Friday

You'll Never Find the Time to Market

It's not like I'm telling you anything you don't already know, but running a business is tough work. With all of the compulsories, like placing the food order, doing the scheduling, payroll, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. it often feels like there's no time left for the other things.

Like marketing.

Marketing is not within the comfort zone of most people (buying advertising is a different thing, we're talking marketing) so it's common that it gets pushed to the bottom of the list. Every week. "I can never find the time to do marketing."

And you never will. No one finds the time to do what they aren't comfortable doing. The problem is that sales either stagnate or drop off if you don't. You won't FIND time to market, you have to MAKE time to market.

Below are the top 5 ways to make time for one of the most important jobs in your unit:

1. Start with an objective. Do you have a trial, frequency, or ticket average issue? What daypart are you going to focus on? A clear objective decreases the amount of time you need to spend on marketing in order to see results.

2. Plan your work. Choose a specific audience (schools, office parks) and prepare your materials (coupons, ads) in advance. Schedule meetings and make contact with catering prospects in advance. If you plan your audiences out 4 weeks ahead of time you won't have a overwhelming sense to talk to everyone at once. You know you'll get to them next week so you won't try to do too much.

3. Work your plan. Make an appointment with yourself and treat it like a catering meeting or payroll: show up prepared, on time, cell phone off, your spot in the schedule covered. Do what you planned to do. No more, no less.

This appointment should mirror the daypart you wish to build (see Recency Marketing). If you want to build lunch, get out at 11:00am. Dinner, do your marketing in the evening when your audience is about. There are exceptions (schools, churches, and others have specific hours), but Recency is a powerful tool that can save you time.

4. Stay focused. Too many objectives to too many audiences creates chaos and makes you feel like you're just spinning your wheels. It's easy to mix up objectives and audiences when you have too much going on (we've seen stores who say they want to increase lunch sales, but their tactic was to place an ad in the newspaper - wrong audience).

If you plan your work, and you always keep your appointments with yourself, you won't feel the need to say everything at once. You know you'll get to it and when it's going to happen. Being organized can be a great relief in the present.

5. Use the 7 Core Competencies. Making the 7 Core Competencies a habit will save you all kinds of time, in addition to making your marketing more effective.

Choose a specific product or service to focus on (carry-out, dessert), then use all of your communications media to surround your customers. Send email, use bounce-backs in-store, sample product, call fishbowl "winners" to receive a freebie, feature the product prominently on specials boards. Once the process is in place, 80% of marketing becomes a checklist that can be done anytime by even unskilled employees. Your external job is 80% easier.

Marketing is not the easiest job for many small business owners. If you plan your work, utilize your tools effectively, and schedule the time though, it's not nearly as time consuming as most people think it is either.