.

Logging your wins is not about ego, it’s a practice that’s beneficial to you, your team and your business. It builds momentum, creates motivation and positivity and leaves you all the more hungry for further growth.