What can you do with your marketing in one hour?

Does this sound familiar?

You’ve cut budgets making marketing more of a side project that an actionable item on your never-ending to-do list. Or perhaps you let marketing sit on the back burner for a few too many days … months … oops!  Suddenly, there’s a problem: marketing is far behind or faded into non-existence. Unfortunately, you’re so busy running your business, you have don’t have time to fix it.

If you have even one, teeny-tiny hour, here’s an effective approach:

Mini Marketing Audit

To start with, check in on what you do and don’t have.

Social Media?  

Website contacts?  

Yelp reviews?  

Billboards?

Next, examine what you are doing with your marketing outlets. Keep it simplified. Anything in your marketing stockpile counts, even if you haven’t used it for awhile. One social post a week? One blog a quarter? Write it down. Take stock of what marketing has been used and what serves as a potential foundation from which you can build.

Dream BIG!

This is the fun part. Unleash your imagination. Brainstorm all the really cool ways you can market your business. Skywriting. Bowling tournaments. Pie-The-Boss Fridays. There are no wrong answers. This is exercise opens your mind to what could be done in the future and gets your team excited about marketing. Limit this to 10 minutes to ensure you use your hour wisely.

Define Marketing Goals

Setting goals for marketing activities you aren’t doing well (or at all) may sound difficult. Just remember: It’s not about the marketing. It’s about making a profit.

At United WebWorks, we often tell our clients, “You don’t want a website. You want the phone to ring.” We start new client conversations by asking them to set exciting yet realistic goals for their business (i.e. increasing sales by 20% in six months).

Ask your team what kind of intake they want from marketing.  Maybe it’s 10 new leads a week or $1,000 per month in donations for your non-profit (yes, even nonprofits need marketing). Strive for more than likes on social media or website visitors.  Goals should be SMART — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bound. Remember, this isn’t a three-hour strategy meeting. Keep it concise and trust your gut instincts.

Make a Plan

Typically at this point, the goals are handed to one person and forgotten for a few months. Break the cycle. Assign tasks for your two biggest goals to multiple members of the team. That helps with accountability AND will ensure that everything you put out is a good representation of your company.  Make sure the people working on the tasks are excited and able to do the work. No one wants to sludge through a thousand busy work tasks by themselves. If your team can’t handle your biggest goals, it might be time to bring in an expert or an independent contractor.

Finalize Your Plan

You’ve made good use of this hour.  Take the last few minutes to check in with your team:  How do they feel about taking on these tasks? How do you want to check up on progress?  Does this seem like it can be sustained? Above all else, avoid complacency. Don’t allow yourself to slip back into neglecting your marketing.  

If you didn’t see progress in your hour or you’re even more overwhelmed than before, give United WebWorks a call. Marketing is more than likes and shares. It’s about the phone ringing. It’s about turning visitors into customer and eventually to promoters. Marketing should always be about making more money. Call us today at (912) 231-0016.