Implementing a system for marketing professional services is not about creating a checklist of to do items and then moving in a linear fashion through the list, checking off one item at a time. It’s not a “set it and forget it” type of process.
Rather, it is an iterative process where you create, edit, evaluate, improve, and delete over time.
Let’s look at creating marketing materials as an example. In Duct Tape Marketing we advocate creating a marketing kit, a collection of educational marketing materials that can be used in a variety of settings. When you begin installing your marketing system, you create a baseline set of materials that go into your marketing kit. Creating a marketing kit is not an item that you check off of your list and never visit again. With each campaign you look to your marketing kit for materials you can use. You identify new materials you need to create. When you create materials for a campaign, you should consider how you may be able to re-purpose them and and add them to your kit. As your kit grows, you will find pieces that you no longer use, or no longer fit your marketing strategy as it grows and matures.
The same thing goes for lead generation campaigns. You don’t sit down and implement all of your lead generation (referral, advertising, and PR) campaigns at once. You typically pick one campaign, get it up and running, and then put it into “maintenance mode” so it continues to execute while you begin to implement your next campaign.
In my opinion, the only way to keep this iterative process on track while managing all of your other responsibilities is to 1) set aside time (use a marketing calendar) to consistently work on your marketing system and 2) have a process in place for reviewing, evaluating, adjusting, and implementing the next steps in your strategic marketing plan.
Think of marketing is something you do, rather than something to get done.
