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Thomas Bentley
The HDI stands for the human development index. The US is the most developed country.

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6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The never-ending to-do list . . . the constant deadlines . . . the pinging inbox: Welcome to the world of the typical entrepreneur or small business owner.
Related: 3 Steps (and the Reasons) to Prioritize 'Purpose' in Your Business
When you're one of them, you're constantly deluged with tasks, and prioritizing tasks can be difficult. That's why most business owners wear many hats as they grow their companies, eventually adding marketing tasks to their ever-expanding priority list. So, in that regard, understanding how to prioritize and delegate your marketing tasks can be a huge help.

These five steps will help you do what you need to do: focus on the most important tasks first so that you can leverage them to achieve revenue and growth goals. Perhaps, what's even more important is that by prioritizing your marketing tasks, you'll feel less stress and more in control of your time. For an entrepreneur, that's priceless!

Step One: Brainstorm everything at once. A brainstorming session helps clear your mind so that you can focus better on your work. It's a simple yet highly effective first step in any prioritization project. Simply list every single task waiting for you, no matter how large or small. Don't worry about ordering the tasks or about deadlines yet; we'll add those later. Just get everything down on paper without judgment or strain. The goal is to clear your mind of all the lingering tasks so that you can focus on prioritizing the "must do" tasks from marketing ideas you can use later.

Step Two: Identify "mission-critical" marketing tasks. When it comes to marketing tasks for your business, some are critical to success. Others support important tasks, while a third group may be nice to do if you have time but they're not necessary to complete right away.

In Step Two, you'll identify critical marketing tasks. These are tasks that are either deadline-driven, such as a deadline for placing an advertisement or for updating a web page for a special event, or tasks that directly support revenue acquisition. Using a highlighter pen if you wrote your list out on paper or a highlighter tool in your word processing program, mark all tasks related to a deadline in one color and those that directly support revenue acquisition in a second color.
Related: The Secret to Prioritizing Your Time
Step Three: Identify tasks that can be delegated. There are probably tasks on your list that you do not necessarily have to complete on your own. Many tasks, such as researching websites for guest blog posts, updating reports and searching for stock photos can be delegated to someone else. Mark these tasks in a third color.

What if you're a sole proprietor and you don't have an assistant? Consider hiring a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who works via telecommuting to help you with administrative tasks. You can hire VAs on sites like Fiverr, Upwork and others, and pay by the task or by the hour. Hire a VA to tackle research, routine database administration and other marketing tasks that may be critical to support your growth but that you may not necessarily have to do yourself.

Step Four: Organize and assign deadlines. Now that you have at least three categories of tasks -- deadline driven, revenue-oriented, and to be delegated -- you can can begin to organize and prioritize your marketing tasks. Assign deadlines and prioritize deadline-driven tasks in chronological order, with the ones due soonest at the top of the list.

Step Five: Review your revenue and goal-focused tasks. Your next batch of tasks includes the ones that have a direct effect on revenue and goals. After that, do tasks that can be leveraged for other projects. Some may be dependent on having another task completed first. If one of your marketing tasks is to develop a logo and a tagline, and another task is to write and print brochures to distribute at a conference, you'll need the logo and tagline first so that they can be placed on the brochures. Both tasks may be on your list of goal-driven tasks, but one, the logo and tagline, has to come first because it will be used on another project.

Working methodically through your list, assign deadlines to your tasks. Give yourself reasonable deadlines. If you know it's going to take you several days to write the brochure, then give yourself several days. A mistake that many people make is to give themselves too-aggressive deadlines in the hopes that the pressure of a looming deadline will force them to work faster. Such an approach frequently backfires. When deadlines are missed, people grow frustrated. Instead of using deadlines to pressure yourself into working faster, consider delegating or outsourcing more work if necessary to help you achieve your goals.

Step Six: Use project management software to keep track of marketing tasks. Finally, a good way to help you prioritize, track and meet deadlines is to use a project management software program to organize your marketing tasks. Such software can send you reminder emails when a deadline approaches, track past projects and provide a place to house shared documents for your team.

Good project management software options for small businesses include Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. All offer free trials, but Asana and Trello offer free access for businesses with under a certain number of users or for small business and nonprofits.
Related: How to Prioritize When Everything Is a Priority
Keep a running list of ideas.

Finally, to avoid overwhelming yourself, start a file on your computer to store marketing ideas for your business. Instead of adding these ideas as specific marketing tasks, store them in your folder and schedule one hour a week to review the ideas and add the most promising ones to your task list. With this method, you can easily keep track of new ideas and continue to infuse your marketing efforts with new and exciting ways to promote your business.

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Prioritize Your Marketing Tasks With These 6 Steps

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6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The never-ending to-do list . . . the constant deadlines . . . the pinging inbox: Welcome to the world of the typical entrepreneur or small business owner.

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Jack Shultz

is the gross value of the product minus the cost of raw materials.

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Thomas Bentley
North America is the region wit the worlds highest per capita income

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Jack Shultz

goods bought and used by consumers, rather than by manufacturers for producing other goods.

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Read our latest research, articles, and reports on Consumer Packaged Goods.

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Jack Shultz

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period. Does not include and money that leaves the country.

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GDP is a term that is used a lot in the media usually in relation to the how much business your country is creating or the economy but what would it actually mean? Presented by William Dyer. There are going to be more of these videos to come on politics, the economy and current affairs (THE NEWS).

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Jack Shultz

Most developing countries have a higher shared primary and secondary works then more wealthy countries.

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primary and secondary workers - Google Search

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Thomas Bentley

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Thomas Bentley

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The literacy rate is usually a good indicator of a country's standard of living. However, it shouldn't be the only factor we look at when determining how rich or poor a country might be. Watch this video for some more standard of living indicators!

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Jack Shultz

is a term that describes the changing balance of output, trade, incomes and employment drawn from different economic sectors.

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Journal of Economic Structures is a peer-reviewed open access journal published under the brand SpringerOpen. It is an international journal that publishes theoretical and empirical articles that apply to a wide range of formal analytical instruments and statistical techniques to explore the structural interdependencies among various activities in the economy.

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Jack Shultz

Gross national income is the value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.

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Thomas Bentley
The UN measures the average income in countries through a complex index called the annual gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity