Karen's Marketing Tips

Marketing During Tax Season

‘Marketing during tax season?’  I hear you ask.  ‘I don’t even want to think about marketing!  I’ve got so many people ringing me up and emailing me and coming in for last-minute meetings that the last thing in the world I need is more business!'

Sure, tax season is crazy.  Every year, you’ve got the same people straggling in at the last minute with their information and wondering why their tax return isn’t completed within nanoseconds.  You have meeting after meeting until you can hardly remember your own first name, much less your client’s.  And you race through it at top speeds without time to draw breath until it’s over.

I’ll give you that.  But what I won’t give is that somehow tax season sneaks up on you every year, and out of nowhere shouts, “SURPRISE!” and you have to scramble to get everything together.

You know tax season is coming.  It comes every year, at the same time, with the same pressures.  The same clients forget to sign their return every single year.  Or promise they will get it in earlier, and don’t.  Or go off on holiday to the Bahamas and are not contactable until the final week of tax season.  You could set your watch by it. 

So that means, you have no excuse.  If you know tax season is coming, and you know that you’ll be so swamped you will hardly have a moment to think about sending emails or organising leaflets or writing blog posts, you’re going to have to plan ahead.

‘Thanks a lot,’ you mutter.  ‘I’m in the middle of tax season with a pounding headache and the great marketing tip is, Plan ahead??’

Unfortunately, yes.  If you didn’t plan ahead, I cannot put tax season on pause while you pull yourself together.  But here are a few tips anyway – even if you are overwhelmed:

Delegate.  There are things that only you can do.  But many marketing initiatives can be done by anyone at your office – or even someone in your family that you drag in to help!   If you’re a RAN ONE member, you have access to an entire library of marketing resources – all you have to do is put your logo on it and get it printed, or send it out by email.  Piece of cake.

Do NOT put off your regular marketing meetings.  You need that outlet for creativity, and a break from thinking about taxes.   And any leads that you have will grow cold if you wait several months to respond.

Ask for referrals.  It takes four seconds during a meeting that you already have.  If possible, be very specific.  Don’t just ask ‘Do you know anyone who...?’, but ask if they know a restaurant owner, a design company, an IT business, that needs help growing their business.  Choose the kinds of businesses you like doing business with.

Layer up.  With every letter, tax return, draft tax return, draft set of accounts, request for information, include a leaflet or a seminar invite or a description of your rewards programme.  Take advantage of the extra communication at this time of year.

Outsource your marketing.  Get someone to manage your social media, write your blogs, send letters, make phone calls.  Have them do the marketing work for you so you can hit the ground running when tax season is over!

Help them out.  Tax season is stressful for your clients, too.  They are waiting to find out if they owe hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds of thousands.  Get together with a local gym and offer a free week pass to your clients so they can burn off that stress.  Or hand out stress-relief packs filled with camomile tea, spa products, a stress ball, energy drinks, and more. 

Hold an informal event in your office.  Order in some sandwiches, snacks, and drinks, and invite everyone to relax for an hour or two – at lunch, or after work.  Broadcast it using social media.  Have a local gift basket company organise a really amazing stress-relief basket and give it out as a door prize. 

Breathe.  Get out of the office and walk around the block for ten minutes.  Your mind will be sharper, your health will be better (and so will your temper). 

Cheers,

Karen

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

New Year's Resolutions

Did you keep them from last year? 

It’s very difficult to tell, if you didn’t write them down. 

In the few minutes that you would normally scroll through and read these marketing tips, I suggest you note down a few resolutions of your own.  Just click ‘reply’, type out a few resolutions, and send them to me.  I’ll hold onto them for all of 2011, and at the end of the year I’ll send them back to you to see how you did.  I’ll even send you a mid-year reminder, if you like.

Of course, I know takeup on this may be very low.  If there’s anything we hate more than making resolutions, it’s being kept accountable to them! 

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”  -Mark Twain

Cheers,

Karen

Better Late Than Never

I forgot to send out this marketing tip on Friday, so you’re getting it on Saturday instead.  Once again I’ll use some real life experience to highlight a few key marketing tips:

People notice things.  If I don’t send out my marketing tips, I usually get a few people mentioning it.  Sometimes, though, they notice but don’t mention it.  One of the mistakes we can make in marketing is thinking that people don’t keep track of what we’re up to:  that we are small or insignificant or our activities go unmarked.  The advent of social media has reminded me recently that everybody notices everything.  Even if someone doesn’t comment on your blog, sign up for your newsletter, or click ‘like’ on your status, they’re watching.  And reading.  And processing what they think of you.  So make sure to keep doing those good things you’re doing, because it does come back to bless you in the end.

Consistency is key.  People notice you, but they also are quick to forget.  If you start to drop off the face of the earth – or their sphere of business – they’ll start to notice someone else.  Be consistent about writing, commenting, updating, videoing – whatever it is that you’re doing, keep it up.  The world is desperate to do business with people they can trust.  If you let them down, consistently, they will go elsewhere.   Trust is earned slowly, and lost quickly.  Be there, and don’t let them down.

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Balance.  You can’t forsake the work for which you are marketing in order to spend time on the marketing itself.  And, conversely, you can’t spend so much time doing the work that you don’t do any marketing.  There are going to be days when you hardly have a moment to think about writing leaflets or sending emails or upgrading your website.  But whatever your marketing work is, it has to be done.  And, as I’ve noted, it must be done consistently.  Get that balance right, or you’re marketing to no purpose.   

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Honesty is always the best policy.  I’ve said it before:  you don’t need to tell everybody all the information all the time.  But be a real person.  Real people forget things, get things wrong.  If you do that, you’re a human being, not a machine.  People like doing business with real people.  Don’t let them down regularly: but if you do forget something, own up to it.  I forgot to send my marketing tip on its usual day.  Whoops, I’m real.

Cheers,

Karen

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

Don't Count Your Chickens

Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They've Hatched

One of the great marketing errors that even the best businesspeople make is that of getting all excited about the what-if’s.  In one way there’s nothing wrong with that.  It’s what inspires and encourages us to keep going, to fling ourselves into the work with additional effort.  But the problem comes when you make not just plans, but purchases, on money that hasn’t come in yet. 

Here are my do’s and don’ts about counting your chickens:

DON’T:

          Buy things that you can’t afford yet.  This is never good business practice, least of all when you are waiting on a big business deal.  If it is your intention to make a big purchase when the deal comes off, make all those plans.  You can even prepare draft purchase orders or obtain a summary invoice.  But don’t pay the money until you have the money.  You’ll be glad you waited a few days if it doesn’t come through.

-          Ignore the deal that you figure is happening anyway, and move on to other things.  One of the greatest mistakes that leaders can make is that of putting all the energy into getting a sale, and only 10 to 20% of that energy into pleasing and keeping the customer once you have them.  Put an equal amount of energy and time into the deal once it’s signed.  It is six times easier to keep an existing client than to win a new one.  If that’s the case, make sure you put six times as much energy into keeping your existing clients once you have them.

-          Be overeager.  The best sales you make are the ones when the customer’s need matches what you provide.  If that’s the case, you’ve done everything right up to this point, and you can afford to let the buyer finish things in their own time.  Sending emails every few hours, or making constant phone calls to request that direct debit form, could be seen as pressure – or can give the impression that you are in desperate need of this business.  Even if you are, be patient.  If nothing is happening, feel free to ask questions or get in touch.  But be balanced.  

-          Get greedy.  Sometimes when everything is going well and you’re going to make a decent profit, you suddenly think, ‘What if I doubled that? What if it was a 40% profit instead of only 20%?’  And it’s tempting to raise prices or add on extraneous costs to sweeten the deal for yourself.  If you were happy about it at the start, stick with what you said. 

DO:

-          Make plans for it to go through.  Anticipate that it will happen, and get everything ready.  You don’t want to, in your attempt not to count unhatched chickens, be left unready if all the chickens do come out.

-          Get excited.  If there’s a major deal on, or a big client about to sign, excitement spurs everyone on, not least of whom includes your own self.  But your team, your family, and everyone around you will benefit by your renewed enthusiasm for the work that you already love – and have been reminded of why.

Keep up the great work – there’s a week to go before Christmas, but people are still buying what they need.  Don’t give up now!

Cheers,

Karen

Do What You Don't Want To Do

It’s the simplest way to achieve anything. 

 (That's all today.  Get moving.)

The Final Coat

A month ago a huge water leak appeared on my ceiling. It didn’t even start small and grow: one day the ceiling was lovely and white, and the next morning it was brown and stained and a huge bubble was appearing.

Today I had the contractors out to fix it. They spent three hours in the flat, hammering and rebuilding and who knows what else, and when they finished it didn’t look a whole lot different than when they started.  But they assure me that there’s just one final coat of paint and it’s good to go.

This made me think of marketing.  Because the bit where you tell people how great you are, and encourage them to buy more products or services from you, is like the final coat.  The real hard work comes in the hard labour for hours or days or weeks or years, that no one notices. 

Building a website is like this: you write text, choose photos, organise templates, and spend hours agreeing where everything should go, and how.  The day that you send out the email announcing your new site is the final coat of paint.  You’re pulling together all your hard work and efforts and revealing to the world a shiny new ceiling!

Since that’s the case, it’s important to make sure you don’t deliver on marketing efforts while missing out on the hard work underneath.  Here are some tips: 

Emails:  We've talked about it before, but people don't really read emails lately.  They skim them.  So don't work for hours on writing huge paragraphs.  Spend your time on:

o   Links.  Get people to go to your website, your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog article, or some other connection.  The world is used to jumping all over the place and doesn't sit still for a moment.  Give them places to go.

o   Photos.  See note below re website photographs.

o   Valuable information.  Make sure that your email is applicable to those receiving it, not so generic that it could apply to everybody and therefore applies to nobody.

o   Special offers.  Free stuff is good; discounted items are better.  Put a deadline to it and gauge responses.  The point is that they engage with you in some way.

Website:  Don't kid yourself.  This is usually a good bit of work, even if yours is simple and clean.  The prep work can include the following, depending on how involved your website designer is:

o   Writing text.  Consider hiring a copywriter, as it will sound better and be more professional.  Also, text is skimmed these days.  Make sure there are fewer words and more visuals.

o   Taking photographs.  You will want to include actual photos of your products, clients, premises, etc.  Stock photos can look a bit cheesy; real people and real products are better.  But self-taken photos are even worse, unless you're a professional photographer.  Hire someone to take good photos.  If budget is short, hire a photography student or a new startup who does quality work.

o   Choosing a template.  If your website is not being created ‘from scratch' by a skilled designer, they may have you select from about sixteen million templates.  It's worth it to get it right, and they'll give you guidance, but there may be some time required.

Events:  There is no point in running an event of any kind if you don't prepare for it, and (all together now) follow up!  So do all your prep work.  For more detail, visit this marketing tip on "Should I Run Seminars?"

Your Products and Services:  Don't forget that the best marketing is going to drive more traffic to you, causing you to have more clients, more work, and more money.  Which is great.  It also can mean less time, more stress, and more difficulty.  Unless you plan it right.  Consider:

o   CRM System:  Do you have one?  How do you keep track of enquiries, clients, prospects, opportunities, quotes, proposals, and everything else?  Get organised. (Even if it's just organising everything into Excel.)

o   Service:  How do you do when things go wrong? If you're under pressure, or stressed, you (like everyone else in the world) will be tempted to ignore small problems, dismiss larger ones, and let huge problems discourage or depress you.  Be prepared for things that don't go according to plan.

o   Are you good at what you do?  We all presume that we are.  But when you get that ‘big' client, worth thousands (or hundreds of thousands, or millions), are you ready for it?  Get any additional training now, so you're ready to step things up when the opportunity comes up.

As it happens, the painter has just arrived a few moments ago, as I am typing this out.  Turns out he’s not just painting the damaged section, but the entire hallway.  That way it all goes together.  As much as it is important that the joiners spent several hours sorting out the depth of the problem, I still need that final coat.

And so does your business!

Cheers,

Karen

The Easy Yes

This week I have a great marketing tip, but I can’t claim it as my own.  I get an email from a ‘marketing guru’ in the States (they always have such clever titles there), and his concept of the hard yes and the easy yes is absolutely dead on.

I’m constantly speaking to business owners who do great work, sell superior products and services, but struggle in the selling arena.  The current economy doesn’t help.  But one of the greatest things you can do to help people along towards buying what you have (buying what they actually need, as well!) is to make it really easy for them to say yes.

See, we all want people to say yes to the hard questions.  “Do you want to sign up with me paying £1,200 a month with a 3-year contract?”  That’s hard.  That requires thought and effort and trust and consideration and financial planning.  But answering  “Would you like a free online review?” is really easy.  Or “This book might suit you, it’s only £6 and addresses everything we were discussing today”  - that’s not a big commitment. 

So here’s Robert’s tip.  Enjoy – and follow through on it! It may change the way you look at marketing and sales!

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Hard Yes or Easy Yes?

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What's worse than nobody showing interest in your services?

Getting a lot of people initially interested in your services and then failing to get them to say yes to buying your services. In other words, your marketing is working but your selling isn't.

One of the assertions I've heard over and over again from clients was, "If I could just get in front of a qualified prospect, I could easily sell them on my services."

But my observation is that this is far from the truth. Independent Professionals are notoriously poor at getting the prospect to say yes, even if they are qualified, interested and have the money.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

   * You're giving a talk to a group of qualified prospects, but at the end of the presentation you can't get cards from the attendees.

   * You are talking to a prospect on the phone who seems qualified, but you can't set up a face-to-face appointment.

   * You are asked to submit a proposal which you do eagerly, and then the prospect never returns another phone call.

   * You send out a mailing that outlines all the qualifications, and value of your services and nobody responds.

   * You send a monthly eZine to your list of subscribers and prospects but nobody ever calls to inquire about your services.

   * At the end of a sales appointment everything seems to be right, but you just can't get a final commitment to start.

   * You want to get sign-ups for an expensive program you are, but everyone puts it off.

What's going on here? Why is it so hard to get people to say yes?

I discovered the answer to this problem years ago when I was going through the same kind of struggles. Nobody was saying yes.  My realization was simple: "Find something that is very easy to say yes to." I was trying to get prospects to say yes to something that was too much of a leap for them.

Here's how to turn a hard yes into an easy yes:

* You're giving a talk to a group of qualified prospects, but at the end of the presentation you can't get cards from the attendees.

Hard to say yes to: If you are interested in setting up a complimentary appointment with me, please give me your card.

Easy to say yes to: If you would like a copy of this article (hold up article) then please give me your card.

* You are talking to a prospect on the phone who seems qualified, but you can't set up a face-to-face appointment.

Hard to say yes to: I'd like to set up a time where we could meet to tell you about how my services work.

Easy to say yes to: So far I'm very interested in your business and the challenges you are facing. Usually my next step is to set up an appointment at no charge to learn more about your business.

* You are asked to submit a proposal which you do eagerly, and then the prospect never returns another phone call.

Hard to say yes to: Let's start working together. Call me.

Easy to say yes to: There may be some questions about the proposal you'd like to discuss, let's set up a phone appointment to do that.

* You send out a mailing that outlines all the qualifications, benefits and value of your services and nobody responds.

Hard to say yes to: Here are all my great services. Call me now to learn more about how we could work together.

Easy to say yes to: You may not need my services now, but I'd like to invite you to a free executive briefing where you'll  learn many valuable ideas that will help your business.

* You send a monthly eZine to your list of subscribers and prospects but nobody ever calls to inquire about your services.

Hard to say yes to: You have given no place to find out more or to check out your products or services online.

Easy to say yes to: At the end of the eZine you have provided links to your web page where they can find out more about your products and services.

* At the end of a sales appointment everything seems to be going right, but you just can't get a final commitment to start.

Hard to say yes to: It looks like I can help you produce the results you want. Shall we get started?"

Easy to say yes to: The initial fee for this project will be $XX.  Does that work for your budget right now?

* You want to get sign-ups for an expensive program you are offering, but everyone puts it off.

Hard to say yes to: Here are the details for my program. If you'd like to attend, sign up and pay today.

Easy to say yes to: Here are the details of my program. If you think you might like to attend, fill out the application.

Are you always asking for things that are hard for the prospect to say yes to? As soon as you shift to asking for things that are easy to say yes to, you'll be amazed how fast the sales process starts moving along.

You just have to have a little patience!

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Marketing Flashes on "Hard Yes or Easy Yes?"

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Here are some principles to use in making it easier for a prospect to say yes to your offer.

* People will say yes to something they can take advantage of now, vs. something they are not sure they want to do yet. I.e., An executive briefing before a sales appointment.

* Something tangible is easier to say yes to than something intangible. I.e., A written report instead of a needs assessment feels less involved, requiring less commitment.

* It's easier to say yes to an action that clearly benefits the prospect than an action that more clearly benefits the seller. I.e., Meet to find out about you, vs. meet to learn about my services.

* Offer something of value that requires less time, commitment or money than the ultimate service you provide. A report, CD or intro seminar are all easier to say yes to now.

* Get agreement on a minor point, not the final point. "Would you prefer that the training program be done on your site?" gets an easier yes than, "Can we start next week?"

Until next week, all the best,

Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

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Trust you enjoyed our guest speaker today!

Cheers,

Karen

People Do Business With People

This is a marketing classic.  At the end of the day it is not a generic company (or logo) that your clients do business with.  They do business with you.  (Or your business partner, or your team members, or maybe the helpful assistant who answers the phones.)  This is the reason that some small businesses who don’t even have email addresses manage to keep customers.  I met one a few years ago – he was a joiner and was well recommended.  He had a business card, standard white with his name and a horrible logo and his mobile number.  But he did excellent work and answered the phone cheerfully and got the work done in time. 

So no matter how good your website is, or your products, or your services, or your office premises – remember that people are doing business with YOU. 

(In the products arena, incidentally, you do business with a company personality.  When Coke came out with ‘New Coke’ in the 1980’s, changing the formula that the world, and particularly the American public, was used to, there was quite literally a rebellion until they brought the old formula back.   People likened the change to stomping on the American flag.  Coke was considered by many as American as apple pie or baseball, and there was a general hue and outcry that a time before Facebook can hardly imagine.  The company tried to change its personality and the public wasn’t having it.)

So what does this mean for you? 

1.       Don’t change your core personality.  There are some prospects or sales leads who will never do business with you.  And that’s okay.  They may not click with you personally.  They may not like the way you do your hair (or don’t do it).  Perhaps you swear more than they like (or don’t swear enough).  Maybe you’re too blunt, or too soft spoken, or too short, or you’re a New Coke fan.  I worked with a man who would never do business with Rangers fans (he was Celtic, and if you know Scotland you will understand that never the twain shall meet.)  You can’t please all the people all the time. 

2.       Look in the right places for customers.  If you sell Harleys, you better be riding one.  If your prospective clients are engaged couples, be aware when relationship statuses change on Facebook.  Be around the kind of people you want to do business with, and it’s much more likely that you do business with them!

3.       Be real.  I worked with a business owner who was always straight up with what he was doing when you phoned.  If he was out buying a fridge, he would say so.  If his three year old daughter fell off a chair, he’d have me hold on.  And if he said he was in a meeting, I could believe him – because he was always real with me.  I’ve had a few people say things like ‘I’m tied up just now’ or ‘I’ve got something on at that time’, and it can be a bit off-putting.  I’m not saying you have to give ALL the detail (there are things I just don’t want to know!), but just be a real person.  The days of hiding the fact that you work from home are gone.  Goodbye, nine-to-five; hello, mobile phone answered in a football stadium!

4.       Be trustworthy.  Not only must they like you, they must trust you: trust that you will do what you say, keep your appointments, speak truth to them, actually deliver results, and come through on anything you say your company does.  To do this, take your time.  Be patient.  “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” (Jesus)

5.       Don’t use this as an excuse.  If you don’t return phone calls or ignore emails or do shoddy work, that’s not a personality flaw.  That’s bad business.  Sometimes you didn’t get the business because (despite your flawless and thrilling personality) you took three days to get back to someone, and your competitor took less than an hour.  Honestly evaluate how you did.  If you see a way you could do better, do it.  Or ask someone else what they think.  But if you have tried everything and gone above and beyond, then perhaps it’s a personality thing.

Cheers,

Karen

 

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

 

Send Mini Gifts

I am a big fan of gifts.  It’s actually one of my personality traits.  Some people show their appreciation for others by doing things (acts of service) or saying kind things (words of appreciation).  I like to give gifts. 

The funny thing is, it doesn’t matter to me so much about when I give the gift. As a matter of fact, I would far rather give you an amazing gift in July than wait till your birthday in November, or Christmas Day.  If I see something and I think you will like it, I will buy it and send it right away.

Everyone is not the same: gifts mean more to some people than others.  But, as a business owner showing appreciation to your customers, you can’t really beat giving a small token to them, something that says you made an effort and care about them.

Here are some ideas for gifts that don’t cost much, but go a long way towards building a good business relationship:

1.       Something that relates to your branding.  I have a client who uses a yellow rubber duck in all his marketing.  Everything he sends out has this little duck on it – and when he was running a seminar he sent out these little yellow rubber ducks that had his company name on them.  I still have mine, sitting here. 

2.       Something yummy.  My mobile phone provider sent me a bar of chocolate in the post today.  Nothing else – just a bar of really good chocolate in a little blue box, with a note saying that they appreciate me and they thought I might like this bar of chocolate.  I don’t even like milk chocolate, but it’s top of the line stuff, so I’m forcing it down.  (I may buy a bar of their dark chocolate soon though!)  I’ve also received jelly beans, KitKats, teabags, gummy bears, and hot chocolate.  I remember every single company that sent them to me, too.  I also tweeted about my chocolate bar to all my followers, mentioning O2.  Points for them!

3.       Something useful.  For a while company pens were all the rage. Or mugs.  Mousemats. Post it notes.  Keychains.  Whilst these may do something for you in the way of PR, my suggestion is to think of something that your clients will actually use – and say to everyone they know, “Look what they sent me!”  Like a USB stick, or a wireless mouse, or a camera memory card.  If those are beyond your budget, get even more creative.  (Or send one or two gifts to your absolute best customers, instead of a hundred gifts sending one to everyone.)

4.       Something only they love.  This requires connecting with people at a personal level, and remembering who they are and what they like.  I was at a conference with a client who just loved his Guinness.  He had never been to Dublin and was longing to go there and get a Guinness on tap from the country where it all began.  I was in Dublin a few weeks later and bought him one of those stress-reliever Guinness pints, and sent it to him in the post.  I visited him a year later and saw it sitting on his desk. 

5.       Something sent at an ‘odd’ time.  Everyone sends gifts at Christmas.  Try sending something in July, instead.  Or choose a crazy holiday like Guy Fawkes Day, where the British people shoot off fireworks and start bonfires to celebrate the fact that Guy did NOT succeed in blowing up Parliament.  (That’s today, incidentally.)  You can have all kinds of fun with that.  One of my friends owns a gift basket company and she posts an obscure holiday on Facebook every day.  There’s always a reason to send someone a gift basket!

As always, feel free to go above and beyond by trying something not on my list.  The element of surprise is always good, as long as it’s a happy surprise!

Cheers,

Karen

 

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.

 

If It's Not Written Down...

At one stage I was running business growth seminars every month for a variety of small to medium-sized business owners in Scotland.  (Well, it was the businesses that were small to medium-sized...but now that I think about it so were the owners themselves.)

Time and time again I encouraged business owners to document what they did, how they did it, who was responsible, and all the little details that normally resided in their brains. 

Because (especially for small businesses), what happens if you’re not there? Or unwell? Or stuck in Australia due to volcanic ash? What happens often is that the whole system that depends on the owner, or manager, or team member, grinds to a halt.  And often it’s dependent on something extremely simple, such as sending emails, or signing up a new customer, or sending out a product. 

Now, everyone knows that I am right, and wants to write these things down to save time in the future.  But no one ever has the time right now to save time in the future.

Rubbish.

You have the time.  It’s just where you put it that causes the problem.  We don’t like working on long-term projects – at least I don’t.  I’d rather send twenty emails and feel very accomplished (even if those emails are very small and, in the major scheme of things, fairly unimportant) than sit down for a half hour to start a project that I know is going to take me several months of half-hours. 

But (perhaps you’ve noticed), time has a habit of ticking away.  And suddenly several months have gone by and all you have done are the daily tasks.  More on this in another  marketing tip – but please, please take the time to document what it is that you do (that no one else knows how to do). 

This could include very basic administrative items such as:

-          Setting up a new customer

-          Running a webinar

-          Recording a video

-          Updating a blog

-          Ordering supplies

-          Recording transactions on your specialised software system

-          Downloading files from a supplier website (such as the RAN ONE tools or resources)

-          Writing a proposal or documenting a quotation

Or you could go further, and start documenting the actual work that you do:

-          Reviewing a set of accounts

-          Editing photos in Photoshop or Lightroom

-          Stocking the delivery van with products

-          Setting up a website

-          Writing a press release

-          Running a sales meeting or a team meeting

-          Preparing for a client meeting

-          Preparing a budget

-          ...or whatever kind of work you do!

Our company started documenting many of these administrative items several years ago, and many times I’ve been thankful for it.  Twice I’ve had to train new team members on the same things, and with documented systems it took a half hour or so instead of a day or two. 

And don’t bother setting aside a full day, or a week, to get this done.  You know that’s no good – the phone will ring, emails will come in, “important” things will take its place.  Just set aside 15 minutes or a half hour every few days. 

In a few years you will be very glad you did.

Cheers,

Karen

 

Don’t forget the fail-proof tip for marketing:  Follow up, and do it forever.