What do you do for Marketing Burnout

If you are a one man show or in a small business.  Burnout will eventually happen to you. It’s not a question of if but when. It’s how you deal with it that makes the difference. I have had this happen to me a few times.  Here is how I deal with it.

Go offline

If you have the chance turn off the computer, tablet and phone.  Unplug everything and decompress.  This is my best way to get distance and regain focus. My mind can think of other things. Then it allows me to go back to marketing later with a fresh start.  It’s not always possible to go offline for extended periods of time.

Focus on other Tasks

If you can’t go online, do another task that you enjoy. Something that will allow you to not think about the current challenges. One thing I do is play a game. It’s not technically another task for business, but it does get my mind thinking in a different way. A quick 5 or 10 minutes playing a game can make me go back to it with some energy. My preference in games are puzzle games. My current favorite is Noodles. It’s on the App store.

Brainstorm the pain away

When you can’t escape the online world and need to tackle the problem head on. Take some time to brainstorm new and creative ways of doing things. My burnout comes from doing the mundane thing over and over. I get bored if it’s the same thing day in and day out. I need to do something to liven it up. Every so often I change my work flow and it works fine for me. I know we may have people who prefer things the same. If that’s what you like this step may not be for you.

Look at Established brands

Sometimes my burn out comes from the “We’ve done all this before, there is nothing new we are doing.” Looking at brands not in your industry. See what they are doing and figure out a way you can make it your own. Some of my best ideas have come from brands with big budgets and followers. It’s not a blatant copy but how you can put your own creative spin on it. Creativity to me keeps burn out away. If I’m engaged and interested it spurs me to do better and better.

Push Through

This one sucks the most. There are times when you are in middle of a campaign that you are over. It may not be going well or other challenges that set you back. You can’t take time to decompress. You have to push through it and keep going. It can make the burn out go away. However, I find this the least effective way of doing it. Granted, sometimes you don’t have a choice.

These are some of my ways I deal with burn out. It will happen and don’t let it set you back. Sometimes you just have to push through but this makes the burn our come back faster. The total ideal for me would be go on vacation to a tropical island with no internet, cell phones or computer. Its not likely to happen but I can dream!

Tim is the founder of Element33. A social media agency specializing in education, management and strategy for small businesses. He comes from a traditional marketing agency but has embraced all things digital. He considers himself a marketing nerd and believes that all marketing is tied together. This means no matter what silo you are in, social, email, seach, etc, changes in one will affect the other!

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