Marketing and Procrastination:  3 Ways to Avoid this Potentially Deadly Combo

Many entrepreneurs procrastinate on one thing or another in the course of running their business, so if you find yourself doing this, you’re far from alone. However, when it comes to small business marketing, procrastination can lead to a lull between clients, which is bad for the health of your bottom line. Here are some ways to prevent this situation from occurring.

Create Marketing Goals & Use a Marketing System

You may have heard of the S.M.A.R.T. formula for setting goals.  Your goals should be:

S=Specific: General goals are harder to meet.
M=Measurable: How will you know when you’ve reached your goal?
A=Achievable: If your goal is too lofty, you’ll sap your will to achieve it.
R=Realistic: Make sure it’s something you can reasonably expect to attain while still pushing your boundaries.
T=Timed: It must have a firm target date.

The S.M.A.R.T. formula sets out the basics for creating effective goals.  A successful small business marketing system will include a goal setting process and provide you with both structure and the tools you need to turn your marketing goals and ideas in to productive action. In particular, a system for following up with potential clients is crucial to your overall marketing success. If you don’t have such a system, and you don’t know where to start, a business coach may be able to help.

Hold Yourself Accountable

As an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to keep your eye on the ball. There’s no one there to nudge you back on track should you start to stray. You may need someone who’s there to do exactly that – to help you to remain focused on your goals and on the “big picture”.

One way to do this is to hire a business coach. He or she can help you avoid the costly pitfalls associated with procrastination. The fact that you’re paying them for their time is an additional incentive for you to make the most of it, so when they ask you how you’re doing on your goals, you don’t want to be making excuses as to why they haven’t been reached yet. Business coaches can help you in any number of ways, but for entrepreneurs who have a tendency to procrastinate, holding you accountable might be the most valuable. Eventually, they can help you to find the root cause of this procrastination and work with you to eliminate it.

Outsource Your Small Business Marketing Tasks

Nowadays, marketing your business online can be a full-time job. If you don’t already have someone helping you with things such as blog posts, social media marketing, shopping cart maintenance, press releases and things of that sort, you owe it to yourself and your business to get some help now. This will leave you free to do what you went into business to do in the first place, and, if done correctly, can put your small business marketing system on autopilot.

Of course, every business is different, so your marketing requirements may be more or less involved than these common types of online marketing, but once you can leave the implementation to your support team, you’ll be amazed at the difference in your productivity and profits.

Clear, effective goals, a proven small business marketing system, a coach looking out for your best interests, and a dedicated marketing support team can take your business to new heights in a relatively short amount of time. Instead of procrastinating, you’ll find yourself constantly striving to achieve your goals and move your business forward.

Copyright, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!