Consistency is Key When it Comes to Marketing - [Marketing Blog]

Today’s Kallum with a K Blog: Consistency is key. Daily habits drive success and this is particularly true when it comes to marketing.

Instead of doing lots of marketing activity one week and then none the next, it’s better to do a little each day.

However, let’s be clear from the start: it should always be quality over quantity. Don’t just put stuff out there, tweets, facebook posts or videos, because you feel that you “have to” or because everyone else is. 

When it comes to marketing, it’s important to to deliver value to your audience, rather than just posting for the sake of it. There’s already enough noise out there!

You’re busy though, aren’t you? You don’t have time for marketing because you’re: working with your clients, in meetings (I wrote a blog about meetings earlier this week) or fire-fighting.

What happens when you complete the work with your existing clients? Do you have more lined up?

Oh, you don’t have any work in the pipeline? Why not?

Because you didn't commit any time to marketing as you were “too busy” before?!

I get it. It is really tough at times to balance all of the things you’re meant to when you’re the owner of a business. However, please don’t neglect your marketing - this is a real investment in your future.

Here’s a suggestion that has really helped me and all of the new business owners we work with: carve out 30 minutes a day for marketing.

Surely you can find 30 minutes every day?

I like to do this first thing in the morning because: it gives me clarity, starts building momentum for a successful day, and means that I’ve done some marketing before life gets in the way!

If you can’t find 30 minutes, try harder! Get up earlier, work later or take time away from the many wasteful activities you’re doing.

You never “find” time to do anything in life, you have to “make” the time.

Make time to do the accounts, make time to speak to your best customers and make time to do stuff outside of work - like hobbies, and spending time with your partner, friends and family.

Equally, make the time to do marketing every day and stick to it. It doesn’t need to be 30 minutes to begin with - even an uninterrupted (what a clumsy word!) block of 20 minutes every day dedicated solely to marketing will start to make a big difference.

And over time, you may decide to extend this. I do at least an hour every day on marketing for our business, Acorn Enterprise, and also working on my personal brand.

In this time, I do stuff like:

• review our current marketing efforts - e.g. measuring website traffic 
• produce content - e.g. writing this blog
• educate myself - e.g. by listening to podcasts 

It’s amazing what you can achieve by committing to a daily block of time, sticking to it and ensuring no interruptions.

The last point there is a case of self-discipline and communicating with your team that you are unavailable for the next 30 - 60 minutes. It’s also a case of not checking emails or social media - I disable notifications from these apps on my phone during this time and also ignore any calls (unless it’s family or my girlfriend).

When are you going to carve out your 30 minutes for marketing today...?

Kallum with a K