A client said something to me a while ago that I have not stopped thinking about.
“I didn’t realise how much headspace marketing was taking up until someone else was doing it.”
I don’t think she meant the hours. I think she meant the low hum of it. The post she should have written on Monday. The newsletter she promised herself in January. The website page that still says 2023.
The marketing you haven’t done weighs more than the marketing you have
Be honest. How many of these are sitting in your head right now?
- A half-written caption in your phone notes
- An email list you have not written to since [month]
- A Google Business Profile with the wrong opening hours
- An enquiry you meant to reply to on Friday
- A vague plan to “sort the website out” when things calm down
None of those takes long. An hour, maybe two. You carry them around for weeks anyway, and you carry them into the evening, the school run and the Sunday you had set aside for doing nothing.
I know this because I do it too. I do marketing for a living and I still had [your own example: the thing on your list for months] on my list for [how long].
Why it sits so heavy
Marketing has no finish line. You finish a client job and you can invoice it. You finish a post and there is another one due on Thursday.
It is also the part of your business nobody trained you for. You became a coach, a therapist, a jeweller or a builder because you are good at that. The marketing arrived with the business, like the bookkeeping, and nobody asked whether you wanted it.
So you do it in the gaps, you do it tired, and you feel behind before you start.
Three ways to put it down
1. Write the whole list out. Every marketing job in your head, on one page. Most people find the list is shorter than the feeling. Fifteen items on paper weigh less than fifteen items at 3am.
2. Cross off what you are not going to do. You do not need to be on four platforms. If you have not posted on [platform] since spring and no one has noticed, you have your answer. Cross it off on purpose and stop carrying it.
3. Decide who does the rest. For each job left, pick one: you do it this week, a system does it for you, or someone else does it. Jobs that repeat, like replying to enquiries and sending reminders, belong to a system. Jobs you dread belong to someone else.
That third one is where I come in. I look after marketing for business owners who would like it off their mind, and I set up Tilbe, my CRM, so the repeating jobs happen without you remembering them. See how I can help · Find out about Tilbe
You do not have to hand over all of it. Start with the list.
So, what is the one marketing job that has been on your mind the longest?
