How to Make Time For Marketing

One of the challenges of running a business is finding the time to do everything. Small business owners especially have to make time for a multitude of things if they don’t have departments or other employees to whom they can delegate certain tasks. Marketing is often a task that is relegated to the “when I have time” pile.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to drive sales when you have nothing planned to drive sales. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you can’t find time for marketing.

1. Are You Sure You Don’t Have Time?

This is not a question posed to get your goat, this is a real question. If you look at how you spend your time in a day, across the span of a week or two, you could find pockets of time that could be traded for marketing. For example:

• Are you spending time on tasks that you could more easily delegate to someone else?
• Are you spending time on projects or reports that don’t have to be done right away and which could be moved to a later date to accommodate time for marketing?
• Can you combine a marketing think with your lunch for 1-2 days in the week?

Be aware of whether you’re saying “I don’t have time” because you don’t want to do it, and then take responsibility for that. If you don’t want to work on marketing, or if you truly do not have time to commit to doing it, then you need to hire someone to help.

2. Hire Some Help

A good consultant is worth their fee with the level of knowledge and experience they bring to the discussion. You might find that you get more from the consultant than you could have garnered yourself, even if you did have time to spend on it.

If you’re new to hiring a consultant, reach out to a few with the same questions and see which one gives you the best feeling about moving forward. You can tell them exactly what you’re looking for (i.e., a marketing plan, ideas that can be implemented, someone to manage social media, etc.) a few questions you can ask include:

• What kinds of businesses do you primarily work with and what do you do for them?
• Do you create marketing plans and do the work to implement them? Or am I responsible for implementing the plans? Or do you contract out the work to others who implement the plans?
• What kind of time do you need from me or my staff to make this happen?
• How do you charge?

Once you have information from a few consultants, you will be able to decide if outsourcing is the right option, or if there is something you are currently doing in-house that could be more easily outsourced so you could make time to focus on marketing.

3. Be Consistent and Follow Through

Like anything, the starting part is the most cumbersome. It takes more time and resources to get going than to stay going, so it is important to stay going. You are better to have a marketing commitment you can handle consistently and sustainably because as you create the marketing habit, it will become easier to do, thus giving you back more time to dedicate to additional marketing ideas or other aspects of your business.

It is not uncommon for businesses to get started with marketing and then get off-track in keeping it going. It can feel like time wasted when your plans are interrupted, and that can sometimes cause you to quit the marketing work altogether. You are always better to keep going, even slowly, than to stop. It’s hard to drive sales when there is no action to support that result.

Marketing Drives Sales

Marketing is what makes people aware of what you do. When people are aware of what you do, they can become your customers. When people become your customers, you earn revenue. When you earn revenue, you have a healthy business. Marketing is a critical element of running a business, and if you don’t make time to tell people what you do, you make it easier for your competitors to earn that business away from you.

You can read more about making time for marketing in Chapter 4 of Forward Thinking for Your Business. Pick up a copy today at Amazon US, Amazon Canada, or contact Jennifer directly. If you need to book consulting time with Jennifer, email her at [email protected] or call 613-312-7824.