For a small business owner, marketing responsibilities can seem overwhelming. In smaller firms there is no marketing department staffed with experts in this area; many of the marketing hats are worn by the business owner. The task of marketing by the owner and any employees given marketing roles can become manageable, however, if various aspects of marketing are broken down into smaller, well-defined actions to be taken each day.

Planning

Unfortunately, many business owners have only vague expectations of what marketing activities need to be done. Elaborate, computer-generated plans are not necessary, but an owner should have some type of plan with targeted goals and strategies to attain them. The plan can run for a short period, such as the next 90 days, or for longer spans, such as  one year, or three years. It can be useful to draft your plan on a calendar that you can view each day to stay on task.

You can find information to help you craft your plan through the SBA. It’s up to you to create a calendar of activities to put your plan into action.

Action: Review your plan at least quarterly to create or revise expectations for the next quarter. Be sure to include a review of your pricing in light of the company’s marketing philosophy as well as the current economic climate.

Budgeting

Deciding how much of your budget to devote to staffing, advertising, and other marketing activities is critical to the actions you can afford to take. SCORE can help you set a marketing budget.

Action: Like your action plan, review your budget at least quarterly. If the business is doing well, you may want to add to your marketing allotment. If the business is struggling, do not automatically cut the marketing budget; find other ways to conserve cash so you can continue or even expand marketing efforts.

Activities

Decide how many hours each day and how many days each week you’ll devote to your marketing activities. These activities include:

  • Planning and budgeting
  • Emailing and other correspondence
  • Blogging
  • Website development and maintenance
  • Social media networking
  • Networking events
  • Customer relations
  • Other activities

Action: You may need only an hour a week to stay on top of planning, while you may need an hour or more a day to handle email, telephone, and other business contacts.

The amount of time you devote to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media depends on your marketing strategies for these sites. It usually will require a daily time commitment (on one LinkedIn discussion, group members reported anywhere from 30 minutes to 10 hours a day on this site); the amount also depends on whether the owner handles this himself/herself, has an employee do it, or outsources this function.

Networking events, including meetings of chambers of commerce and other professional groups, can be time-consuming. Decide how much time to devote to this type of marketing activity each month. A calendar can quickly get filled up with “fun” events that take up time without contributing commensurately to marketing efforts.

Bottom line

John D. Rockefeller said “Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.” Even when a firm is large enough to have a marketing department, the owner still needs to stay on top of planning and activities ... and allot the necessary time each day to do it!