I don’t think I can name a single client that has said to me “I have more than enough time to ‘do marketing’ but…”
Regardless of ample resources, a full in-house marketing staff, or even an incredibly slow time around the office, it always seems that AEC firms just don’t have enough time to get everything done that they would like to when it comes to marketing. There are any number of reasons for this problem.
For starters, there is ALWAYS somebody that you could be marketing to. This pretty much makes it a never-ending task and therefore it is one that you can never exactly finish. How frustrating right? Why can’t we just check marketing off the list and move on to the next item?
Additionally, marketing is often something that falls into the important but not urgent category. That is unless we’re talking about conferences and proposals, the two most deadline driven marketing activities for firms usually. Consequently, that is why most marketing departments spend a huge percentage of their time on those things.
But, in the spirit of not bringing up a problem without a solution, I’ve prepared the following list of ways to help you and your firm find more time to market.
Make it urgent
Your marketing efforts must be time sensitive. Set deadlines for even the small tasks, and publicize them to the whole team. Rely on the pressure of a looming deadline and a team full of managers with expectations to drive you to get things done without letting extra days and weeks go by.
Invest time up front
A big difference between the pros and the amateurs in any field is preparation. The carpenter that reviews an entire job and gets their materials list together at the beginning of the job is the most efficient and most profitable in the long run. The same is true for marketing. Marketing efforts should begin with a clear scope and deliverables. Investing the time up front to capture those things saves time in the long run.
Delegate…no REALLY delegate
Delegating is the most difficult at two times 1. When roles aren’t clearly communicated. 2. When specialties are confused with everyday skills. The last one seems to come up pretty often and here’s one example. Professional copywriting is a skill. However, almost everyone has a copy of MS Word and can hammer out a few paragraphs. Being able to let the writers write saves managers countless hours on things that may not come naturally or aren’t their strong suit.
Automate
There are certain things that should be done every day, every week, every month, etc. One example may be monitoring contracting opportunities (for firms that focus on the public sector). Automating tasks and/or doing them in a regular rhythm makes you more efficient and makes them easier to digest. Five minutes reviewing opportunities reports pushed to your email every morning takes less time than combing through weeks of them at once or searching online databases after the fact.
Everybody has thought to themselves that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done, and marketing is often the first thing pushed off until tomorrow. With a little luck (and maybe some process changes), the above may make the days seem a little longer…in a good way.