As a digital marketer, stress is an all too familiar feeling. Whether meeting a tight deadline, dealing with angry clients, or managing a difficult team, there are always new challenges and major job stressors. And with the constant pressure to produce results, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with digital marketing responsibilities in a position some would call one of the most stressful jobs in America. However, stress doesn’t have to be an opposing force in your life. In fact, if you learn how to reduce stress at work and manage it effectively, stress can actually help you to focus and perform at your best. By learning how to reduce job anxiety and finding healthy ways to cope with stress, you can improve your work performance and enjoy greater satisfaction in your career.
These five tips will teach you how to reduce digital marketing stress by tackling what causes it, allowing you to perform at your best:
1. Client Expectations
As a digital marketer, you are likely working with clients with high expectations since they choose you to market their product or service. This can self-impose a great deal of pressure and stress. While it’s important to meet (and even exceed) your clients’ expectations, managing your stress levels is also vital. When you’re feeling overwhelmed by client demands, take a step back and remind yourself that you are the expert. You know what you’re doing and can meet (and even exceed) your clients’ expectations. By managing your stress, you’ll be able to meet the demands of your clients better.
2. Wearing Too Many Hats
In the digital marketing world, it’s common to wear many hats. You may be responsible for social media, email marketing, content creation, search engine optimization (SEO), and more. While it’s great to be versatile, it can also be stressful. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the hats you’re wearing, try to focus on one task at a time. For example, if you’re working on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign, focus solely on that and ignore email marketing for the time being. By focusing on one task at a time, you’ll be able to manage your stress better and avoid getting overwhelmed.
3. Keeping Up-To-Date with Google Updates
As a digital marketer, it’s crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest Google updates. Google makes hundreds of changes to its algorithms and SEO every year, which can be challenging to keep up with. As a result, many digital marketers feel stressed and overwhelmed when trying to keep up with the latest changes. They want to ensure they offer clients the latest and greatest services and are not falling behind in learnings to the competition.
However, being stressed about this can do more harm than good. When you’re constantly worrying about Google updates, you could be impacting your comprehensive levels when strategizing for clients or taking the time to learn a new update. Instead of stressing, make a point to stay up to date with the latest changes, but don’t dwell on them. Keep a positive attitude, and remember that you can learn new things and adapt to change. If there is a new update that you cannot implement immediately, don’t worry – there is no harm in putting time on your calendar for the following week to learn about it. Ensure you can block off time in your schedule so that when a new update comes out, you already have a designated time to learn about it instead of scrambling and feeling overwhelmed.
4. Keeping Up With User Searches
User searches are constantly changing, and as a digital marketer, it’s your job to keep up. People search for new things daily, and keeping track of the latest trends can be difficult. These changes can often lead to digital marketers feeling stressed and overwhelmed as they try to keep up with the constantly changing trends.
To avoid this, make a point to check in regularly on user searches. Set aside some time each day (or each week) to look into the latest trends. This way, you can stay on top of new changes and ensure you’re offering clients the most relevant services. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask for help from others. If you feel overwhelmed by the changes, reach out to your colleagues or clients for help. By asking for assistance, you can take some of the pressure off yourself and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
5. Limited-To-No Budgets
For many digital marketers, working with limited or no budgets can be one of the most stressful aspects of the job. This is especially true when you see large organizations like Amazon or Google with seemingly unlimited marketing budgets that can throw money at any problem. Working with a limited or no budget can often feel like you’re swimming upstream.
To combat this, it’s essential to get creative with solutions. There are plenty of marketing strategies that can be executed without a large budget. Starting with an organic social media strategy is an excellent way to build a community and share content per week without spending a dime. When you have a small budget, you can use it to enhance your organic social efforts by boosting key posts or running targeted ads.
Don’t let a limited budget stress you out – get creative and explore all of the possibilities for marketing without spending a lot of money.
How the ZGM Team Handles Stress
The ZGM team understands that working in a dynamic and ever-changing business environment can often result in stressful situations. We make sure to take the time to assess any issues arising and develop an appropriate solution. We actively promote a culture of open communication, collaboration, and self-care among our employees. To humanize these claims, we asked some team members to share their experiences and coping mechanisms when dealing with stress.
Our VP of SEO, Tim Dugan, shares, “One of the most stressful parts of being a digital marketer is presenting data to clients, especially when it’s not positive data they want to hear. Because the art of SEO is a waiting game for results, it can be stressful to have to explain why certain strategies may not be working as expected or try to continue to push forward with a strategy despite a client’s doubts.”
To keep a level head, Tim recommends the following:
- Gather all the data you can, take a deep breath, and dive in. Identify the SEO culprit when it comes to losses in rankings or traffic. Learn more about your market and your clients’ consumer demand. The more intel you have, the better you can explain such KPIs to your clients and develop a plan to rebound. Clients are often very understanding and want to learn and grow. You just have to take the time to explain what is happening in a way that they can understand.
- If you want to reduce stress, get on the same page with your client about what they expect from SEO. The more you can communicate early on, the better. Also, keep up with reading blogs and educating yourself. Practice makes perfect. If you build confidence in your abilities regarding SEO, stressful situations will be less common.
- Although it can be scary, try not to panic during algorithm updates. If you’ve followed Google’s guidelines and best practices for SEO, chances are good that the update will help rather than hurt you.
When it comes to managing stress, Paid Strategist Jacob Coleman has some thoughts of his own. “Staying ahead of the trends is the most stressful part of being a digital marketer. The industry we work in is so cutthroat, and everyone wants to be seen and heard. This means that not only do we have to learn the ropes, but be at the forefront of creatives’ mindsets around them too. So whenever I see an update on one of our platforms, it can sometimes cause some unease.”
To manage this stress, Jacob recommends using breath work techniques to calm down. Not only can this lower your blood pressure by 30 points, but it also allows you to return your focus to the task at hand quickly. This alone is enough to get through a difficult patch.
Adriana Lucatino, Director of Strategy, also finds the role of a digital marketer to have its stressful moments. “For digital marketers, it can be very emotionally taxing to stay ahead of the curve. A new trend could come and go in a single day. If you and your team don’t rapidly develop an approach to take advantage of it, you might lose out on potential revenue or publicity.”
To offset this stress, Adriana recommends piling an old fashion to-do list. Staying organized and writing everything down will not only help you keep track of projects but can also serve as a reminder that everything will be okay. Breaking up larger tasks into smaller, more doable steps can also help ease the burden of a daunting task.
How Can You Manage Stress?
The following are popular tips to cope with work stress:
- Specify your goals: Trying to accomplish too many things at once is a recipe for stress. Prioritize your tasks and focus on one thing at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
- Remember to recharge your batteries: It’s crucial to take time every day to relax and recharge your batteries. Whether reading a book, taking a yoga class, or spending time with family and friends, make sure to schedule some “me” time into your busy schedule.
- Make use of marketing automation software: Automation can help take some weight off of your shoulders by automating tasks that would otherwise be manual, time-consuming processes. The same concept applies to influencer marketing, which can take some promotion responsibilities off your plate.
- Plan in advance to anticipate unexpected changes: In the ever-changing digital marketing landscape, it’s important to be prepared for anything. By planning and anticipating changes, you can avoid feeling blindsided by new updates or trends.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help: If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help from a digital marketing agency. At Zero Gravity Marketing, we specialize in helping businesses with their digital marketing needs. We understand that not every company has the internal resources to handle digital marketing, so we’re here to help by reducing digital marketing agency stress.
It’s clear that the life of a digital marketer can be stressful. However, it’s possible to manage stress and keep a cool head with the right strategies in place. So next time you feel overwhelmed, remember the lessons of the Zero Gravity Marketing team and stay focused on the task at hand. With practice, mastering the art of digital marketing while staying sane can become second nature.
