Oh, the many hats that small business owners wear! One of the most important — and often most ill-fitting — is that of marketing manager. Marketing is critical to keeping your business alive but it often gets lost in the shuffle of all those daily tasks, like customer service, employee management, inventory control, bookkeeping, and delivering the product or service you sell.

Gee, when you list them all out like that, it’s no wonder owners of small businesses don’t have a marketing plan.

But you need one. So make the time.

The quickest way to get started is by reading No Time Marketing, by Alyssa Dver. She is a marketing expert and has helped businesses of all kinds, from big corporations and to small start-ups, which is why her concepts are clear and practical. The book gives you the insights of a marketing expert and holds your hand as you put together a plan that will make your cash register ring.

As Dver points out, measuring the impact of marketing can be complex. She reduces it to a “Golden Rule:” If sales increase — the sound of that cash register — then your marketing is working.

That takes makes a molehill out of the mountain of metrics that you might measure.

Then there’s this pieces of wisdom: A good lead is one with the ability to buy (with cash or in-kind services) and a potential need for your product (they may not know yet that you can solve a problem for them). It’s the job of marketing to make people see what your product or service can do for them.

A whole bunch of leads without money or a need for your product isn’t worth much. It’s quality — ability plus need — that matters.

These are basic marketing principles, ones that we all forget in the hustle and bustle of everyday business. If you haven’t taken a good look at the basics recently and haven’t walked through a planning process, you’ll find Aver’s book a quick refresher. It includes worksheets, checklists, and questions to answer that will ensure your marketing is effective.

You really do need a marketing plan and if a book isn’t enough to get you moving, join Dver’s free webinar on Ventureneer, Small Business Marketing When You Don’t Have Time to Spare. It’s a refresher course that will revitalize your marketing and a great place to start if you haven’t developed a marketing plan yet.

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