5 Signs You’re Too Busy for Marketing (and What To Do About It)

Business owners are busy. You have to wear all the hats and sometimes, marketing is an afterthought. Do any of these sound familiar?

You come into your office in the morning with the intention of posting on social media only to realize eight hours later you haven’t done it.

Your sales team keeps asking for new brochures. They came up with some ideas but now they’ve been on your desk for three weeks, waiting for your final approval.

Your website and/or logo needed to be updated three years ago. You should get around to that one of these days…

You’re not sure what PPC or SEO means, but you have the vague feeling you should do something about that.

You’re doing some advertising here and there, but it all feels disconnected, like several pieces from different puzzles.

And then, of course, there are blog posts to write, videos to produce, podcasts to record and soon enough you’re so overwhelmed that instead of starting somewhere you just move on to the next pressing (non-marketing) matter that you can tackle without pulling your hair out.

The Harsh Truths About Ignoring Your Marketing 

People are often eager to “work on their marketing” during dry spells. Only then does it seem like a good time to focus on getting your brand out there and finding more clients. But here are some harsh truths:

1. It’s never going to “calm down” enough for you to have the time.
2. If it does, it’s probably too late. Your dry spell means a dry pipeline and could become the drought that will close your business.
3. Marketing experts (like us!) can help during dry spells, but we can’t fix a full-scale drought without more money than you’re willing to spend.

Here’s What You Need to Do 

Tomorrow is always a day away, and waiting until you “have time” likely means waiting too long. One more harsh truth? You’re just going to have to start marketing. But we’ve got you covered with a few bite-sized ways to get going:

• Make a list of all your marketing efforts and who is responsible. (Hint: If your name is next to all of them, you probably need some help.)
• Choose one thing on which to focus. Start with what you know is already working well for your company and build from there.
• Select one thing you know is not working and stop doing that for now. Even if you feel like it could work if you do x, y, or z, why waste the money when you’re not investing the time?
• Delegate something. That might be a to-do related to marketing, or it might be a task on one of your other lists. (Furthermore, make sure the things that are on your list are all actually your job. Is it time to talk to your boss about your workload? If you’re the boss, is it time to hire another team member?)

Ready to Hire a Raleigh Marketing Agency?

Of course, we think you should hire us to help, BUT we can only help if you’re ready to commit to marketing. Yes, we can help you tackle just about all of your marketing to-dos (and even help you check off a few you didn’t know you needed), but we still need your participation. The Department of Marketing, and any other local agency worth their salt, wants to be a strategic partner for you and your business. This means we need you to meet with us, talk to us, offer stats and help us get input from the front lines.

Sure, we’ve worked with managers who are too busy to give us any information, and the outcome is usually the same. (Spoiler alert: it never works out well.) Then after a year those people turn around and say, “Wait, why am I paying for this? I don’t see any difference.”

We know. Because you’re too busy for marketing.

Ready to stop saying “I’m too busy”? Contact us and find out how.

Or, get more useful marketing information each month by signing up for our newsletter. Psst…that’s that little box to the right. Go ahead and pop your information in there and we’ll show up in your inbox once a week (for free!) to help you get your marketing efforts off the ground.