5 Tips to Tackle Your Small Business Marketing

Every business owner knows they should focus time on marketing, but between doing the daily work, meeting with clients, returning phone calls and emails, it seems it’s 10 p.m. before you sit down to think about it. And who can focus at that hour?

We find this to be the case with many of our clients. They know what they need and want to do, but there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Here are a few simple suggestions that may help:

• Create a “to do” list every day and incorporate one marketing-focused item. Just as you would not skip returning a sales call or getting to the bank, DON’T skip your marketing task. Make it a priority!

• Don’t bite off on too much. We are often overwhelmed because we think we need to do it all at once. Relax. Take a tiered approach. Today, carve out 15 minutes and call your local ad rep to review your ad schedule to make sure it’s up to date. Tomorrow, review your website and give a critical eye to what may need revision or freshening. By tackling one small element each day, you’ll be surprised at the end of the week how much you’ve accomplished!

• Get out of the office. Take face-to-face meetings. So many of us are overly dependent upon Facebook or email and don’t make a point of getting in front of our colleagues or potential customers. Take a lunch with a business associate. Stop in at a networking function. It doesn’t have to be something lengthy that will take you away from work for hours…just something to maintain your outside connections.

• Open a “Business Info” file. Ideas come at us from a variety of sources throughout the day. If you read an interesting article – even if you can’t read it in full – copy it into your file to read later. The same holds true if you’re listening to the radio and hear a good interview or learn of a good book. Copy it into your file so that when you do have a greater amount of time to devote to marketing ideas, you have them saved in one place!

• Look to your competition. There’s nothing more motivating for your own marketing than seeing what your competitors are up to. If they can do it, YOU can do it!

And we’re always here to help!