Make your marketing more consistent

There's one thing that makes every marketing activity stronger and more effective.

No, not money. Not even a lot more time. 

Consistency.

Taking one small action every day or week can be as effective as spending ages and pots of money on bigger activities. 

Consistency builds momentum.

It builds trust. It builds awareness. It builds experience.

It builds business and profitability.

What sort of marketing activity am I talking about?

I mean any action you might do regularly (and I do mean regularly. Preferably even frequently). It could be a weekly mailing. Writing a blog. Social media posts. Or just spending a few minutes every day, undertaking different marketing activities such as updating your website or sorting your photos. 

Consistency can be hard. When you run a busy business, daily life and operational issues can easily intervene. 

Luckily, there are some really easy ways to become more consistent. Here are the ones that work for me. 

Make your activity a routine. When something's a habit, it's so much easier. I write this blog every Wednesday, and send out a mailing every Wednesday. Setting a specific day or time for something really helps because after only a short while, it just becomes something you do, at that time, in that way. 

Block off the time you need in your diary. Block off the same time over the coming weeks so it's easy to establish the habit. Making an appointment with yourself, so you get online alarms or reminders can be good - even if it's only for a few minutes each day. 

Tell people. 

This is the one thing that makes the biggest difference for me. It helps enormously to feel even a tiny bit accountable to others. They might not really care if you do your thing when you say, but the fact of having told some other people helps you be more consistent. 

Choose a specific place to do your activity. This probably sounds a bit bonkers, but I find that always sitting in a certain chair, or using a particular pen for a consistent task helps my mind to say 'oh she's sitting there now, with that pen. It must mean we're supposed to write notes for the weekly blog now'. There's some research around this, showing our minds can be easily conditioned so that you get straight on with the task. The 'special' chair & pen thing tells the brain to not faff about, and to just do the task quickly. 

Getting started is the hardest bit of doing something consistently. There are some easy ways round this. What's your 'trigger task" - the thing that signals it's time to get started?

Once you've put on your trainers, your legs understand it's time to run. If you stare at a blank page, your brain procrastinates. But if you have some scribbled notes, even if it's just a few words, it's easier to write something. A note book of random ideas for social posts and blogs will mean you've always got a library of ideas to rely on. Write the notes whenever you think of them, so you never stare at a blank page. 

If you're one of the many people who find it hard to start writing or thinking of social media posts, try batching the job with something else. I

If I've got something I'm struggling to start writing, I wander round the field with my dogs with my phone in hand. I speak into the phone (you can dictate into your phone or in Word on a laptop) starting sentences and coming up with ideas as I go. Then I send the written version to myself, and before I've even cleaned 12 muddy dog paws, my inbox features the start of the thing I've hesitated to write. I don't have to stare at a blank page. I can just edit a bit and get on with it. It's much easier to get going when it feels like you've started something.