My Top Time Management Tip for Marketing Craft Food Brands

Good Food Marketing with The Virginia Foodie

“If you want steady sales, you need steady marketing.” I heard this first from my friend and mentor, Ilise Benun, but I will never tire of sharing that bit of wisdom.
But what does steady marketing mean for the Good Food industry?
Well, it means many of the same things as for any business. A healthy, thriving, steady marketing program relies on five components:

• Your sales strategy
• Your annual marketing plan
• A reasonable budget
• A consistent schedule
• Reliable systems for deploying your tactics

Steady is the operative word here. Many leaders, from large to small businesses alike, take marketing for granted. So many resources are invested in creating a product, and marketing often comes secondary to production. A common misconception is that sales will come naturally as long as products are made available.
Marketing draws buyers to you. Your products won’t sell if they can’t be found. You need a consistent schedule with reliable systems for deploying your tactics, all leading to what every business wants to achieve—sales and growth. This is why I see time-blocking as an integral part of creating a marketing plan.
As a leader of your own Good Food business, I know you’re juggling a lot of things at once. That’s why you can’t afford to lose time on those critical marketing projects. Segregating your activities into the right time blocks will help you efficiently manage your business and drive it toward success.
Virginia Foodie Essentials:

• A healthy, thriving, steady marketing program relies on these five components: your sales strategy, annual marketing plan, a reasonable budget, a consistent schedule, and reliable systems for deploying your tactics. - Georgiana Dearing
• As a leader, time management is one of the hardest things you may have to face. - Georgiana Dearing
• Putting marketing on your calendar as a task to attend to is central to having a steady, consistent marketing machine that pulls prospects to you in ways that support your sales goals. - Georgiana Dearing
• Living in a perpetual state of urgency can cause burnout and even result in some health issues. Time blocking is one tool that allows you to focus on specific functions of running your business during specified times. - Georgiana Dearing

Key Points From This Episode:

• Like any other business, Good Food brands need a healthy, thriving, steady marketing program that relies on five components: sales strategy, annual marketing plan, reasonable budget, consistent schedule, and reliable systems for deploying tactics.
• As a leader, it isn’t easy to manage time, so it is essential that you set an effective time management strategy.
• Sometimes you can’t adhere to your time-blocking plan, especially in sickness, crisis, or other unexpected events, but it’ll help get you back on track.
• Marketing projects won’t happen unless you prioritize them.
• What time-blocking looks like for me and my business: Monday is for marketing, Tuesday’s for outreach, Wednesday is set for money, Thursday is for coaching, and Friday is for thinking and any overflow tasks.

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Marketing Made Easy

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