Would you like to know what I consider the most important step to achieve marketing success?
Well, it’s really not a step. It’s a mindset.
I firmly believe that in order to reach a certain level of success, consistency—in the form of daily habits—is key.
Figure out what marketing-related tasks you need to do every day then work to make them rote. When it comes to marketing your business, this mindset is crucial, because if you want your marketing to become an effective system that brings in business, it must become a habit.
So, how do you make marketing a habit?
First, understand that the secret to marketing done right is to make daily marketing as habitual as brushing your teeth.
Second, start working on key steps. Small jobs you can schedule in and perform daily. And for small business owners the following three practices are where you should start…
1. Start by creating monthly themes.
As John Jantsch writes in this post, marketing is a habit, not an event. The best way to start using this methodology is by creating monthly themes. Start thinking about marketing as something that is never done and make “live by the calendar” a mantra.
Pick one marketing practice and make it a theme for that month. This month’s theme could be redesigning your site, creating a newsletter, or crafting a value-packed eBook. Just pick one thing and make it a practice for that month.
You can also think of this in terms of a monthly content theme. If you are blogging for business, this is a way to build in systematic approach to content marketing that works.
Work to create a list of blog titles using a theme-based approach. Think about the specific questions your target market usually asks and create keyword titles. These titles become your blog posts.
Now create monthly themes based on these titles. Here are mine…
Month 1: Brand development & strategy
Month 2: Marketing strategy
Month 3: Content development & story
Month 4: Creating an online platform
Month 5: Building an online presence
Month 6: Social media marketing and other online assets
Month 7: Online optimization
Month 8: Outreach and lead generation
Month 9: Lead conversion
Month 10: Typical marketing challenges and how to overcome them
Month 11: Tracking, metrics, goals
Month 12: Long-term planning and telling your organization’s ongoing story
The above topics are things my audience of small business owners want to learn more about.
2. Weekly reviews
If you are truly following the The 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success, you’re thinking strategically. This way marketing not only becomes habitual but also becomes a group of projects.
To effectively break projects down into actionable steps you need to consistently review what you are doing now and what you need to do in the future.
Simply schedule in a time each week to review where you are and decide what needs to be done next.
Make a weekly marketing review a weekly habit.
3. Do one marketing-related task each and every day
You’re a small business owner so you’re busy. I understand that. But remember, we’re talking about habits here. To make habits stick you must do them daily.
Simply make it a habit to schedule in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, or more on marketing your business.
As a Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, I’m a firm believer in a strategy before tactics mindset. And when it comes to building a long-term strategy that works, you must—and I can’t emphasize this enough—create daily habits around your strategy. This is key, my friend.
Conclusion
If you want to create a rock-solid marketing system that attracts the right prospects, turns them into customers, and keeps them around for the long-term, you need to focus on a few key practices then work to make them daily habits. You must also focus on a few things, so you can actually get them done.
Today, lay out your plan by starting on the three things above.
Create monthly themes.
Setup a weekly marketing review.
And make it a habit to schedule in marketing daily.
Live by the calendar.
That’s it. Now get busy and work to make marketing a habit and you’ll soon see what it does for your business.
This is just one step in a series.
6 Steps Brand Audit Blurb for MM
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The post Step 7 to Small Business Marketing Success–You Must Live By the Calendar appeared first on McBreen Marketing.