Now I LOVE to be busy, but I am sure it doesn't come as a surprise to you that being busy for the sake of it is NOT a good way to be in business.
You know that old saying (possibly from Henry Ford) "I know half of my advertising budget is wasted—I just don't know which half". It's this sort of thinking that keeps you busy, and you don't need to be.
There's absolutely no reason to NOT know where most of your marketing and promotions are working given all the smart tools you can have for analysis and stats. Plus—and this is my take on things—the marketing that's going to work best for you is that which comes FROM you.
If you're trying to DO every type of marketing and promotion right now and you're very busy, then I recommend you whittle it down to 3. Yup, just 3 types of marketing that you love to do.
If you love to write, turn that into 3 types of marketing: blog, write articles, publish a book, guest blog, get an ebook done, comment on forums, use Facebook.
If you love to speak, turn that into 3 types of marketing: network, get on stages, run your own events, get interviewed or be an interviewer, have a podcast, make audios.
Can you see how this works?
Obviously there's the caveat of doing marketing that your ideal clients actually look at; don't speak on stages if you're targeting busy professionals who never go to events, etc.
But if you really want to stop being busy being busy cut right back and do 3 types of marketing—that you love to do—really, really well. Test and measure what's working. Look at those analytics and stats and take it from there.
I am not saying you only ever have to do just 3 types of marketing—although you might—but I'm saying start there and then add as you go when you have confidence in how well they work for you.
Keep what works. Ditch what doesn't and build up a perfect marketing plan that has you all over it and comes from you and WORKS!
You might not have 100% of your marketing working (there needs to be room to try new ideas!) but it can definitely be more than 50%. So make a list and number it 1, 2, 3. You won't be as busy and you'll get better results.
Want to talk more about this?
Interesting, I always get people to do a “timeflow” as well as a “cashflow” to make sure they have enough marketing resources.
And, I suggest that the more creative their marketing the less time and money they will need.