One of your most important jobs as a solo
professional or small business owner is to generate interest in and demand
for your products or services with a marketing process. But if you're like many entrepreneurs, you
discover finding time for marketing to be elusive. Much of what you could be
doing remains undone--and without some form of marketing your business
growth stalls.
To help get you untracked, here are my four
marketing "musts" for small business owners. Integrate these four
fundamentals and you're sure to feel more confident going forward . . . and
more able to plan a bigger "bang" for your time and efforts.
1. MAKE MARKETING YOUR MINDSET
Make marketing a subconscious element of all that
you do. This doesn't mean you should be in "hard sell" mode all the time,
but it does mean you need to develop a mindset where you view every
interaction with someone--planned or otherwise--by phone, by email or
in-person as a marketing opportunity.
2. MAKE YOUR MARKETING SUSTAINABLE
For marketing to work, you need to be able to
sustain your efforts over time. You might develop the most effective plan,
but if you can't implement that plan because it's too costly, too
complicated, or you simply don't have the time to commit to it, then your
efforts will fail.
Plan your marketing in phases. Start with
low-hanging fruit. Get a couple of small victories under your belt. Note
what worked, what didn't work, what felt most "right" for you . . . and keep
moving forward.
3. MAKE IT ROUTINE
Without structure or routine built around your
marketing efforts, you're likely to lose focus and get distracted--something
that's all too easy for solo professionals and the self-employed to do.
One easy way to add structure is to create an
overall marketing plan that outlines for you exactly what you hope to
accomplish and when. You can then supplement this with shorter-term,
action-oriented "to-do" lists aimed at reaching your marketing goals.
A word of caution, however, don't make "structure"
your end-product. Consider structure only as a means to get the results you
desire. This does not have to be a painful exercise--my plan and various
lists usually fill only one or two pages. What's important is that there's
always something to do . . . and that something always gets done.
You'll also want to maintain an element of
flexibility in all that you put on paper or commit to your computer screen.
Create your plans and follow them knowing that from week-to-week and
month-to-month your objectives can--and most likely will--change.
4. MAKE TIME
Allot time each week to pursue your marketing goals.
Pull out your calendar right now and schedule an appointment with yourself.
It could be an hour, two hours or three--whatever you need to keep moving
forward. It could be the same day each week, it could be different days.
Whatever you choose, honor this commitment of time. Make it sacred.
MAKE MARKETING MORE AUTOMATIC Remember, marketing
doesn't happen in a vacuum, nor is it automatic. You have to tell people why
they should want to buy your product or service--and then tell them again.
Only once you've adopted a marketing mindset and are
willing to commit the time and energy necessary to sustain your marketing
efforts--only then will your marketing become more automatic, more natural .
. . and more successful.
