Why You Need To Make Time For Your Marketing Your Business
Yes I know, I’m a marketer and it’s easy for me to say that. However, I was totally guilty of the same. Marketing time management was literally never a to do on my list but keep reading to learn how I started making time for marketing my business and you can too!
You seriously need to stop complaining about not having time to market your own business.
In all honesty, I am tired of hearing business owners complain that they simply do not have time for marketing. It’s either that or they complain about not knowing how or where to start. Then there’s the “I don’t need to I have clients lined up the door, why should I.” Those other complaints are for another blog post. Today is about making time for marketing.
The one phrase I hear the most from clients is “I can’t spend all day on social media!” Hence, I reply “how much do you actually spend?” Ironically, I get a blank stare or a series of ums. These are the same business owners that readily post their party or concert on social media, and let’s not forget the tribute to Flashback Friday. Yet, they can not seem to take five minutes to post consistently or engage.
I had one client tell me she is just too busy to take any action shots of her at work then three seconds later post pictures of her kiddo.
Unfortunately, as business owners, we can not afford not to make time for marketing. You can complain now and get it out of your system then get it done or complain later that you can’t make it in the digital world. Surely you understand that there will be a time where you’ll have to throw in the towel and just do it. Because there is no other option if you want to survive as a small business.
To put it in perspective, you can not afford not to dedicate time and resources to marketing. Let’s start with an increase in visibility for your clients as well as your desired audience. Specifically, focus on strengthening the relationship with your audience. Consequently, it improves brand awareness and recognition. Then there’s loyalty and trust. Building your brands reputation online is just as important as loyalty and trust. You can’t afford to not build a reputation of credibility that will speak for you. Correspondingly this will increase traffic to your site and generate more leads.
If more leads don’t get you excited, then this will. You don’t need to spend all day slaving away on social marketing your life away. These three tips will help you stay sane while building your presence online. Marketing shouldn’t be scary.
Marketing Time Management Tips
1. Use Your Smartphone
Don’t slave on your desktop all day. Use your smartphone. One of my clients uses sprout social as their social management tool of choice. The best part is I have an app for that. It’s so easy to schedule posts from the app. For my smaller scale businesses, I use Loomly’s app. It’s easy to schedule posts. Plus it is user-friendly for all users. You don’t have to be a marketer to understand how to use Loomly. There’s also Hootsuite & Buffer apps which make it easy to share posts and even respond to comments right from the app. I also get complaints about how to manage posting content that’s curated for each platform. For example, for Twitter, I create a few native posts but I also use Crowdfire to auto schedule content that is automatically posted during the best times for that platform.
2.Plan Your Social Media Each Week
I’ve gotten to the point where I create several stories for Instagram on my smartphone and post it daily during my lunchtime for my own personal brand. For clients, I take one hour each week to plan and create our content. Then I take 5 minutes for each platform each day to engage with their community at least 2-3 times a day. Obviously, I’m hired to do this. Again, this goes to show that if you schedule yourself to do five minutes per platform twice a day you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor. Then again you also don’t have to be on every platform. That topic is for another blog post. Make sure to get the social media activity & time management tracker here.
3. Get Off Social Media
Wasn’t I just trying to convince you to get on social media? Yes, I am. Although, that’s not the kind of social media I am talking about. I don’t take calls from my best friend or even my husband during work hours. With this in mind, why would I get on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat with them? It’s so easy to go down the friends and family rabbit hole on social media.
Therefore separating your personal online social time from your business social time is a total must. I know it’s so hard not to comment on that cute post of your niece or your auntie’s beautiful spring blooms but you have to just scroll along. Think of it this way. If I was your social media manager and worked in-house at your business would you pay me to like, comment, and strike up a conversation with my friends and family? No, you wouldn’t like that at all. Needless to say, you would probably fire me. So why are we so lax when it comes to our own time at work. Just because we are the boss doesn’t mean we should not be accountable for our time.
Time is money people.
Get off personal social media and take that same time and energy into your own social media marketing. Then again if you can’t commit, perhaps it’s time to come to terms with hiring someone! Obviously, I’m recommending this as an option since I’m a social media manager. Despite that, I can tell you that if you won’t do it for yourself and commit to your business marketing you’ll have to have a come to Jesus moment and accept reality. You may not be able to hire a full-time social media manager but consider an intern or a part-time employee. Even a writer to create weekly blogs for you that you can pull from to create stand-alone content will greatly benefit your business.
Don’t forget to get your Social Media Marketing Activity & Time Tracker. Now, what are you waiting for? Will you commit to scheduling time to win at social media marketing? Let me know in the comments if you are making a commitment to your business!
This post first appeared on the FI Blog, on May 21, 2018. Written by J Franco for her Agency Franco Innovative.