Maximizing Your Marketing Time

How much time do you currently spend actively marketing your network marketing business? Is it more than just a couple of hours per week?

Do you even know how much time you should spend actively marketing your MLM business? Many network marketers and home business owners don’t know what their answer to this question should be. They’re not really sure how much time they should be spending on marketing. But, a majority of the network markters I ask admit they’re only spending a couple of hours per week.

Maximize your marketing time. In working with clients one-on-one and through my marketing coaching programs, I challenge business owners that they should be dedicating 20 to 25% of their time each and every week to purposeful marketing activity. For some, that number just seems impossible. They’re busy enough as it is and can’t imagine carving out that much time from their crowded schedules.

So where exactly do you spend your time? Have you ever tracked and analyzed your time to see how productively you’re spending it?

I would tell you this… network markters and home business owners really only need to spend their time in one of four categories:

1. Income Producing Activities
2. Marketing Activities
3. Building Your Future
4. Other - as in this, that and the other

Let’s be clear on what each of these categories mean.

1) Income Producing Activities - This includes actual time spent working to bring in new representatives, sign up new customers, and time spent developing additional passive revenue streams.

2) Marketing Activities - This includes your purposeful marketing and sales activities like networking, writing, preparing and submitting bog post or YouTube videos, setting up and sending out follow-up communications.

This also needs to include some time to educate yourself about marketing. When you’re in network marketing, you can’t deny the importance of improving yourself as a marketer. Spend a few hours every week to study marketing strategies and ideas (books, teleclasses, CDs, eZines, etc.).

3) Building Your Future - One of the constants in business is change. This is time you spend developing and improving your systems. It’s also time you spend on short-term and long-range planning. Are there other ways you could be productively generating income?

Just as importantly, this must include some time on marketing planning and strategy. What needs to be in the plan for what becomes your purposeful marketing activity?

4) Other Activities - This list is long and growing for most networkers and home business owners. It’s dealing with email, paperwork, bookkeeping, running errands, figuring out what’s wrong with that darn computer, organizing and filing, re-indexing your business card file, etc. The dreaded Other category is a huge time and energy waster that sucks the life out of your business success.

I’m sure you’d agree that most of your time should be spent in the first three categories with a majority in the “Income Producing” category. But, the reality of the situation is that too many network marketers spend a majority of their time (as much as 50 to 70%) in “other activities.” Some of that is justified because everyone has a certain amount of administrative duties to take care of. Unfortunately, most of the “other” category is simply wasted time.

That’s the bad news. Because if you’re spending over 50 to 70% of your time in other activities and only a couple of hours per week actively marketing, how do you ever expect to generate more income producing time? It’s a vicious cycle, buy many network marketers find themselves caught in it. Outsource or dump as many of the other activities as you can.

Now, in order to maximize your marketing time, you need to schedule it like you would a doctor or dentist appointment. That’s right, book an appointment in your calendar each and every week. Then be sure you keep the appointment times. People don’t ever break their dentist appointment, but they let distractions from the “other” category take them away from more important business activity all the time.

Imagine how much further along your network marketing business could be if you focused eight hours per week on marketing. You could…

• Improve your Attention Getting Message
• Map out and develop a systematic follow-up strategy
• Write a few killer articles and send them to article repositories to attract prospects
• Develop a special report to give away to prospects so you can build credibility and trust
• Actively participate on social networks by answering questions and providing useful information
• Brainstorm new referral strategies and map out follow-up processes
• Etc., etc., etc.

In just a few short months, you’ll be a more purposeful marketer. And I’d predict you’ll have shifted from “other activities” to more “income producing activities.” Get your calendar and schedule some time right now!