How Much Time Should I Spend Marketing?

How Much Time Should I Spend Marketing?

You’ve probably heard the expression regarding working ON your business instead of IN it?

 Well, marketing is an ON activity and for many of us, finding time to make sure we do it on a consistent basis can be like pushing water uphill with your nose.  

Most days, I do a pretty good job of finding my way past the icebergs, enjoying the adventures and ensuring I make time to do things that will help me grow my business.

As a copywriter, I know how important marketing is and understand that a significant chunk of time should be directed toward this activity that represents the lifeblood of any business.

Experts say you should spend about 60 % – 70% of your time marketing your business. More if you’re just starting out.

 So I decided to conduct a little experiment to see how close I was to meeting the expectations of the “almighty experts.”

Professional Time Log Sheet

I created a time sheet broken into 15 minute intervals and tracked my daily activity between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. for two weeks. I didn’t include evening time simply because my work-related activity tends to be more sporadic at night.  

 My objective was to determine just how much time I actually WAS spending on marketing.   

The results were revealing. 29 percent of my time was spent doing marketing related stuff. Traffic building. Making my web site more spider friendly. Blogging. Writing and sending out this ezine. Calling up potential clients with ideas to help them sell more. Answering questions on LinkedIn. 

I would have guessed closer to 40 %.   

Brian Tracy says that most businesses spend 11% of their time and marketing. To me, that’s incredible. Especially when you consider most of us haul our behinds out of bed early in the morning and hope we can be horizontal before Conan comes on.

Aren’t we doing that so we can grow our businesses?

 So what’s going on? Presumably we’re trying to find new customers we can help. And most of us spend around 11% of our time on it? Really?

I think many business owners simply find marketing intimidating. They have a basic understanding but lack the chops needed to write sales copy or create marketing strategies.

So instead, they turn to activities they feel comfortable tackling.  

 The sad part is that opportunities that could easily be theirs pass them by.

Here’s a formula to help you get started so you can avoid the “feast or famine” cycle you may find yourself in: call it the 50 – 40 – 10 Rule:

-Spend 50% of your time on marketing and sales

-40% on providing your service or product

-10% on administration and management

Then, as you get used to this shift, try to ease the marketing number higher.

And, if marketing your business isn’t for you, find someone who can help you. It will pay for itself in short order and you’ll be on your way to greater success.