After all, in the early stages of a business, a start-up, or even a non-profit org – you may have to spend up to 50% of your time on non-billable, non-client or patron oriented activities. This is the infamous ‘working ON the business’ vs. ‘working IN the business’ concept. In that administrative portion of organization building, it mostly means working on marketing.
You probably need to devote at least 20-25% of your time to marketing– 1 day each week on marketing related activities.
Or 90 – 120 minutes per day.
Yes, really that much!
BUT … there’s a lot that equals ‘marketing’ that you might not be thinking of as such right now. Such as :
Networking (online and offline), going to events, having coffee with key influencers or prospects, blogging, social media, guest posting, email, following-up with prospective clients, postcards, flyers, posters, infographics, videos, talking with your users/customers/patrons when they come in your front door, your business card, press releases, your website, your email signature, newsletters, webinars …. see, the list could go on a long time.
You can chunk that time up. Plus, you’ll get more efficient the more you do and the more you create systems, processes and use a calendar.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this talk of marketing – how many ideas to try, or which ideas to try – it’s probably because you don’t really have a defined strategy. Having a step-by-step strategy means you have focus.
“What defines your marketing strategy’s effectiveness is how strongly it compels people to take action.” [Peter Sandeen]
You may also be spending a lot of time on marketing activities and feel that nothing is coming of it after a while. So, it's time to reevaluate. Go back to your (soon to be created) marketing plan and check your strategies and then your planned tactics.
Be brutally honest here!
Let's look at how you spend your time on marketing activities as of now:
Go through that exercise honestly and you will start to see what's been working and what hasn't; what you enjoy doing and what you're putting off (that maybe you shouldn't); and where you should maybe cut time so you can refocus to activities with a better return on your precious time.
I want all of my solopreneur pals to feel confident and mighty in their marketing - sharing what makes their work special and so vital to their clients. No B.S. or fluff here. I do the digging and research for you, translate "marketing-ese" into simpler terms, and help you avoid marketing headaches.