10 Ways to give your Marketing a Lift

Yesterday I participated in a discussion on LinkedIn. It was started by Chris Barton , an entrepreneur from Sydney.

Chris posed a question: “I am interested in discovering what is the greatest obstacle to success for small business owners. My thought is that is the isolation and loneliness associated with running a business. Any thoughts?”

I commented that essentially those weren’t an issue for me but my issue was more around getting my name and brand out there. I also said that whilst it is now happening it has taken longer than I thought.

Colin Richman, owner of Icon Business Solutions placed these comments under mine. I thought they deserved a wider audience so here they, per kind permission of Colin.

Even the best marketing doesn’t always pay off quickly. In the lag time between when you launch a marketing campaign for your business and when you start to see results from it, it’s easy to become discouraged. Especially when you work mostly solo, it can be a difficult task to keep yourself motivated about marketing when there isn’t an immediate payoff.

Once your marketing does begin to work, you may still encounter times when it’s hard to keep it going. You may become overloaded with client work and feel like there’s not enough time to market. Sometimes you may feel blue and begin to wonder if any of your efforts are worthwhile. Or it may just be that marketing isn’t your favourite thing to do. When you are full of energy and enthusiasm you can get it done, but when your spirits are low, it all seems too hard.

Here are Ten ways to give your marketing a lift when you are feeling down.

1. Make your to-do list shorter. When faced with an impossible task, most of us feel discouraged. But when we believe we can accomplish what is in front of us, we are often more likely to get going on it.
2. If you feel overwhelmed by everything you SHOULD do about marketing, tear up your to-do list. Then start a new list, and put just three items on it. When you complete one of the three, cross it out and celebrate, then add a new item. You’ll feel much less stressed and more productive when you’re faced with a less daunting agenda. You’ll probably get more done by planning to do less.
3. Calendar your marketing time. When you’re feeling discouraged or resistant about marketing, it’s easy for the time to slip away while you work on other things. This is also true when paying clients are keeping you busy. You know you need to keep marketing to avoid a famine when the current feast of work is over, but it’s just not happening.
4. Make an appointment with yourself for a specific block of time to work on marketing, and treat it as seriously as if it were a client meeting. Set an alarm if you need a reminder. If you find that you are still pulled to other tasks during your marketing time, change the location where you do your work. Move to another room in your home, to a conference room in your office building, to a nearby park, or to a café. A new setting can remove distractions and sharpen your focus.
5. Spend just five minutes. If your current mindset is that marketing is hard or distasteful, you may find that getting started on marketing tasks is the most difficult part. Commit to spending just five minutes on marketing, and see what happens. You may discover that once you get going, you won’t want to stop.If you do stall out again after five minutes, don’t despair. Take a break or work on something else for a while. Then try another five minutes later on. The following day, see if you can work up to ten minutes at a time, then fifteen minutes, and so on. Just as if this were a new exercise program, you may need to start out with brief periods of effort and increase them gradually as you build your strength.
6. Connect with a fan. Sometimes the best place to look for motivation is outside yourself. Who are the people in your life that you would consider your champions? Make contact with someone you can count on to be positive about your abilities. This could be a friend, family member, colleague, or coach. Ask your champion to remind you of other times when you have overcome obstacles and accomplished goals, so you can get back in touch with what you are capable of.
7. If no live champions are at hand, spend some time reading your fan mail. Track down any letters or testimonials you have collected from clients you have helped in the past. Reviewing their acknowledgments will make you feel better about yourself and inspire you to do more great work in the future. When you’re inspired by the value you bring your clients, you’ll feel more enthusiastic about getting new clients to work with.
8. Revisit your purpose. In the press of multiple tasks and deadlines, it’s easy to lose track of why you are doing all this anyway. Spend some time reconnecting with why you went into business in the first place. Who were the people you wanted to help? What personal goals were you trying to achieve? What was your vision of a successful business?
9. Holding a clear mental picture of your intended destination can keep you on the path to get there during challenging times. Every time you have to place a sales call, write a marketing letter, or take on a difficult promotional task, visualize the positive results these tasks will help you achieve. Keeping your goals in mind when you tackle tough jobs helps you constantly remember the reasons you’re willing to work so hard.
10. In an ideal world, of course, we would get all our marketing tasks accomplished with ease and confidence within the time we have available. But since that’s not the world most of us live in, consider that doing ANYTHING about marketing is better than doing nothing. In the long run, you’ll want to have a comprehensive marketing plan with an appropriate amount of time and effort dedicated to it. But when you get stuck, what you need most is just to get going again.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed, resistant, or discouraged about marketing, try one of these quick fixes to jump start your marketing engine. The simple act of getting things rolling will make you start to feel more positive again about your marketing, your business, and yourself.