As a one or two-person EDO office, it can be a struggle to keep up with marketing (not to mention all of your other daily to-do’s!).
You’re overworked. You’ve got too many day-to-day prospect to-do’s happening that you absolutely have to deal with.
So your marketing plan implementation, strategic planning, and content calendar all end up being put on the back burner.
And later, when one of your elected officials or a stakeholder asks you what you’ve done proactively, all you’ve got is a blank stare.
Yikes!
It can all feel very stressful. But the good news is – it’s not too late to get started so you’re prepared to give a great report to stakeholders.
Here’s what you can do:
Step 1:
Carve out an entire day, pretend like you’re going on vacation and do a little work-cation. Maybe see if you can borrow a conference room from a local business so that you’re not listening to your phone ringing all the time in the office.
Step 2:
Then, sit down and:
- Map out your content calendar for the year.
- Brainstorm the blogs that you’re going to write.
- Write a “shitty first draft” of your blogs. (Get your initial ideas on paper on a messy doc, which will make it easier to do a second draft later.)
Step 3:
Get support! Here are two ideas for that.
One great way to get support is through hiring interns. Figure out what you could delegate if you were to hire an intern. Then, you can bring in somebody from a local community college to help you.
- If photography is your struggle because you don’t have any cool pictures to share on social media or to fill out your website, get a photography intern.
- If content is your struggle, get an intern from the communications department, or an English major. Give them some basic ideas for blog posts that they can draft for you. Often, for many of us, it is easier to edit a draft than it is to stare at a blank page. So hire the interns and have them stare at the blank page. 🙂
Or, you could establish a marketing committee.
- Go to your local newspaper and see if somebody in their advertising department will help. Or visit your local radio station, TV station, billboard company, or a large corporate business that has a marketing department.
- Get together three of those marketing directors from your local businesses and see if they’ll let you sit down and pick their brain over lunch one day. Or see if they’ll give you two or three hours where they can help you craft some of this stuff. Maybe they’ve got an intern or a new employee that isn’t fully utilized and can spend one hour a week helping you to draft content.
No matter what your current situation is, there IS an available solution. Remember, your marketing isn’t just another task on your plate – it’s a direct pipeline to getting prospects, leads, and expansions!
One more question: is your website working for you – or against you?
When it works FOR you, it can get you leads while you’re working on everything else! Sounds great, right? Make sure that your website has the top 5 non-negotiables for getting leads and expansions.
Click below to get the free guide!
