Make Time for Marketing

The phrase “As a business owner, you must spend time working on your business as well as in your business” is a statement that has much wisdom. Working on your business usually refers to spending time marketing your business to ensure that you constantly have your name in front of your prospects.

Remember that marketing is an investment in your business. It is not something you can turn on and off. Marketing is 24x7 and should be an integral part of your business culture. Excuses like "I'm too busy right now" or “I don’t have the budget or staff” is a recipe for disaster. What happens when your pipeline empties? How will you get your business rolling again?

Like any task that must be performed every day, you need to figure out a way to make it a habit. You must learn to schedule time to develop your marketing campaigns. If you never put marketing high enough on your list of important tasks, you will never find the time. This article covers ideas that can help you make time for marketing.

Make Marketing a Part of your Daily Routine

Marketing is more of a mindset than the ability to devote time to particular tasks. If you consider marketing an integrated part of your normal business day, you won’t consider it an extra activity and time becomes less of an issue. You begin to realize that you have opportunities to market yourself in almost every context in which you interact with people. That doesn’t mean to “sell” your business every time you meet someone. What it does mean is to always project the image you want to project so that prospects and referral sources will want to find out more.

You must commit to making time for marketing. Whether to attend networking events, develop a seminar series, seek out speaking opportunities, or write a proposal, you must schedule the time and treat it like any other appointment. Without a commitment to your business that marketing is essential, you'll find yourself consistently putting off your marketing efforts, which could haunt you a month or two from now.

Develop a Marketing Plan that Helps You Focus

Without a plan, most businesses spend time, money and effort on activities that don’t benefit the business. Trying to navigate your way through the web of marketing possibilities is time-consuming and most likely not your core competency. By developing your own, or aksing us to help you develop an individual marketing plan enables you to make optimal use of the time you have and to avoid tasks that don't align with your priorities and basically waste time.

A marketing plan guides you though the maze and breaks the effort down into manageable pieces that are more easily accomplished. Marketing is not a monolithic entity that is undertaken as one major project. It is a series of small, integrated activities that help you educate your target audience about how you can help them and continues to build visibility and awareness over a period of time.

Outsource Marketing to Buy Back Time

Have you determined your marketing goals? If you have, align the marketing activities that help you work towards your goals first. If a task does not help you achieve them, determine whether you are better off outsourcing it. Does it make sense to try to design your own brand identity, business cards, or Web site? Or should you take advantage of external skills for those tasks while you prepare for a seminar, speaking opportunity or event? Which tasks are most crucial to you achieving your marketing goals? Create time for marketing by determining where you can effectively delegate and where you need to take control.

Opportunity costs are a topic of every economics class. So why are we so hesitant to spend money to off-load our time so we can take advantage of every opportunity that arises? How much is your time worth? As a small business owner, I know how hard it is to spend money on something I know I can do. But even as a marketing consultant, there are times I will outsource the project to a capable person because I need to use my time with my customers, executing a marketing program that guides me towards my desired objective or building my business. The choice is yours.

Transform Marketing into a Way of Life

In order to market yourself 24x7, consider marketing as a way of thinking, acting and getting the word out about you and your business. Redefine marketing as projecting who you are, your strengths, and how you can help others solve a problem. For many services businesses, this is exactly what their marketing should communicate. When you meet someone at a networking event, don’t introduce yourself as “I do marketing”, “I sell insurance” or “I am a designer”. Instead, introduce yourself in a more interesting way. For example:

A marketing consultant is someone who “helps businesses get new clients”.
An interior designer is someone who “transforms houses into dreams”.
Insurance salesperson is someone who “helps you sleep at night”.

By introducing yourself by the benefit you bring to your clients, you have a better chance of getting the attention of the person you are speaking with long enough for them to remember you. As a business owner, you are marketing your business continuously. Take advantage of every opportunity to be visible and be noticed.

Develop Marketing Communications that Work

Depending on your business, there are many avenues available to get the word out about who you are and what you do. Your prospective clients must be aware of you and perceive you to have the expertise they need before they will even entertain hiring you. To become more visible and credible to your target audience, write articles for publications read by your market, present at their trade association meetings, send newsletters to targeted companies, and host seminars for industry leaders. Each of these activities will increase your visibility, make personal contacts, and help you become the expert in your field. Be sure you follow up with those who show interest by scheduling some time to talk.

Be Persistent and Patient

Marketing is a process that never ends and it takes time for marketing activities to bear fruit. Don't expect instant results from your marketing activities or you'll get discouraged and give up too quickly. Every activity plants a seed. Every activity reinforces the previous one. Persistence and patience are the keys to successful marketing. If you spend time each week marketing your business, you will find your pipeline is always full.