1. Have a plan and goals. Who do you want to target with your marketing? Why do you want to make more time for marketing? What are your goals? How much time and resources are you willing to commit to marketing? What specific activities will you undertake? Creating a plan that answers these questions helps ensure you don’t waste time on random acts of marketing that aren’t well-coordinated and won’t bring you closer to your objectives.

2. Block off time for marketing. Set aside time daily or weekly and put it on your calendar like any other appointment. Also, ensure that you schedule it at a time of day when you have the energy to put toward marketing and can guard against distractions. Hold your calls. Don’t check emails. Stop multitasking. Even if all you can manage is 10-15 minutes at a time, engage in some kind of marketing activity to help you stay accountable to yourself and keep your momentum.

3. Determine what is the highest and best use of your time. Recognize that you can’t and shouldn’t do everything on your own. You should not spend time on things that can be done by others. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Prioritize work that only you can handle and delegate the rest.

4. Effectively delegate and/or outsource. Professionals often hesitate to delegate or outsource marketing activities due to concerns about cost or relinquishing control. However, delegating or outsourcing certain tasks to employees, specialists or freelancers can be a smart investment. Remember time is money. If others can do it more cost-effectively, efficiently, or with more skill than you, give it to them so you can focus on your core responsibilities and high-value strategic initiatives.

5. Leverage technology. There is no shortage of products to help you market more efficiently. These include email marketing automation, social media scheduling tools, content management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software to automate repetitive tasks and save time. Artificial intelligence tools have also exploded in use. For example, ChatGPT and its competitors can significantly cut the time needed to research and produce content. AI has also been incorporated into a wide variety of existing products like grammar checkers, marketing analytics tools, design software, customer service chatbots, etc. Importantly, AI can also help you get your client work done and run your office more efficiently, freeing up time for marketing. (Note: always verify the accuracy of information from AI tools and edit and tailor results to your specific needs and circumstances.)

6. Start small; don’t overcommit. A common problem is making unrealistic commitments of time. If you get busy, you won’t be able to meet your goals and you may pull back even more. You market less, which means your efforts will be less effective and results will take longer to achieve so you’re tempted to give up until you have “more time to market,” which never happens. Instead, it’s best to focus on one area and make a small commitment and stick to it. Make it a habit. As you get used to it, add additional time and/or responsibilities to your plate.

7. Review your results. When you write down your goals in your marketing plan, you should also put down how you want to measure success. Marketing is cumulative and there is rarely a straight line from one marketing activity to new business. Instead, many activities intersect and build on each other to help you bring in a new client. However, you should check your metrics. Are people opening your emails, reacting to your social media posts, commenting on your speech or article? Is website traffic up and where is it coming from? Are you getting calls? Use analytics tools to help you identify which marketing efforts are yielding the best results and which should be adjusted or eliminated. By prioritizing high-impact activities and eliminating ineffective ones, you can optimize your marketing efforts while maintaining a balance with other business priorities.

8. Set aside short periods of time for social media. Social media is one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools that exists because it allows you to reach new people as well as strengthen relationships with existing contacts. Incorporate social media into your marketing plan and make sure that every week you take a little time to both post content and interact with people online. Setting a timer will keep you from spending too much time on social media. Also, focus on one social media platform to start (Linkedin is the best for professionals). Then as you get comfortable with it and are ready to devote more time to social media, add another platform.

9. Repurpose everything you do. Did you write an article or do a presentation? Then, slice and dice it into a blog post, social media posts, charts, infographics, or video. Or vice versa – take multiple short pieces of content and combine them to create something longer. Revise social media posts a little and reuse them again a few weeks or months later. Promote your activities and achievements in your email newsletter, on all your social media platforms, and your website. The point is that you should always be looking for ways to reuse and repurpose whatever you do or create. Not only does this save significant time but you can reach more people by delivering information in many formats using multiple marketing channels.

10. Be consistent. Many professionals make the mistake of engaging in marketing sporadically. They work hard to get attention, then vanish. They lose momentum and visibility that they have to spend extra time to regain. Consistency builds brand awareness, establishes credibility and fosters trust with your audience. Whether it’s posting on social media, sending out email newsletters, networking, writing, or speaking, maintaining a regular presence will help you stay top-of-mind with your target audience.

The next time you say you don’t have time for marketing, ask yourself whether you are taking these steps to prioritize marketing.

1. Re-promote. Take articles/blog posts you wrote 6 or more months ago that are still useful and interesting and repost them on social media or share in your email newsletter. Some people may never have seen them the first time around, or if they did, may not remember all the points you made.

2. Repurpose. For every piece of content you produce, you should always find at least 3-4 ways you can repurpose it. For example, create various versions in these formats: short, long, expert-level, beginner-level, consumer-oriented, technical, written, presentation, video, infographics, charts, etc. Now you’ve got content for months.

3. Use a scheduling tool. It’s very time-consuming to consistently share content on social media especially if you have multiple accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and CoSchedule let you schedule your posts in advance from 1 place, keep track of your activity, and get basic analytics.

4. Delegate when possible. You should always be making the highest and best use of your time. That means don’t waste time doing tasks that could be better handled by someone else. Remember your time is money.

Happy Labor Day!

For more ideas, see:

No Time for Content Marketing? 7 Tips For Successfully Repurposing Your Content—Part 1 and Part 2

1. Mid-year checkup. We’re 6 months into the year. What have you done to market your business? What has worked and what hasn’t? Are you on track to meet your goals for the year? What should you be doing differently? If you did not set goals at the start of the year, set them now.

2. Work on your contact database. Leverage staff and interns or hire students to help create or clean up your database. If you don’t have a database, now is the time to build one, especially for email

3. Attend summer networking events. During the summer, many groups go on hiatus, but not all of them. Those that have events often schedule more casual networking which may bring out different people than ordinarily attend the regular networking events.

4. Update your website and social media profiles. Verify your credentials and activities are up to date including memberships, new positions, writing and speaking, publicity, awards, etc. Also, go to the My Network tab on LinkedIn and check out suggestions of people you could connect to and add a personal note if you send them an invitation. You can also email them to further build the connection.

5. Create evergreen content. Evergreen content is content that doesn’t go out of date quickly. Develop blog posts, articles, video or other content that you can use months or even years from now, so you have material you can promote when you don’t have time to create something new.

6. Get into the habit of marketing. If it seems like you are always too busy to market, start with a small commitment of time every week. It doesn’t matter how much time you set aside but pick a set amount and keep to it even if it’s 15 minutes. Then gradually add more time as you get comfortable with your efforts. Little things add up.

For more help, read our related post – It’s July. Do You Know How Your Marketing Is Doing?

1. If you don’t feel comfortable marketing, figure out why. This is the part where you must analyze yourself, otherwise nothing will really change. Are you insecure about your marketing abilities or worried about rejection? Do you believe marketing isn’t valuable or necessary for your business? Basically, until you feel motivated to market, you won’t do it no matter how anyone tries to help you. A management consultant I know has a great saying “Motivate means you must have a motive to act.”

2. Prioritize ruthlessly. Everything you do and don’t do is a choice. You must not only commit to making marketing a priority, but decide what will move down on your to do list. Learn to say no, stop being a perfectionist and cut back on what isn’t an absolute necessity.

3. Develop a marketing plan. Don’t engage in random acts of marketing. Decide on a few things you want to accomplish and identify how you will get there. Be more specific than saying you want to bring in more clients. What does that mean exactly and how will you do that over the next 3 months, 6 months, 1 year? Write it down so you stay focused on your end goal and you are only spending time on things that will bring you closer to that goal.

4. Delegate when possible. You should always be making the highest and best use of your time. That means don’t waste time doing administrative or client work that doesn’t require your level of expertise. On the marketing side, have others handle many of the necessary tasks. You can hire full- or part-time staff or use freelancers. Remember that when you do it yourself instead of giving it to someone else, it is costing you money because your time is money.

5. Start with a small commitment of time every week. It doesn’t matter how much time you set aside, but pick a set amount and keep to it even if it’s 15 minutes. Then gradually add more time as you get comfortable with your efforts. Little things add up.

6. Put it on your calendar. Select a time that makes sense for how and when you work. Don’t schedule marketing time when you are distracted or tired. Trying to do something you may not like to do, when you can’t concentrate on it, will get you nowhere. Once you figure out when to schedule it, actually put in on your calendar like any other appointment.

7. Take breaks to recharge. We all have times when we lose concentration and our energy levels drop. It’s important to get up, walk around and clear your head. When you return to work, you will find that you are more productive than if you had just continued forcing yourself to go on.

8. Don’t multi-task. Research shows that multi-tasking doesn’t work. It has the opposite effect; interrupting your thinking and making you less productive. In fact, resuming work after being interrupted by an unrelated task takes an average of 23 minutes. So, don’t jump from one thing to another Establish guidelines about when you can be interrupted and for what. When it comes to email, designate certain time periods throughout the day to check and respond to email.

9. Use technology. Software and apps can help you with time keeping, scheduling, keeping track of projects, managing your business, automating marketing, etc. Investigate your options and invest in some good tools that will keep you organized. If needed, get training on how to make the most of your technology.

10. Find what you like to do. There are lots of different ways to market yourself. Some people are great at networking at parties; others like to meet people in small groups. Maybe there is a charity, cause or organization that you could get more involved with that is meaningful to you. You could be a good speaker or writer or perhaps you are comfortable with social media. The better you feel about your activities, the more likely you are to find the time.

Marketing is an investment in your business. If you truly believe in its value, you can find time for it. That doesn’t mean it will be easy, but it can be done with the right planning and help in managing your responsibilities.