Most professionals have heard of the 80/20 rule which states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts. This means that 80 percent of your sales volume is likely generated by 20 percent of your customers; 80 percent of your complaints come from 20 percent of your customers; and 80 percent of your revenue is generated by 20 percent of your products. Also known as the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule is often applied to productivity, time management and prioritization. Here’s how you can apply it to your marketing team today.

Identify Your Best Customers (And Potential Customers)

Do you know which 20 percent of your customer are generating 80 percent of your sales? Dig you’re your data and identify those critical spenders. Once you identify them, you can look for themes and similarities in the profiles. From there, you can create new customer personas and use those personas to tailor future marketing efforts that are likely to increase ROI.

Improve Resource Allocation

Marketers can waste a lot of time and resources chasing the wrong audience. Rather than trying to be everything to everybody, you can use the 80/20 rule to prioritize resource allocation. Determine which channels are getting you the most ROI and focus on growing those, rather than spinning your wheels on channels that aren’t giving you the return you need.

This principle can also be applied on a more granular level when planning specific activities. For example, check analytics to determine which blog posts, social media posts and videos from the last six months generated the best results. Develop new content that centers on those themes to continue to build traction.

Improve Daily Planning

The 80/20 rule can even help individual marketing team members prioritize their tasks for the day. The most valuable tasks are often the hardest and most complex, and therefore, the most likely to be put off. Encourage your employees to look at their to-do list each day and ask themselves which tasks are in the top 20 percent of their activities and which are in the bottom 80. Have them tackle those complex problems first, since they will generate the most return. Focusing on these complex tasks ensures they will get done, and employees are giving them the attention they deserve.

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