Too Busy For Marketing?
"I know I 'ought' to be doing "marketing" but I'm too busy."
"I will get to the marketing activity, but first I'm going to recruit someone to do it.
"The phone's ringing, I've got plenty of customers....so I don't need to do marketing."
"We're already doing lots of marketing activity - we've got LinkedIn posts, a website, newsletters, events...."
Do any of these sound familiar?
Well, they do to me!
I hear these things all of the time from business owners, founders and CEOs and sometimes from the marketers themselves.
At first glance, I used to think they were broadly valid reasons why a particular business might not need marketing input right now. After all, why on earth would you need to do any marketing, when you can't even keep on top of the enquiries coming through the door today?
Over time, I've learnt however, that for some businesses, there might be a more complex story behind these answers & sometimes it's precisely BECAUSE you are so busy, or are already doing lots of activity that you might need some help!
Here's what I've found...
While many people consider marketing to be all about the tactics & activity (eg social media, Adwords & websites), I look at marketing as the successful delivery of 4 main elements:
Strategy & Direction
People & Resources
Systems & Processes
Activity
1. Strategy & Direction
This is all about knowing what your business is trying to achieve, how marketing supports this, who the customers are that you're targeting & why they would be interested in buying from you.
Imagine you're building a new house. This stage is when you have the plans and drawings drawn up, deciding on what you're building and how you want it to function.
Without looking at why you're doing what you're doing & whether all the 'activity' is helping you achieve what you're wanting to....there's a lot of businesses wasting an awful lot of time & effort.
2. People & Resources
Many organisations (even reasonably big ones) give responsibility for marketing activity to someone in their team who is already busy doing other things, with marketing a secondary priority; or who may not have the right skills or level of understanding about what's really needed. This usually means that 'marketing' gets pushed down the list of things being done.
An important element here is also about how the sales and marketing teams / people work together and if there is an appropriate budget for what the business needs for what they are trying to achieve.
When you're building your house you employ skilled architects and builders and give them an appropriate budget. You don't try and build a palace using one of the three pigs and some straw!
3. Systems & Processes
Systems and processes enable you to repeat your successes; know when to ditch the things that don't work; to know what's coming up and what priorities they are and to really understand what the drivers are to achieve your strategy. This is key for any business wanting to grow sustainably.
To get your house built a project plan is created based on all the other houses your expert team have worked on. This means it will get built on time, to a good quality and within budget.
4. Activity
And finally....yes, AFTER everything else is put in place - you get into the tactical delivery of Activity. And then you do it regularly, with consistent messaging, nurturing both prospects and existing customers.
This is where I often find people say they are busy and doing lots of social media posts, newsletters and website updates. "Busy" doesn't always mean there's a consistent story being told to the market about your offering, or that you're making the most of each opportunity - to squeeze the maximum amount out of a story before moving on to a new idea.
There's a logic to how the house it built and you can finally start decorating and filling it with furniture only after it's built!
Apologies for the clunky analogies, but you get the gist!
Are you busy doing the right things?
Less friction in your world and that of your team and having more of your 'ideal' customers, paying you to do the things you're good at, more often. That's why I really believe it's worth investing time and focus on marketing.
So, if your business is busy - that's awesome and hopefully it means you and your team are doing the right activity and driving your business strategy. I'd love to hear from you about what is working for you and what's been the key things that have helped you get to this stage.
If however, you read this and some of it resonated, then take some time to ensure you have all 4 elements of your marketing humming as well as they could be; not just busy being busy.
Taking a marketing approach to your business might be about helping you to achieve even better things, to get where you want to be, in a more effective way!
