Clicks 'n Conversions Blog

This article was originally published on the Tatum Marketing Technology blog on December 10, 2008.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what keeps good business owners from running a good marketing program. Based on my double-digit years of marketing experience, I feel comfortable in saying that the real reason most companies have less than stellar marketing results is not because of lack of knowledge – anyone can get that.

And it’s not due to lack of budget – that’s where creativity and strategy come in.

And it’s not even the economy that’s the real issue.

Nope. Most marketing programs fail to deliver results because business owners and leaders can’t – or won’t – make time for it. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

When it comes to problematic business leaders and marketing, I’ve found there are basically three types:

1. Leaders who think marketing is too inconsequential to worry about. These business leaders either a) toss marketing responsibility to someone else and never look back, or b) believe their company can get along fine without it. I hear from these types all the time. They’re the ones who call us in a panic when sales hit the skids and they need something done NOW.
2. Then there are the business owners and leaders who think no one can do it but themselves. These leaders have a delegation problem. I firmly believe that the top dog must always stay involved in marketing to some extent, but all companies reach a point where the leader must learn to delegate some marketing responsibility if their companies are going to grow.
3. Finally there are the business owners who know they need to do a better job of marketing but just can’t find the time to get started. I talk to a lot of these people too. They’re usually feeling pretty stressed and frustrated about not getting marketing done.

I’m not bashing business leaders. I help run a business myself. We’re all overwhelmed with the myriad of things that must be done.

But when it comes to being overwhelmed by marketing, I think I can help.

The reason that marketing overwhelms so many leaders is tied directly to inefficiency.

• Inefficient marketing programs don’t produce enough results to justify the cost or the effort – and they leave us looking elsewhere for new business opportunities and leads for the sales team. We need better designed programs with measurements, accountability and regular improvements.
• Inefficient marketing processes keep things from flowing smoothly. We waste precious resources through leaks and dropped balls or by constantly re-inventing the wheel. We need better workflow.
• Inefficient people reduce the power of the system as well. We need more personal productivity in ourselves as well as others.

So how do you get more efficient when you’re busy running a company? How do you find the time?

Productivity guru David Allen, who has trained thousands of professionals to become more personally productive, would argue that lack of time is not really a major issue. He believes the real issue is lack of clarity and definition about what needs to be accomplished and what next steps should be taken.

David promotes a bottom up approach to overall productivity that he has found to be more effective because, as he says, most people are so consumed by their day-to-day commitments that they can’t focus on the larger horizon. He’s found that once you get the mundane tasks under control then you can focus on ideas and visions.

I’ve followed David’s Getting Things Done (GTD) approach – off and on I admit – ever since I first read his book in the late 90s. I know it works for overall productivity, and I started wondering if at least some of the concepts of GTD could be applied to marketing.

Usually we advise clients to stop what they’re doing and take the time to do some planning. But now I ask myself, is it too overwhelming to have to sit down and think about a marketing plan or an entire marketing program? Can companies successfully improve marketing results by taking small steps first?

Here’s an exercise to try. It’s borrowed heavily from David Allen and it’ll take you less than two minutes to do.

1. Write down the marketing question or project that is most on your mind right now. Maybe you need to be generating more new leads. Maybe you suspect you’re wasting a lot of resources and not getting enough back for it. Maybe your website needs to be revamped. Maybe you’re thinking of hiring outside help. Maybe you just need to get started. Pick one.
2. Now write a one-sentence description of what “done” would look like. In other words, what would need to happen for you to consider this marketing question answered or project completed. This could be a very broad sentence such as “launch new website” or more focused such as “talk to potential marketing firms”.
3. Finally, write down the very next physical step that you need to take to move this forward. What action should be taken? Should you schedule a meeting with your sales team? Should you review your website statistics? Should you ask your associate who handles their marketing? Write it down.

How do you feel? I know your marketing probably hasn’t suddenly fallen completely into line. (If I could come up with a 2 minute exercise that did that – well, I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with it).

The point is that progress can happen – you can break through mental barriers and move projects forward – when you take just a few minutes to really think about what outcomes you expect and what step needs to be taken next.

So maybe the best way to approach marketing really is from the bottom up, clearing up all the day-to-day things that bother you until you have time to see the forest for the trees (and other clichés).

It worked for me when I got stuck. It’s worked for others. Try it and let me know if it works for you.