Time Out: Making the Most of Your Business Marketing/PR Efforts | Ezine Article

Time Out: Making the Most of Your Business Marketing/PR Efforts

Summary: When you take time out to categorize and prioritize your marketing/PR efforts, you learn what you’re good at, what you can delegate and how to balance your day. In this article, you will discover ways to be a better marketer and well-rounded business professional by tracking and analyzing your performance.

Article and Watchful Butterfly Image by Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media

To request permission to reproduce or republish this article or the Watchful Butterfly image, contact connect AT corywestmedia DOT com.

When you take time out to categorize and prioritize your marketing/PR efforts, you learn what you’re good at, what you can delegate and how to balance your day. In this article, you will discover ways to be a better marketer and well-rounded business professional by tracking and analyzing your performance.

For one week, track everything you do. Because you have a hand-written hard copy, writing on a notepad works better than typing. Make two columns: start time/end time and project or activity. At the end of the day, highlight income-producing activities in green.

Cross out anything you can delegate and transfer these items to a list that will become your job description for new employees, a marketing/PR consultant, an intern or a virtual assistant. Highlight all work-related activities that only you can do in yellow. Then go over the document and assign your activities into categories: income producing, administrative, creative and entertainment.

At the end of the week when you add up the time you spend on each, you’ll have a clear idea of how you prioritize your day. To grow your business, make adjustments and reallocate your time to make the most of your income producing business marketing/PR efforts.

Income Producing

How much time do your spend making money? Is it a priority or does your business run on auto-pilot with a steady stream of revenue or referrals? Do you personally need to make an effort to make money or can someone else do it for you? What other revenue streams might you consider: affiliate marketing, product sales or purchasing another business?

Administrative

Everyone has to some administrative work, don’t they? Even so, there are ways to reduce the administrative overload. For example, check email only a few times a day instead of responding immediately to every incoming message. You’ll stay focused longer and will save hours of wading through meaningless communications.

Creative

Allowing for a few hours a week of creative play recharges your energy and connects you to the world. Creative play might be finding new friends on Facebook, responding to questions on LinkedIn, having lunch with someone who inspires you, or taking photographs of falling leaves.

Entertainment

This catch-all category is up to you. Take some time to liven up your day, but don’t let your need for amusement take over. Accept that it’s okay to build in a few minutes for an entertainment break and find a quick escape route for that purpose. You can log onto a blog you like, check out the latest shoes online or look up airfares for a travel destination.

Stop trying to do it all

After a week, go back and look at where your time winds up. Ask yourself: Who else could do this for me? Would I get better returns or results if I outsourced? How can I save time? Is there a faster or more efficient way to complete this task? Refocusing your priorities onto the income producing category will help you grow your business.

About the author . . .

An in-demand publicist, professional speaker and marketing communications consultant since 1990, Barbara Rozgonyi is grounded, edgy and prophetic. “Panoramic PR,” Barbara’s latest project, compresses everything she knows into an affordable, manageable course that teaches small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, experts, coaches and anyone else who wants more free publicity how to get completely covered by being fully exposed. Claim a free report and get automatic articles like this one at http://www.powerprsecrets.com.