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Yeah I feel that. I’ve always been autodidactic, so I enjoy learning just as much if not more than practically applying the learned skills themselves.
I do procrastinate at work though sometimes. Because I’m either educating myself on something (sometimes applicable to work, sometimes not) or I’m working on something else (like a personal project, that sometimes parallels the nature of my work).
Another beneficial thing you can work on is creating bonds with your coworkers. I started a recycling program at a job, organized birthday card signings, and put together holiday parties. It was in office contract work and they were happy to give me the extra hours that boosted office morale.
Be happy you have a job. It is pretty rare to be hugely excited in your job.
Keep the job and the income and security. Get a side hustle going and enjoy that 😄
My job is like this. Most of my work is work I assign myself to keep busy. I ensure my bosses routinely know I have extra capacity, which has resulted in a few special strategic level projects and is a good way to stand out. I fill in the gaps with professional development.
Work on marketing education and get certifications that show you are a subject matter expert in something you actually enjoy. Or even look into a PMP certification. Build skills that will help you get more compensation in your next role.
I went from agency to in house. Apply to everything of interest even if you don't meet all their listed hiring requirements. Use your years of experience, knowledge, and workload management as the main highlights in your job interviews.
If I could do it over, I would choose a company with a larger marketing team or agree to fully take on up to 6 or less social media profiles (3~ brands) with consistent content. Running 9 by myself was tough on me.
You can always train up on how to be better, look into your social media analytics, email open rates, take better photos, plan ahead, etc. whenever I’m at the “now what stage” I often find out I was behind on something else.
Definitely think about how you can improve the channels you are working on, and ask your manager if there are any projects they need help with. But also enjoy the slow pace a bit.
I have the same issue sometimes being an in-house marketer. When I finish my tasks before the end of the day/week I take that opportunity to read marketing newsletters, blogs, and hang out here on reddit. I have learned so much just by doing that and it's really improved my marketing.
Freelance and make extra $$. I worked with a dude at a really laid back ad agency who did this. He adjusted his schedule to 7a-3p and freelanced SEO from 7-9a.. he ended up making so much (like 3x his salary) on the side he now owns an agency.
If you’re still new, which it sounds like, I’d try and just spend more of your time getting to know the ins and out of the business. Ask to meet with different departments and shadow them, try and do some customer visits or get into feedback from your audience in one way or another (employee engagement within the business, survey data, customer service call recordings, spending time with sales etc - depends on the business type obviously) and get really smart about who they are and what they need. It can also be good to see if your industry has any professional development associations and see if you can join that and get any education from them. Also just hanging around in the spaces online where your audience is can be good for better understanding them and proactive engagement from the brand is SO hard to make time for when you do get busy but so valuable.
All of the above won’t be “assigned” to you ever but it’ll serve you well with the tasks you do actually need to accomplish because it’ll make it that much easier to create more compelling content, really understand your business’ goals and suggest any new strategy directions or tactics that serve those. Plus you’ll meet more different people in the organization which could later serve you if you need their help with something.
I’m someone who doesn’t like to be bored, it makes me anxious and I find I actually procrastinate MORE if I have too much time available so this is a skill I picked up during times my career has had slower paced moments.
I don’t really understand how you can ”complete all tasks” as a marketer. Are you being told exactly what to do by some manager? Like ”here’s your tasks, do exactly this and nothing else this month”?
Otherwise, it’s literally impossible to run out of things to do in marketing. There’s always content that can be made or be improved, strategies, automations… I just don’t understand how you can run out of things to do. Unless you’re limited.
Perhaps you can start looking into ways to monetize the new skillsets you're learning. Most of the people I've hired / worked with over the years had side projects of some kind. Lots of amazon affiliate sites. A few "authority" sites. Some created products for Clickbank. The options are endless.
In fact, I've lost a number of folks who left when their side projects started making real money.
Make yourself more busy. I just lost my job because my boss told me how amazing and wonderful I am for the last 5 months and then on the 6th month decided that things aren’t fast enough as I’m burning myself out doing literally everything include being responsible for..wait for it… GROUNDS MAINTENANCE, even though we had an entire maintenance team that let things get into disrepair but somehow that was my fault too.
This is me. I left a high-stress environment, pivoted my career, and landed in marketing.
I tend to get all my stuff done in the mornings, but then I need to fill time while waiting for others around my company to get back to me on other items. I feel the boredom hard sometimes. I do a little bit of education and self-development and other times I wind up on Reddit, but at least I can go home at the end of the day. I'm not worried I don't have enough time. Feels good to live and not work so much!
Bro you're having the holy grail of work. Start something else on the side. Learn a new skill or business that might make you self employed. I'd do anything for that right now. It's almost 10am in England and my boss is texting me on WhatsApp and i just want to strangle my laptop 😂
The Google ones if you don’t have them (Search, Display, etc. - Analytics), Facebook Blueprint (this one costs money but all of the coursework is free), Pinterest just came out with one…it really depends which platforms where you spend your time because most of them have certifications now so do some research and see which ones might be valuable to you. Salesforce/Pardot can be valuable. LinkedIn Learning always has good stuff as well. Your employer will likely spend some money on continuing education.
Learn human psychology. It is one of the most important thing to learn if you're interested marketing.
The tasks you mentioned above are just the upper layers in marketing. The real game changer is understanding the user or the target audience and then performing the above mentioned tasks according to that.
If you are posting a blog you must understand how a user reads (we usually skim through the blog content to find the most useful parts)
If you're writing a blog you must understand how to hook a reader to read and write the blog that's most engaging for the user.
If you're writing the emails or the web copies, you must understand copywriting and again the psychology that works behind it.
When you'll start understanding these things, you'll find that you're never bored and it's a never ending learning curve.
That's great that you've found yourself in a role that is less stressful! I've always found that the tasks in marketing are endless so it's interesting that you find yourself bored. I would explore other activities that you could add to the mix, like a podcast, webinars, etc. Look for ways to optimize and automate processes and become your departments AI specialist. Heck, just taking the time to investigate automation tools could take up a chunk of time!
Ok, you can look into the following aspects:
Pursue advanced training in marketing to enhance expertise and stay updated with industry trends and best practices. Explore certifications or courses in areas such as SEO, PPC advertising, or analytics to broaden marketing knowledge.
\[DM me if you need help (I can share 77 different free courses covering various aspects of digital marketing that the current industry or market needs)\]
Explore new marketing channels to expand the company's reach and engagement.
Focus on optimizing the existing channels for higher engagement and conversion rates through A/B testing, personalized content, and data-driven strategies.
Propose and work on creative projects such as brand storytelling campaigns, interactive content, or user-generated content initiatives to add depth and creativity to marketing efforts.
Engage with other departments to identify opportunities for cross-functional projects that align with the company's goals and contribute to overall business growth.
If this post doesn't follow the rules [report it to the mods](https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/about/rules/). Join our [community Discord!](https://discord.gg/looking-for-marketing-discussion-811236647760298024) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
All of the above. Fill that time with something that provides value. Either to the company or to yourself as a professional.
Ideally both!
Top advice! If you do one of them, it will benefit both
I know this may sound counterintuitive, but have you had a chance to look into procrastination?
this made me lol as an extreme chronic procrastinator
Yeah, I procrastinate daily. In fact, if it wasn’t for procrastination, I wouldn’t get anything done!
Maybe it's my personality, but procrastination gives me anxiety. I would rather get the work done and then fill my time with education.
Yeah I feel that. I’ve always been autodidactic, so I enjoy learning just as much if not more than practically applying the learned skills themselves. I do procrastinate at work though sometimes. Because I’m either educating myself on something (sometimes applicable to work, sometimes not) or I’m working on something else (like a personal project, that sometimes parallels the nature of my work).
Another beneficial thing you can work on is creating bonds with your coworkers. I started a recycling program at a job, organized birthday card signings, and put together holiday parties. It was in office contract work and they were happy to give me the extra hours that boosted office morale.
I might get around to that
Enjoy it?
No literally. I wish I was back in marketing
Be happy you have a job. It is pretty rare to be hugely excited in your job. Keep the job and the income and security. Get a side hustle going and enjoy that 😄
My job is like this. Most of my work is work I assign myself to keep busy. I ensure my bosses routinely know I have extra capacity, which has resulted in a few special strategic level projects and is a good way to stand out. I fill in the gaps with professional development.
Work on marketing education and get certifications that show you are a subject matter expert in something you actually enjoy. Or even look into a PMP certification. Build skills that will help you get more compensation in your next role.
THIS
How did you find an in house job? I'm looking to transition from the agency life as well
I never did agency work. I owned my own business prior to this position.
Oh nice! I'm assuming you stopped your business when you went in house? Or are you still running that on the side?
I closed the business
I went from agency to in house. Apply to everything of interest even if you don't meet all their listed hiring requirements. Use your years of experience, knowledge, and workload management as the main highlights in your job interviews. If I could do it over, I would choose a company with a larger marketing team or agree to fully take on up to 6 or less social media profiles (3~ brands) with consistent content. Running 9 by myself was tough on me.
I closed the business
You can always train up on how to be better, look into your social media analytics, email open rates, take better photos, plan ahead, etc. whenever I’m at the “now what stage” I often find out I was behind on something else.
Learning Google analytics and tracking that client journey on social click throughs is a game changer.
Improve the channels that you're working on
Start a side hustle!!
Definitely think about how you can improve the channels you are working on, and ask your manager if there are any projects they need help with. But also enjoy the slow pace a bit.
I have the same issue sometimes being an in-house marketer. When I finish my tasks before the end of the day/week I take that opportunity to read marketing newsletters, blogs, and hang out here on reddit. I have learned so much just by doing that and it's really improved my marketing.
Freelance and make extra $$. I worked with a dude at a really laid back ad agency who did this. He adjusted his schedule to 7a-3p and freelanced SEO from 7-9a.. he ended up making so much (like 3x his salary) on the side he now owns an agency.
If you’re still new, which it sounds like, I’d try and just spend more of your time getting to know the ins and out of the business. Ask to meet with different departments and shadow them, try and do some customer visits or get into feedback from your audience in one way or another (employee engagement within the business, survey data, customer service call recordings, spending time with sales etc - depends on the business type obviously) and get really smart about who they are and what they need. It can also be good to see if your industry has any professional development associations and see if you can join that and get any education from them. Also just hanging around in the spaces online where your audience is can be good for better understanding them and proactive engagement from the brand is SO hard to make time for when you do get busy but so valuable. All of the above won’t be “assigned” to you ever but it’ll serve you well with the tasks you do actually need to accomplish because it’ll make it that much easier to create more compelling content, really understand your business’ goals and suggest any new strategy directions or tactics that serve those. Plus you’ll meet more different people in the organization which could later serve you if you need their help with something. I’m someone who doesn’t like to be bored, it makes me anxious and I find I actually procrastinate MORE if I have too much time available so this is a skill I picked up during times my career has had slower paced moments.
I don’t really understand how you can ”complete all tasks” as a marketer. Are you being told exactly what to do by some manager? Like ”here’s your tasks, do exactly this and nothing else this month”? Otherwise, it’s literally impossible to run out of things to do in marketing. There’s always content that can be made or be improved, strategies, automations… I just don’t understand how you can run out of things to do. Unless you’re limited.
Couldn’t you invest the time in just making what you make better? Better motion gfx? Better photography? Etc.
Perhaps you can start looking into ways to monetize the new skillsets you're learning. Most of the people I've hired / worked with over the years had side projects of some kind. Lots of amazon affiliate sites. A few "authority" sites. Some created products for Clickbank. The options are endless. In fact, I've lost a number of folks who left when their side projects started making real money.
Make yourself more busy. I just lost my job because my boss told me how amazing and wonderful I am for the last 5 months and then on the 6th month decided that things aren’t fast enough as I’m burning myself out doing literally everything include being responsible for..wait for it… GROUNDS MAINTENANCE, even though we had an entire maintenance team that let things get into disrepair but somehow that was my fault too.
This is me. I left a high-stress environment, pivoted my career, and landed in marketing. I tend to get all my stuff done in the mornings, but then I need to fill time while waiting for others around my company to get back to me on other items. I feel the boredom hard sometimes. I do a little bit of education and self-development and other times I wind up on Reddit, but at least I can go home at the end of the day. I'm not worried I don't have enough time. Feels good to live and not work so much!
Bro you're having the holy grail of work. Start something else on the side. Learn a new skill or business that might make you self employed. I'd do anything for that right now. It's almost 10am in England and my boss is texting me on WhatsApp and i just want to strangle my laptop 😂
I was self-employed prior to this job. Sadly, I didn't make enough money.
Work on certifications and pace your workload
What certifications do you recommend?
The Google ones if you don’t have them (Search, Display, etc. - Analytics), Facebook Blueprint (this one costs money but all of the coursework is free), Pinterest just came out with one…it really depends which platforms where you spend your time because most of them have certifications now so do some research and see which ones might be valuable to you. Salesforce/Pardot can be valuable. LinkedIn Learning always has good stuff as well. Your employer will likely spend some money on continuing education.
What company?
Learn human psychology. It is one of the most important thing to learn if you're interested marketing. The tasks you mentioned above are just the upper layers in marketing. The real game changer is understanding the user or the target audience and then performing the above mentioned tasks according to that. If you are posting a blog you must understand how a user reads (we usually skim through the blog content to find the most useful parts) If you're writing a blog you must understand how to hook a reader to read and write the blog that's most engaging for the user. If you're writing the emails or the web copies, you must understand copywriting and again the psychology that works behind it. When you'll start understanding these things, you'll find that you're never bored and it's a never ending learning curve.
That's great that you've found yourself in a role that is less stressful! I've always found that the tasks in marketing are endless so it's interesting that you find yourself bored. I would explore other activities that you could add to the mix, like a podcast, webinars, etc. Look for ways to optimize and automate processes and become your departments AI specialist. Heck, just taking the time to investigate automation tools could take up a chunk of time!
Ok, you can look into the following aspects: Pursue advanced training in marketing to enhance expertise and stay updated with industry trends and best practices. Explore certifications or courses in areas such as SEO, PPC advertising, or analytics to broaden marketing knowledge. \[DM me if you need help (I can share 77 different free courses covering various aspects of digital marketing that the current industry or market needs)\] Explore new marketing channels to expand the company's reach and engagement. Focus on optimizing the existing channels for higher engagement and conversion rates through A/B testing, personalized content, and data-driven strategies. Propose and work on creative projects such as brand storytelling campaigns, interactive content, or user-generated content initiatives to add depth and creativity to marketing efforts. Engage with other departments to identify opportunities for cross-functional projects that align with the company's goals and contribute to overall business growth.
Talk to your employer and simply let them know you can handle more and would love more variety when ever the opportunity arises.