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small business marketingInbound marketing is the best thing a small business owner can do to promote their business and build a loyal following. But writing content and promoting in social media can be very time consuming. Every workshop I deliver there is always someone that asks, “Do we have to do all of this?” The answer is yes!  And then I ask, “What is a client or customer worth to you?”

Before I get into the numbers I also want to have you remember the days not too long ago when your only option to compete with the big boys in town was to buy more ads in the paper, on the radio, and on television. Most of us were unable to do any of those.  Today, we can compete evenly because all we need are a couple hours a day or less to publish our own content!

A good inbound marketing plan includes writing a blog article (like this one) as often as you can. I am trying to write 5 per week.  It takes me about 20 – 30 minutes because I am writing about things I know or things I read about.

Then I post my article to social media like Facebook and LinkedIn.  I am sure to match my audience with the content. That takes me another 20 or 30 minutes, because while I am in there I respond to posts of my followers.

When I am feeling creative, I will work on my ebook, which I will use to draw even more people in to my website. My goal is to create one per month on topics my audience will be interested in.Yours goals will be different.

At this point, you may need to consult with your webmaster to make sure you have a nice landing page and call to action on your website so you can begin your lead nurturing campaign.

So what is a new client/customer worth to you?

If you are diligent with the above actions and set aside a couple hours per day then you can be very successful at drawing in new clients over the long term.  The full discussion on inbound marketing takes a bit more space than I plan to use here. But for today, let’s just say we are using two of our most creative hours to work on getting new clients and customers.

First you should determine what an hour of your time is worth.  I did this by dividing my average monthly expenses by the number of normal hours worked in a month.

$2000 month / 160 hours = $12.50 per hour

If I am putting in two hours per day, then I am committing $25 per day. Remember, this is really just for discussion sake. You can get more detailed if you want.

Now let’s see what an average customer or client is worth to you.  In my business, the life of a client is about 3 years and is worth about $5000 on average over that three years.

$5000 / 36 = $138.88 a month

My goal is to get 20 new clients per month which equates to $2777.60 the first month, $5555.20 the next month (because I am still getting the average for the first new 20 from the first month) and so on.

So is it worth two hours of your day to work on your inbound marketing plan? It is very addictive and fun once you get into it!

Who will commit at least two hours per day with me to promote your small business?