In this second blog installment of time management in marketing, we will talk about how much time you should spend marketing your small business.  Last week we talked about an important first step of knowing your marketing funnel.  If you have not done that exercise yet, you can find Part 1 here.

Hopefully doing that marketing funnel exercise gave you a clear picture of three things:

  1. What activities you do right now to market your business – actively or passively.
  2. What goal you have for each activity to bring the customer to the next level of your funnel.
  3. Which activities actually did not have a goal attached to them.

With time management in mind, go back to the funnel that you created.  Write on it how frequently you think each step occurs.  For example, if your first level includes appearing at farmer’s markets, how often are you doing farmer’s markets?  Knowing the frequency of the first level will help you assess how frequently the later steps need to occur.

With all of this information, what can you do to streamline the marketing plan for YOUR business?

Let’s start with #3 first.  Marketing tactics that are in your funnel now but have no clear purpose are not worthwhile.  You could take them off of your To Do list and it would not make much difference in your results.  Not only are you giving up valuable time to do the activity, but the aimlessness is certainly felt by the customer.

Marketing tactics that are in your funnel now but have no clear purpose are not worthwhile. Share on X

Now look back at #2, where you defined the goals for each step of the marketing funnel.  I want you to circle any activities that are focused on customer retention (showing a little love to an existing customer).  If you have heard of the Pareto Principle, you would be familiar with the idea of the 80/20 rule.  In this case, 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.

Are you honoring the Pareto Principle in your marketing funnel?  You should be building in time every week to acknowledge existing customers.  You may not need to talk to everyone every week depending on your business, but there should be multiple steps in your funnel to connect with this audience.  Remember that this can even lead to business growth through word of mouth referrals.

You should be building in time every week to acknowledge existing customers. Share on X

Lastly, think about which steps of your marketing funnel are intended to attract new business.  Use your frequency indicators to tell you how much time you would need to spend in a given week cultivating your new audience.  If you are working backwards from knowing your purpose in each step, the amount of time needed for the step becomes clearer.

Of course, coming up with a time management plan is a highly individualized process for every small business.  However, doing these exercises for YOUR business can make you far more efficient and more effective in your marketing activities.  Read here for the third time management installment, where we talk about delegating!

And if you want to start building a marketing funnel for your business, check out my Marketing Funnel Worksheet. This guide will help you set up the levels of your funnel so you know the path you will lead your customers down. Having a solid marketing funnel for your business will allow you to convert more of your audience and improve your sales.