Every organization, every project team, and every strategic goal comes with a price tag. We spend countless hours measuring and reporting against projects, goals, and organizational outcomes in order to gauge our success and ROI.  But how often do we employ the same techniques used in Project Management to reach success in different areas of business? Can we really improve ROI across all facets of business in a holistic way, using the same 5 principles in everything we do? Yes!

In Project Management, we often refer to Operational Elasticity and Task Saturation as ways to make or break our projects, and to reach our organization’s goals – or not. Organizational Elasticity refers to having enough time and resources to effectively accomplish a purpose, and produce the intended results. On the other side of the spectrum is Task Saturation, where we lack time or resources and push our resource capacity to the point that we lose agility, causing teams or people to channelize and hyper-focus on a single task. This can result in dropping the ball on some of the key elements that keep our projects and businesses afloat.  So how do we find the balance? 

Here are five ways to increase operational elasticity, increase your ROI and prevent task saturation in everything you do, including Digital Marketing:

1. Build a Pipeline of Talent
   Always keep your talent pipeline full and fill your open vacancies in a timely manner.  Task saturation becomes a greater risk when you don’t have the right people on your team at the right time, and will end up costing you more money than having an open position.
2. Set Clear Expectations and Have Frequent Check-ins
   The root of all great performance and a positive ROI begins with S.M.A.R.T. goals and expectations: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Collective organizational culture and values, along with frequent check-ins facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration, which can help identify task saturation at the early onset. Digital marketing is great channel to use the S.M.A.R.T. method to help you identify clear, concise, achievable goals.
3. Establish Agility in the Organization
   Operational elasticity is key in promoting agility within an organization. Employees who are agile are eager to cross functional lines in order to offer their perspective and expertise on a subject.  Agile teams who constantly anticipate change are also able to ebb and flow with the needs of the business more readily and effectively.  These employees are themselves, a positive return on investment for your organization. Agility in digital marketing can refer to your Paid Media channel mix, Social Media mix, SEO efforts, or a combination of those. The idea is to have ongoing efforts in all three areas and be able to move within them with some level of fluidity. This agility allows you to pivot and put your time and budget where you will see the most return for what you want to achieve while still keeping a pulse on other areas.
4. Recognize Employees for Their Work and Contributions
   Praise drives positive employee engagement. When operational elasticity is at a low point, and task saturation is high, recognition goes a long way in keeping everyone motivated and on track to reach your goals. Recognizing the benefits of your digital marketing efforts and how they almost always pay for themselves, if not more, is also a great way to keep charging toward your organizational goals.
5. A Coherent, Consistent, and Communicated Strategic Narrative.
   Have a clear and concise mission statement or credo that outlines your company’s vision for the future, and update these narratives as your landscape shifts. Align your digital marketing efforts with your mission statement, and communicate this vision with employees on a regular basis. Collaboration is key, and will lend to higher adoption and buy-in, help identify execution concerns, shifts in the landscape, and address operational elasticity challenges which can affect your ROI.

How will you apply these techniques to your digital marketing efforts and increase your ROI? Contact us here at Anvil and we’ll show you how.