How often have you said to yourself “That just doesn’t work for my business”? I’ll wager you have said it more than once when a marketing idea fails to live up to the hype.
“Social media doesn’t work for my business” or “That only works when you have insane amounts of friends or followers.”
That’s only partly true. Some things don’t work when you’re small, just like others don’t work well when you are large. Your small business can’t spend 20 million on ads yearly, yet Coco Cola probably spends that on a single ad campaign. On the flip side, you could go to a farmers’ market and make a killing.
The one thing every business should have in common, however, is consistency. If Coke only ran one ad a year, they would be out of business. And if you only show up once and never return, no one will ever remember you.
Front of mind is absolutely critical. And yet, we as homesteaders often forget that while we try to live using skills lost to the past, our businesses are living in today’s world. We need to show up and show up often.
So how can you show up more consistently to your audience? Here are six short tips to get you started.
Decide on key goals
Let’s pretend for a minute that you want to lose some weight. What would you do? I bet first you would decide how much weight you want to lose.
Measurement is key. What you measure will get done.
If you want a larger audience, you first need to know how big your existing audience is. Then you can set a reasonable goal to see growth.
If you are running ads, you need to track how effective those ads are. Otherwise, you are just wasting money.
And I said reasonable goal above. If you have 100 followers, a goal of 10,000 is probably not going to work.
Plus, a good goal needs a time frame to motivate your progress. If I want to reach 1000 followers eventually, there is always tomorrow. Set a date to keep you on track. 1000 followers in 6 months.
Schedule time and keep it
If you never give yourself time to make progress, how will you ever get there?
Set an appointment with yourself, block out the time, and stick to it. If you want to be consistent, you must make regular time to do what you plan to do.

I have an appointment scheduled on my calendar each week dedicated to marketing.
Let’s face it, we all often get so busy working in our business that we forget to work on our business. Your business is just as important as any customer you have. If not more, because without your business, you have no customers.
Make yourself a customer, schedule the time, and do it.
Create a marketing calendar
Just as you need to plan when to work on your marketing, you need to plan what to work on.
A marketing calendar gives you a schedule of what activities should be done and when. If your calendar is detailed enough, you can even plan the specific item well in advance.
For example, my newsletter is scheduled around a month ahead of time. And my social posts are usually a week in advance.
It does not mean I can’t change something. This article will be slotted in ahead of the next shared article. But I don’t have to worry about forgetting to do a post today. Or if something comes up and I am busy, my post goes up without me.
Batching content together also helps.
When you batch content, you create lots of the same thing during the allotted time. An example of batching would be recording three different videos while you have everything set up. And if you want to be fancy, you can change your wardrobe.
Figure out what works for you, create a calendar, and stick with it.
Plan a time to review
Marketing often takes time to see results.
You spend months publishing articles feeling like nothing is happening and then bam. An article takes off. You gain 50 followers from a single post. And it’s six weeks old.
Content takes time to get traction. How much time depends on the medium. And some stuff never goes anywhere.
As part of your marketing, take some time every so often to review what you have done in the past. See how your efforts resonate with your audience. Is there a trend you’re seeing?
Back in 2020, with everyone home constantly, I saw an uptick in some of my articles about blogging. People had more time at home to play around and try new things. Just like sourdough became all the rage.
Don’t chase a trend on a whim. But let the data help you plan your future efforts.
If no one ever visits your blog, it might not be the right media for you. Maybe try video, or micro-blogging on social media.
The same goes for platforms. I almost quit Pinterest. No one ever seemed to click on my posts. Then one day, I started getting traffic. I might not put much effort into the platform, but it does produce results.
Focus your time on returns and rank things that work. Drop those that don’t.
Don’t give up too quickly
Just like my Pinterest example above, you must give your efforts time to breathe.

If you post every day on Instagram for two months straight, and then give up, it’s unlikely you will ever see a result.
A marathon runner doesn’t run a full marathon just by getting up one day. They train day after day, rain or shine until one day they can run the marathon.
If the runner gives up on day 3 because they don’t feel any stronger, they never will be. Your efforts are cumulative until you hit the tipping point and you’re there. Stop short and you fail.
Marketing is exactly the same. Your efforts require time and regular practice to see results.
Give up too soon and your message fades away into nothing. Instead, give yourself enough time to let the efforts compound and grow.
Create an idea bank
You likely won’t have a “marketing emergency” unless you count running out of donuts. So instead, you need to pool up the ideas.
As humans, we work best with our heads down focused. But it’s so much easier to focus and make progress when we have ideas to work from.
And if you are like me, some of your best ideas happen when your brain is off wandering instead. Ideas come while in the shower, while driving, or falling asleep.
Instead of acting in that very second on those ideas, write them down. Create an idea bank that during your “marketing hour” on your calendar you can pull from. This not only gives your brain time to confirm the idea is useful, but it keeps you on track.

Your idea bank should also contain a “swipe” section. Take notice of the ads, videos, and media around you. Whenever you hear or see a notable example of marketing, make a note. Write it down or take a screenshot to save it.
Review your swipe file and see if you can use these in your own business. Why do you need all the extra leg work when someone else has a great idea?
Now I am not saying copy their work. But do your spin on that idea.
Use your content bank to fill your marketing pipeline without having to spend hours thinking before you can generate a single item.
