Here are my top tips to help you streamline and systemise your small business marketing.
As business owners, we need to manage not just our time and energy, but our focus. While we work with ten tabs open, email notifications flying in left right and centre, we never achieve a state of deep work. This is problematic if you are trying to complete a big project and move toward achieving your goal. I have compiled my top tips to help you maximise your time and streamline your small business marketing, so you can get more work done and see better results.
Perform a task audit
Before you can find a system or program that’s right for you, it’s important to perform a task audit so you know exactly what you spend time trying to improve your small business marketing. For 3 days, I want you to track the time you spend on each task you complete. You can do this in a Google Sheet, your project management tool (we use ClickUp and it does everything!) or you can use a trusty old pen and paper.
Then, I want you to track how you spend every 30 mins.
After you’ve completed it for minimum 3 days (5 days is better, but 3 will work), then go through and highlight core tasks that ONLY you can do. Be ruthless here. This is an incredible time-saving process!
Once you’ve done that, highlight the other tasks as either “automate” or “outsource”.
Automate and outsource
Automate what you can, outsource the things that don’t require your core skill set. Often we believe that we are indispensable and that no one could do what we do in the business. Sometimes, that is true. But a lot of the time, that is not the case. Find your zone of genius and stick to that. Automate and outsource the rest.
Things you can automate:
- Meeting bookings (Calendly or Acuity)
- Email campaigns
- Invoice follow up
- Social media posting
- Things you can outsource:
- Sending invoices, onboarding new clients, responding to enquiries (VA’s are pros at this!)
- Bulk graphic design tasks
- Editing videos
- Reconciling transactions in accounting software
- Responding to messages and requests on social media (Facebook Page Manager is an absolute life saver!)
- Editing podcast audio
The list goes on…
Batch tasks
When you’re busy managing clients, customer orders, trying to keep your business afloat (not to mention, your home life), it’s important to batch your tasks. Once you’re in a rhythm, it’s much easier to get more work done.
So here are my top tips for batching marketing tasks:
#1: Book a regular photoshoot
When you have a bank of Instagram-ready photos, your job gets 10x easier. I like to book a photoshoot every quarter. The amount of photos you will receive is dependent on your photography. I also recommend planning your photo shoot ahead of time. (This is great tip for making.your small business marketing more productive)
In my Canva Template Pack for Business, you get access to a photoshoot plan and moodboard which means you can communicate with your photographer!
Check out my blog on How to Plan a Brand Photoshoot
#2: Design your graphics in one hit
If you decide you want to design your own graphics, then pour a glass of wine, put on your comfy trackies, and get designing! I personally like to do this while watching Gilmore Girls, but it’s not a required part of the process.
This is where I will design the posts I want to share on social media. It can be anything from inspiring quote posts, funny memes or educational carousel posts for Instagram. I like to design them in bulk so I’ve always got something ready to share.
If you’re designing a bigger piece of content like an ebook or a workbook, I find it much easier to have the copy written ahead of time so that I can just drag and drop the design. Then I don’t have to think – I can watch Gilmore Girls and design in peace!
#3: Schedule your posts for social media
There are so many incredible scheduling programs that take the stress out of posting on social media. You really have no excuse to not be posting! Set aside an hour or two each week to schedule your posts ahead of time.
#4: Repurpose your content
You spend far too much time creating the content to simply post it once. You must repurpose it for a variety of platforms. The goal is for your content to be seen by as many people as possible. Every single piece of content you create can be shared in a number of ways.
It’s important to get in the habit of repurposing your content once you have created it. For instance, if you wrote a blog on the “How to make pasta from scratch” (sorry I’m hungry as I’m writing this), then you could repurpose that content in a number of different ways for a variety of channels.
Examples:
- Social media posts – Instagram carousel post outlining the highlights of the article (whilst still encouraging your audience to read the full article on your blog). Share on LinkedIn, Facebook
- Pinterest post pointing people to your blog (helloooo cheap web traffic!)
- Create a poll on Instagram Stories about people’s favourite pasta
- Host a webinar showing people how to actually make pasta from scratch (with a paid offer at the end)
- Send a teaser to your email list and direct them to your blog
- Maybe you could even record a podcast on the topic!
Set an email check-in time
Don’t let your days be dictated by your email inbox. A good friend of mine, Peita Diamantidis runs a Working From Home course and she says that the average person spends 13 hours per week on their email. Every single week. When she told me that, I felt a little sick and knew I had to change my ways.
So I’ve set a time for email check-ins and if I’m being honest I’m still learning how to be disciplined in this area. But my email check-in times each day are 11 am and 4 pm. At 4 pm each day, I begin my workday shutdown ritual. This is where I will respond to comments and messages on social media and respond to any final emails for the day.
Since setting these two email check-in times, I have found that I am way more productive and significantly happier! I also don’t feel the need to check my emails in bed because I know there is a designated time slot for me to do that every day.
How could you incorporate an email check-in time for your work? I know that for many people that feels impossible but can you start small and scale back your email time gradually? It’s an absolute game changer.
So, switch on “Do not disturb” and watch your productivity and time-saving skills, go through the roof!
Theme your days
You set a theme for each day and only do work related to that theme. So for me, on Mondays and Tuesdays, I have client meetings and client projects to work on. Wednesday is where I take sales calls. On Thursdays, I write content (this means scheduling social content, creating webinar content etc) and on Fridays, I work ON the business. This is where I will do courses, training, and networking.
The goal of setting a daily theme is so that you have control over each day. Of course, things come up, but my goal is to schedule my week to fit into these key daily themes. This is my scheduled way of batching my tasks so that I can get more done.
Now that you’ve completed a task audit, take a look at your week. How can you structure your week so that you are more productive? I highly recommend checking out Michael Hyatt. His teaching on goals and tracking progress is second to none. Plus, I couldn’t live without his Full Focus Planner!
When you’re wearing all the hats in your business, it’s important to keep the main thing, the main thing. When it comes to small business marketing, showing up consistently is the key.
And remember, we are all given the same amount of hours in the day as Beyoncé.
So, channel your inner Queen B and go slay.
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