Marketing waits for no man (or woman), especially when it comes to time management. Carving time out of your schedule is a challenge, even for the most organized gal. When you juggle a job, kiddos, riding, and time for your important relationships, it’s easy to let some things slide. If you already aren’t so comfortable with your current marketing approach, it’s really easy to keep putting it off. We’re going to look at some easy hacks to make the most of your marketing time.
There is no silver bullet to getting the things done that are key to your success. Want to lose that pesky 15 lbs? Gotta make time to move. Want your business to ramp up and bring in more key customers? Gotta make time to market. A healthy marketing program is like a garden, you have to tend to it on a regular basis, give it water and fertilizer and then you get results. But creating a newsletter or blog post from scratch, it all takes time!
Marketing can be a huge time suck (This is coming from a marketer!)
Here are a few effective time-savers:
Get it delivered
This huge timesaver tip is from Nicola from Dressage Rider Training – “I don’t go to the supermarket that often anymore. I simply buy online. Not only does this save me time, but it also saves me money because I am not stocking up on things I don’t want. These days there are so many amazing companies that will deliver. In New Zealand, I buy all my local, in-season spray-free produce from mountwholefoods.co.nz. We then purchase 1/2 a beast once a year and we have also just bought three pigs that we are watching grow and run free out in the paddock. Then whenever we are passing fish markets or something similar I pop in and stock up on other forms of protein. So the only time I head out to the supermarket is when I need a few items like cleaning gear or toilet paper, but again I often buy this online because I would so rather be out riding them dragging my feet around the supermarket.”
Manage Social Media in One Place
Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer allow lazy people like me to load up a week at a time, manage my retweets and check to see what is going on in the Twitter power hours that I should know about. They have a free version that lets you test it out and a small paid version for those who decide this works for them. It does take a bit of planning, in the beginning, to think about and create all your supporting visuals ahead of time, but put in an hour at the beginning of the week and just let it roll while you tend to your other tasks.
Even Facebook lets you preload, which increases your visibility in its algorithm. You get dinged if you use third-party apps with FB and resulting in fewer people seeing your post.
Bonus – once I have it loaded, I find that I’m wasting less time fiddling around in social channels and staying more focused on what I really want to accomplish that day. Set a timer for 10 minutes and then shut it down.
Create blocks of time for certain things
If you are more creative in the morning, use those hours to create your written elements. If you know that you are more productive at night, then block that time to do those things that take more concentration when it’s quiet.
Use an online meeting scheduler
Going back and forth with someone trying to find the perfect time and date and location can be a total interruption. If you use Outlook, this feature is built-in. Calendly or TimeTrade can be valuable tools. Not REALLY a marketing tool, but if you are a meeting person, this can be a game-changer.
Outsourcing
This can be a virtual assistant to help pay bills and set meetings, but it could also be a design intern from the local college that can whip up your Facebook ads in a jiffy while earning college credits. Contact your local design program head to see what programs they offer and if they have a great student that might be interested in helping you out and getting some valuable portfolio work done.
Ask for help
This is a HUGE one for me, as I rather suck at admitting I can’t get it all done myself. You are not Superwoman and if all the other stuff becomes a distraction to your work, you need to ask for help with those items. If you are a bit OCD (like me) and you need order in your chaos before you can concentrate, this is a good place to start. My hubs is wonderful about helping out, but he doesn’t have a degree in mind reading.
Share your best time-saver tips below and help a girl out!
