Effective marketing in about an hour a week - a small business example with Create Community Yoga

I regularly talk with small business owners as well as leadership with local Chambers and Main Street Associations about the challenges small businesses face with marketing.

I don't have time for marketing

Undoubtedly, one of the most common complaints we hear is, "I don't have time to do marketing."

Indeed, this is such a big blocker that we take time to address in our Marketing 3-4-5™ Workshops as well as our book "Marketing 3-4-5™: The Business Owner's Guide to Effective Local Marketing in 15-Minutes or Less"

Of course, this sounds reasonable as business owners are renowned for wearing many hats especially with the local hiring landscape.

Check out our 21-minute webinar highlighting 3 free things you can do to improve hiring for your small business.

What changes the conversation, however, is when I ask, "If you could do your marketing in an hour a week, through a few 15-minute activities, could you make time for that?"

There answer is almost always, "well, sure, I could do THAT!"

It turns out, THAT is what most small businesses need - just about an hour a week when they focus their limited time on the right things with the right tools.

One of our favorite software users

I've spent some time sharing the experience of Sarah Violett at Create Community Yoga. 

We started working with her some months ago, at that point she had no marketing and no website. Now she has both and she spends about an hour a week - here's her review of Locable.

"I love all the extra tools, I create a newsletter every week, its very easy and looks so good. I have been using the reviews tool which is also easy and I can send the reviews right to my website. I love all the different posts available for blogging. I have been happy with the technical support, I am not tech savvy, and you do not need to be."

How can she do "all" of her marketing in just an hour a week?

Let's be clear, an hour isn't sufficient to do everything you could possibly do, to be perfect, to be optimal.

An hour a week is sufficient to be effective and impactful.

But, the right tools also help.

Sending email newsletters should be fast

As you can see in the screenshot above, the last email she sent took her just 5-minutes from start-to-send. Our super fast approach that removes all design requirements is why we call the feature Express Email Newsletters ;)

I tease, those there's definitely truth to it, that Sarah is my favorite software user. We built Locable to help small business owners become more effective marketers and she's using the tools and approach we developed to do just that.

I'd take ten thousand more just like her.