When should I be marketing? Answer: Always!

I was asked by a small business owner – When and how often should I be marketing? How much time should I devote to it each day?

Marketing is not something you should turn on and off when you have a spare moment. Whether it’s writing a tweet, an email or a blog post or speaking to people at a network meeting, you should be marketing your business or your brand all the time.

Marketing is not something you can outsource and forget about. Whatever you are doing, you and everyone in your company should be marketing. Whenever you communicate with people, you are marketing your business.

Sending an email is marketing your business – you should be showing the recipient that you are efficient, diligent and reliable. So, write all your emails to reflect this.

Every time you speak about your business – whether it’s to clients, suppliers or staff – you are marketing your business.

Every time you go over and above the call of duty, you are marketing your business as one that cares.

Every time you make it easy for someone to buy something from you, you are marketing your business as one that wants happy customers.

Conversely,

Every time a customer has to wait to get hold of you, you are marketing your business (the wrong way) *

Every time you publish a blog post or web copy with spelling and grammar mistakes, you are marketing your business (the wrong way) *

And, every time you try to hide mistakes your company has made, you are marketing your business (the wrong way) *

Whatever you are doing, or whatever the customer’s experience of your business, you are revealing it in a certain light – make sure it’s a positive one.

 

*This is the perfect opportunity to admit to your mistakes and turn things around = a positive marketing message.