The Lie: I have time to take care of my business and do marketing too. Besides, marketing is a “thing.” I have my website and a Facebook page, and I can schedule an event, copy a brochure, or run an ad in the paper any time.
Some business owners think of marketing as something you do when you have the time. They believe they can be successful at marketing and manage customer satisfaction, build or deliver products, motivate and encourage their staff, and deal with accounting, finance and all the other things that business owners must deal with on a daily basis.
The truth: A recent study conducted by Constant Contact found that many small business owners are spending up to 20 hours per week on marketing efforts. This high level of effort is needed because managing your small business marketing means that you are probably working with several vendors and using multiple channels to get your message out. Most business owners do not work a 40-hour workweek, so claiming 20 hours as 50% of the week would be inaccurate. But 20 hours is a large chunk of the business owners’ workweek, and those extra hours could be applied to other areas of the business.
“The action: Systemize your small business marketing.”
Establishing a marketing system will provide you with two significant advantages. First, a marketing system will define what you will do and when you will do it. This removes the guesswork and eliminates the time you may be spending investigating what needs to be done. Secondly, it allows you to hire someone to execute the system, freeing you to concentrate on other areas of your business.
In order to establish marketing as a system in your business, you must first develop a strategy. Your marketing strategy will identify the reason your business exists (your purpose), the thing that your business does that is uniquely different from your competitor (your difference), and those who appreciate your product or service (your ideal customer). Using your marketing strategy you can establish a plan, calendar, and budget that will produce the expected marketing results.
Marketing is a system that must be built, executed and refined on an ongoing basis in order to attract ideal customers. Spending too much time on your marketing efforts will take you away from other important elements of running your business. Spending too little time may not yield the results you would like. Systemizing your marketing will help you manage your efforts and help you achieve the results you want.
If you likes this post feel free to download this eBook: The 7 Steps to Successful Small Business Marketing.