How to Juggle Marketing in Busy Times

The Sprocket Report

It’s the small business owner’s dilemma: There’s no time for marketing when you’re making money and no money for marketing when you have time. How do you keep your balance when you're overwhelmed?

It seems logical to prioritize client work over marketing, but when you come up for air, you suddenly realize there is no new work in the pipeline. Instead of struggling to get the engine cranked up again, read on to learn tips for temporary marketing autopilot.

Build curation into your content calendar
Producing original content for your website, newsletter and social media provides great return on investment by enhancing search terms, refreshing your SEO and showcasing your expertise. But it is also super time-consuming.

Instead of letting your content updates lapse completely, plan to use curated content when you’re too busy to create your own. Of course you’d never take credit for work not your own, but just a sentence or two introducing someone else’s article or blog post is sufficient to pass along pertinent information without spending hours researching and producing something new.

Post once across multiple platforms
In a perfect world, you would build unique relationships with audiences on each of your social media platforms by writing content specifically for them. But in the world in which we actually live, there are times when that task is impossible to fulfill.

Rather than not updating at all, it might make sense for you to use the same post on all your platforms. Some social media platforms let you link one to another or you can use a third party tool like Hootsuite and just check all the “post to” platforms.

Use autoresponders
Check to see if your comment forms, emails and messaging systems have auto-responding features that you can tap into. Certainly you’ll want to make a personal connection at some point, but if you can’t react immediately, an autoresponder will let prospective clients know right away that you received their message so they aren’t left hanging.

Make networking events your office break
Even when you’re incredibly busy, taking a break is important for keeping your brain sharp. If that break also happens to be a networking event, you can log some face time while getting out of the office. You don’t have to stay forever – circulate briefly in a friendly way and then slip out. It helps keep your brand top-of-mind when you're seen as an active member of the business community.

These days folks research online before making a sales decision. When a business’s social media ceases or their website isn’t updated, prospective clients might conclude the company’s gone under or is simply unreliable. Obviously, the tips we’ve shared won’t take the place of an actual marketing campaign and sales process, but they can smooth over the gaps in your business’s online existence when you’re overwhelmed.

Need even more assistance? Just give us a call. We’re happy to help by working out a plan to keep your brand visible online so you can focus on the tasks you do best.

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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Full biography

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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