Is marketing your business a challenge for you? It is for me… and that was my career for a lot of years. I mean, marketing is literally a full-time job!

So as business owners who know how important marketing is for success, how do we manage it all? Or more importantly, how do we manage it all so we don’t lose our minds in the process? Here are a few techniques that can help make the essential marketing tasks feel a bit less overwhelming.

Break Things Down

Marketing can encompass so many things and thinking about all of those things at once can make you want to hide under the bed. Am I right?

When it comes to marketing your business, sometimes less is more. Start by picking two types of marketing that you want to focus on. Maybe it’s in-person networking and social media. Then break it down further.

Determine where your ideal clients hang out and focus on networking in the organizations where you’re most likely to come in contact with them. Start with one. Build relationships with people. You can always add more later.

This concept also applies to social media. Is your ideal client on LinkedIn? Start there! Take the time to establish yourself and build trust. You may decide you don’t need to be anywhere else.

Plan Everything

Everything you do in business should be planned. I’m not saying everything has to be rigid, but at least start out with a specific goal and a few guidelines.

For example, let’s say social media is your main marketing avenue. Which platforms will you use? How many times per week will you post? What topics will you talk about?

Then sit down with a calendar and plan out a month at a time. Knowing what content you need will make creating that content much easier. What items or services will you be promoting this month? How many times during the month will you promote them? What other things do you want to post this month? Put it all down on the calendar. Then you can create the content to execute the plan.

Batch Create Marketing Assets

Once you have your month planned you can batch create the assets you need for marketing. This means creating all of the graphics you’ll need for the month at one time so you can have them ready to go when you post. You can even schedule your posts ahead of time so they go out automatically. All of this can be done in a few hours, rather than taking an hour or two here and there throughout the month. It also makes your marketing more effective…you won’t be scrambling to put “something” out there.

This is where a brand photography session can really be a life saver. One session can create 100s of images, so you’ll have a library of images to pull from when you plan and schedule your posts. A well-planned brand session with a professional photographer can accomplish all of that in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it yourself! No more searching for stock photos, you have what you need at your fingertips.

Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Simplify your approach, plan your marketing ahead of time, work with professionals that can help you, and watch your business grow!