Too Busy to Market? Wrong!
If you are too busy to market and you want to grow your company, you are doing it wrong. Even in busy times, marketing and maintaining your business is incredibly important. Reeling in your marketing efforts when you are on top means that you won't stay on top. Let's talk about how to complete marketing tasks when you are busy at work.
Why Do I Need to Continue With Marketing?
Whether we are talking about online marketing, print marketing, or any other form of sending your company message to the masses – you should always be in action. Having an abundance of leads means that you have the opportunity to select the best customers for your business. Instead of travelling across town for a clogged bathtub drain, you can work close to HQ and complete a new water heater installation.
Aside from picking-and-choosing your clients, part of marketing is about maintaining your position. Whether it is your top-of-mind awareness within the community or your keeping your position at the top of Search Engine Results Pages, maintaining your marketing on a regular schedule is the best way to keep your competitive edge. If you are #1 in your market, that means you have a long list of competitors trying to usurp your spot – and if they are actively coming for you, you can be dethroned and have a harder climb back to the top.
Pausing PPC – The Only Exception
PayPerClick, when managed correctly, may be the only exception to the rule. Given the ease with which PPC campaigns can be paused and restarted, feel free to turn the tap off when business is hopping. Because PPC is more about SEM (search engine marketing ie paid advertising) instead of SEO (local or organic search engine optimization via non-paid channels), turning your campaigns on and off has no direct bearing on your site rank.
Call in Some Marketing Pros
If you find yourself with the fortunate situation of having too many paid jobs to complete, consider growing your business by either hiring an online marketing company (like us!). You can often hire a marketing company for much less than the cost of hiring a full time employee to complete the same work. Additionally, you don't have to worry about the cost of benefits, HR, etc when hiring a marketing company. Of course, we do have some skin in the game on this particular suggestion – but when you find the right online marketing company, they (we!) make it easier for your business to be successful at a reasonable cost without tying up your company resources.
Develop a Front Line for Your Business
If you already have a marketing company helping with the heavy lifting online, consider adding some bodies to your workforce to help out. Growing your organization to the point where you can have an office staff means that you can delegate the grind of business operation and can focus on your customers and on improving your business. Office staff can also be a great way to more regularly communicate with your marketing company. We're always asking for "IPP" or Individual Project Post content – but if you are too busy to provide the details when you're on the job, you can simply forward the images to your office staff – they can organize your portfolio of work and communicate with us on a regular basis. This steady drip of content for your website helps us to grow your website optimization efforts without taking you away from your work.
Build Your Simple Marketing Routines
Not every marketing task needs to be treated as a chore, but regularly scheduling your marketing activities into a simple routine helps to make your marketing feel less painful. The more accustomed to your routine you become, the more efficient your operations.
Sample Routine – Building Your Site / Social Media Presence When You Are Too Busy To Market
- Select one "target" job each week – one job that you know will yield some good pictures. (5 minutes)
- At the end of said job, take 5 "finished product" pictures on your smartphone. (5 minutes)
- After leaving your invoice and promotional materials, get back into your work vehicle and drive down the road. Park, then pull out your phone and write a few sentences about the work you just completed. Email yourself the pictures and bit of written content. (10 minutes)
- At the beginning of the following work day, open your email and add your pictures and description to your company's social media accounts and submit your content to your Footbridge Media Account Manager for implementation on your website. (10 minutes)
Using the sample routine above, you've found a way to create completely unique content to benefit your website's optimization and your social media feeds – and all in about 30 minutes per week.
Find the Right Tools for Maximum Impact With the Least Effort
Like we've talked about before, you're either spending money or time on your business. If you are too busy to market, consider paying for the right program or services to get your business marketing itself. Whether it is email marketing or paid social media marketing, having a vendor like Footbridge Media will help to ensure that you are exerting as little effort as possible for maximum results. We will be in contact with you with requests for feedback and to confirm our guided suggestions for marketing your business – but you will spend considerably less time completing the actual marketing work and spending time with your employees and clients instead.
About Chris Lonergan
Chris Lonergan has over 12 years of contractor marketing experience with Footbridge Media. With a background in web design, print design, content creation, and online marketing, Chris is focused on providing quality marketing and business solutions in the construction and service industries - helping small business owners to more efficiently manage their companies and grow their operations.
Chris Lonergan has previously contributed to and/or been featured in PM Magazine (Plumbing & Mechanical | Contractors x Engineers), theNEWS (ACHR - Air Conditioning | Heating | Refrigeration), Service Roundtable's blog, inPAINT Magazine, the SMB Marketing Agency Show, and the Green Industry Podcast. Chris is also a past SGI/CertainPath breakout session presenter.
