How Do You Find the Time for Marketing?

In September last year I published my second book. I ordered plenty of copies and started telling people about it. I took it to networking meetings in order to sell copies, and I did sell some … and the people who read it raved about it. So why is my office still full of boxes of books? Because I just haven’t found the time to promote the book properly, I’m really busy looking after all my clients and having meetings with prospects to whom they refer me. How do I find the time, between working and earning money, to create a Marketing Plan for my book and carry it out?

“How do I find the time for marketing?” is a question I’m often asked, so I thought I would dedicate this blog post to answering it.

The key to finding the time to do your marketing is to do some planning.

1. First, work out what marketing works for your business, so that you can focus on just doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t. How do you know what works? You need to measure all the marketing you do, so that when you look back at where your recent clients came from, you can see exactly how they heard about you. You can also find out what works by talking to other people who run a similar business to you – learn from their mistakes. And you could always ask a Marketing expert for some advice, too!

2. Look at how much time you have to carry out your marketing. Many business owners fall into the trap of doing lots of marketing while they’re not busy, only to stop all their marketing once they get more clients. This just leads to ‘feast and famine’, which is not good for your cash flow or your stress levels! For this reason, you need to work out how much time you can spend on marketing, on a weekly basis, even when you’re really busy. What’s the minimum amount of marketing you can do? Look again at your list of marketing that works and prioritise it. For example, no matter what happens, I will keep publishing Scribbles on the third Wednesday of every month. Why? Because every month I receive enquiries from Scribbles, often from prospects or former clients I’ve not spoken to for some time. And a nice proportion of those enquiries turn into work.

3. Set yourself deadlines. When you’re busy looking after your clients, one of the best ways to make sure you keep doing enough marketing is by setting yourself some deadlines. I know that Scribbles has to be published on the third Wednesday of each month. Sometimes I write it in plenty of time; sometimes it is finished only the day before. Whenever I write it, my deadline is what makes it happen.

What do you do next? Go back to the start of the cycle and measure your marketing to check it’s working correctly. Make sure that what you’re doing is the best marketing for your business and that you have the time for it. Adjust your marketing plan as required, to make sure you’re using your limited time in the most productive way.

And that’s how you find the time to do your marketing! Now, where are all those books I need to sell?!