Do your marketing activities reach the top of your to-do list?

As a small business owner you’re so busy juggling different tasks that your marketing activities often don’t make it to the top of your to-do list. I meet so many amazing people with great ideas to promote their business. But often these ideas don’t get implemented because people don’t get round to them or they don’t know where to start.

The thing is, these things can really help your business grow – by neglecting them, you’re holding your business back from achieving its full potential.

Applying a simple structure can make the world of difference. Here are five simple steps to follow.

1. Know what you want to achieve

You can easily waste time and money if you’re not sure what your marketing goals are. Be clear what you want to achieve in your business, then pick the marketing/communications activities that will make the biggest difference.

Start with the WHY? Set very clear, measurable goals for all your activity and link it back to your business objectives.

2. Make it manageable

Once you’ve decided what you want to achieve, you might end up with some big projects like “set up a website”. This then becomes a huge project hanging over you that is so big you don’t know where to start. The secret is to break even the biggest project down into a series of manageable steps that help you progress…and make you feel like you’re getting somewhere.

3. Stop waiting for the perfect time to start

That clear day that you can devote to your marketing plan will never come! Instead set aside 20 to 30 minutes each day – first thing in the morning is good but plan your slot to suit the way you work best. Do one, or part of one, of your little steps every day – it doesn’t matter how small.

If you’re prone to distractions, set a timer for 20 minutes. Turn off your social media, phone and email and do the task. When you’ve finished schedule in the next day’s slot and what you are going to do. Over five days you will have made nearly two hours of progress.

4. Make yourself accountable

When you were employed, your boss made sure you did the things you needed to do. Now you’re your own boss you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder to keep you on track! This is great but it does mean that when you’re busy, or not sure where to start you can put things off.

So make an external commitment to someone that you are going to do something – it could be a business associate, client, mentor or a friend. Anyone who’ll hold you to it. For example, when I had the idea to run Marketing Meetups I posted about them on my Facebook page. It was scary because I hadn’t found a venue or decided on a format but I’d publicly said I would do them – three weeks later I held the first one!

5. Sooner rather than perfect

Often we hold back from launching something because it’s not 100% perfect. It’s good to set high standards of course but be sure you’re not using this as an excuse to procrastinate! Ask yourself if something is good enough. If you think it’s not quite ready maybe you can share it with a limited audience initially and get their feedback. Anything to keep things moving.

What tips do you have for getting your marketing moving? I’d love to read about them – just leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Lucy

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