Whenever I recruit for a new member of the team, I usually don’t ask for someone with marketing experience, but more for someone who is organised and has good admin skills.

Why?

Because the vast majority of marketing I personally think is admin based and about being organised. Think about it:

• Making calls to potential clients and following up

• Sending out emails

• Creating newsletters

• Writing brochures, literature etc

• Following up after networking events

To name but a few possible marketing tasks are all admin based, so when you’re doing your own marketing, if you’re good at admin and you’re organised, you’re not going to go far wrong.

But, let’s look at when this is a problem. It’s so easy for marketing not to work because of lack of organisation.

Imagine going to a networking event and then following up with everyone afterwards. Great job – that’s exactly what you should be doing.

But then imagine in the follow up email saying that you’ve met someone at the networking event when you haven’t – that’s down to organisation.

Here are some other areas where organisation plays a big part in marketing:

1. Not having a list of everyone who has expressed interest in your products and services so that you can properly follow them up

2. Not updating your website on a regular basis

3. Missing meetings and deadlines because you haven’t put them in the diary

4. Not sending information you’ve promised to someone who has asked for it

5. Running out of business cards before a networking event because you’ve forgotten to order some more.

Not being organised creates an impression of you and your business which can reflect very badly if someone is looking to use your products and services. Because marketing is so much about admin and being organised, it will serve you well to get some help in this area if it’s not one of your strong points. You might want to consider:

• Going on a training course about organisation and time management.

• Hiring someone who has got skills in this area to help you out.

• Working with a virtual assistant who can handle everything for you.

Whatever you decide to do, getting organised can often be the key to making marketing work for you, so it’s well worth getting sorted!