Is there a ‘right time’ to do marketing?
Some people say marketing is all about timing but does this mean there are times when you should do marketing and other times when you shouldn’t?
I say, just do it!
It is so easy to put off your marketing until the things you are dealing with at the moment, or your current busy period are over and you ‘have more time’. The truth is there is no good time to start marketing (except at the beginning!) and actually you should be doing it all the time! Sure, sometimes you might be doing more and other times less but the underlying process of communicating with your customers and markets and building your brand should be constant.
So what about the ‘timing’?
There certainly is good timing in marketing; being able to pick up on events, whether in your business or outside, and turning them to your advantage to make a particular offer or demonstrate how you really can help people. The danger is that if you have no marketing processes in place, you might miss the boat. By the time you pull together the resources to get your message out, the opportunity may have passed, or you may have to spend a lot of money to get things moving quickly, with inevitably less opportunity to plan your approach. On the other hand, if you have a sustained marketing communications process (even if it is only low-key) it is relatively easy to turn the gas up to exploit opportunities as and when they arise.
But I need to sort things inside my business
Good marketing can be a bit of a waste of time if you don’t actually fulfill your promises! If the people and processes in your business aren’t lined up to deliver to your customers, getting people interested in what you offer can backfire. Conversely, ignoring your customers while you work to ‘get things right’ inside your business doesn’t really help either. Being too ‘inward-looking’ can risk losing your presence in your market. This is where a joined-up approach is so powerful. By developing internal people/processes and external communication as 2 elements of the same thing; both focused on the goal of effective growth of your business means nothing gets left behind. Sure, your emphasis will inevitably be on one or the other sometimes but keep up with both internal and external development even if it is at a modest level, ready to expand when appropriate. As a direct reflection of this approach we find that with more and more of our clients, we work in partnership with clients and growth consultants to create powerful business growth teams which focus on the development of both people and market communication in parallel. If you would like to discuss the potential for a joined-up approach to growth in your business, get in touch – we might even be able to find funding to support the programme.
Just do it!
There is one more issue; you are just too busy to think about growth! And the answer? Just do it! I have a simple view of business: It’s all about Time and Money. If you are very busy (i.e. no time) then I would hope you are making some money so be in a position to fund your growth. If, on the other hand, your bank account is a little light then maybe you are quieter so will have time. If you have neither time nor funds then (unless it is all planned on the critical path of a well-structured growth programme, of course) I suggest you need to look at the fundamentals of your business! Hopefully this isn’t how you find yourself and you do have some resource (time or money) to invest in your business growth. In this case, even if it feels like you are too busy, my advice is to just do it. Get the ball rolling and make sure you have good people around you. I would always recommend working with people you know and trust. If you have built up good working relationships and have confidence in someone’s ability to help you achieve your goals, work with them. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ or want to develop a joined-up business growth team, I’d be happy to talk