When You Get Busy, Never Stop Marketing

Running a small business is a little like farming. How so, you ask? It’s about planting now to harvest later. The time to plant isn’t when you’re hungry, but weeks or months in advance!

There are many traps that we can fall into that hurt business. One common snare is the idea that when you are busy you can cut back on marketing efforts. Your day timer is overfull, your crews are busy, and you don’t feel a pressing need to market, so you don’t. We see the results of this in the slow season; from December through February, we get numerous calls saying, “Help! My phone isn’t ringing!”
A well-run business knows the importance of consistent marketing. While it is prudent to increase or decrease your marketing according to need, it is important to keep your brand in people’s consciousness. We have recently received a number of leads from contractors who want our help, and have had good conversations with them, but then we don’t hear back. Why? They are busy now, the phone is ringing and times are great. Several have asked us to call them back later when things settle down. The problem is, when things settle down it might be too late!
Continue to Brand Your Business

Our advice is to maintain your brand through consistent marketing. Create a marketing schedule and calendar, then assign who will be responsible for each task throughout the year. For example, if you want to do email marketing, decide if you are going to do it monthly, quarterly or 6x a year. Then, put it on a calendar, assign the task to someone in your company or outsource it and don’t deviate. Stick to your plan.

Implementation is one of the other main reasons businesses stop marketing. They don’t have anyone keeping them on track, so they put things on hold. Steer the marketing ship through all four seasons of your business year, no matter what you encounter. Don’t go off course or get distracted when you are staying busy. Branding your business takes time and patience. Sort of like farming!

If you would like help evaluating your current marketing plan and efforts, contact us at 866.866.4944 and let us give you a free consultation and needs analysis.