By Ben Molfetta

As business owners we’re all extremely busy and constantly having to make choices about how to spend our time. One of the areas we often neglect is marketing, and more specifically, online marketing.

But if you want to get a business benefit from your online presence, you must spend the time. Like anything worth doing, online marketing will only give back if you put effort into it. You can’t “set it and forget it”.

To get optimal results from your online marketing activities, you have to commit to relentless execution.

For the busy business owner who knows the value of online marketing, but can’t afford to hire an outsourced online marketing company, our recommendation is simple: spend one hour per day on your online marketing activities.

Online Marketing in One Hour per Day

Here’s an example of how you could spend this time over the course of a week:

•    Monday – Write a Blog: Online marketing is all about content. Blogs help you get found on search engines, they help you convert leads, they provide additional value to your existing customers, and they build your brand.
•    Tuesday – Interact and Post on Social Media: Your prospects and customers want to interact with you on social media. In one hour, you could reply to questions, post interesting articles, and engage in a conversation with your target audience.
•    Wednesday – Create an Online Advertisement: You have lots of options for advertising online that can drive good quality inbound leads. Examples are Google AdWords or Facebook advertising.
•    Thursday – Send an Email: Craft and send an email to your prospects or your current customers. Tell them about a promotion you’re having, or direct them to the blogs you’ve been posting. Emails provide a direct line of contact with your target audience and are an effective communications tool.
•    Friday – Check the Google Analytics for Your Website: Analysis will always be central to online marketing. Spend an hour on Google Analytics and try to get an idea of how your website is performing. Measuring your online marketing activities will provide insight as to what you need to do to get better results.

Don’t Just Take My Word for It!

Stan Prokop, Principle of 7 Park Financial, decided to try the “one hour per day” approach for his business. He chose to spend the hour writing a daily blog for his website.

This was Stan’s experience:

“After attending one of Core’s online marketing seminars, I made a commitment to creating a daily blog. It’s what I do for an hour first thing in the morning, and have been consistently doing for the past three years. I have accumulated roughly 1800 blogs over that time, and the results have been extremely worthwhile”.

“For some important keywords, all the search engine results on page one are my blogs. More importantly, my business has quadrupled since the blogs started to increase my online visibility. I am securing business from other countries, something that would never have happened without connecting with my target audience through blogging.”

–    Stan Prokop

As I tell everyone who attends our seminars, dabbling in online marketing won’t cut. I recognize that everyone is busy, so just chip away at it. Do your best to carve out an hour a day for online marketing and – here’s the key – stick to it. You may not quadruple your business like Stan did, but over time you will achieve positive business results.

Ben Molfetta is the co-founder of Core Online Marketing. He helps small and mid-sized businesses grow by planning, implementing, and executing winning online marketing strategies. Visit coreonlinemarketing.com or email Ben at [email protected]