Make Time For Your Marketing Efforts

Writing a plan of this nature is really only the first step. Some business owners are surprised to find that a marketing plan should be consulted on a regular basis, that it should allow for a considerable degree of flexibility and that it should also be updated regularly. If this doesn't apply to your own plan, then you may need to think about changing your approach.

There is, however, some good news here. That good news concerns the fact that you actually thought to write a plan, which already puts you ahead of the game. You already have that intuitive feeling that marketing will be central to the future of your business.

So why haven't you taken steps to put that plan into action? The most common reason that I seem to hear is that business owners think that they are too busy to dedicate time to this area. What do I think when I hear that? My feeling is that this simply suggests that marketing is not seen as being enough of a priority.

It's pretty easy to see how you can fall into the trap of assuming that marketing activity isn't particularly urgent. It may not seem urgent, when compared to the fact that the phones are constantly ringing and there's a need to deal with suppliers and customers.

This is exactly why such tasks are often left at the very bottom of the pile. You need to be very wary of the dangers associated with falling into this trap. The problem is that marketing only tends to feel urgent once it becomes clear that business is rather too slow. Why should this be an issue?

My own feeling is that, by the time you realise that you have a problem, it's all a little too late in the day. Emergency marketing is far less likely to be successful than taking a careful, structured approach. If you want to get results, then it makes much more sense to spend time planning and implementing your strategy.

This may appear to make a lot of sense, in theory, but can you really afford to dedicate all of this time? I would certainly argue that you can't afford not to dedicate the required hours. A short blast of marketing effort each week is all that's required, but you'll be in trouble without it.