1) Outline your current marketing activities. Which techniques work? Which ones are a waste of time? Measure the quantity of new business that each method achieves, as well as the quality of business sent to you by each technique. If something proves to be a dud, think about either optimizing the process or dropping it to free up time for other marketing activities.

2) How often do you contact your current clients? Do you stay in touch with paying customers regularly and reward them for their continued relationship with your business? If not, why not? Is there a good reason for people not to return, or are you losing your most valuable asset -- a bird in the hand, so to speak -- after one-time sales? If your business is a legitimate one-time deal (such as a wedding vendor), is there a way of getting current customers to refer others to you?

3) Do you have an ezine or other marketing tool that allows you to stay in regular contact with your prospects and current client base? People will tend to forget about you if they're not reminded of what you have to offer. Once a month is about the longest amount of time you should wait between contacts, which makes an ezine one of the best ways to get the word out.

4) Do you regularly seek out new prospects? If not, what could you do to expand your marketing horizons? Would a quarterly postcard campaign help? Would participation on online forums send more customers your way?

5) How many contacts do you ordinarily have to make before you close a deal? If the odds of finding a new customer are 30 to 1 and you need 6 new clients a month to grow your business at the rate you desire, are you contacting 180 prospects every month? If not, it's time to start.

6) Is there something you can implement every month that forces you to do the marketing work? As I have already mentioned, an ezine is a good method to ensure that you stay in touch regularly. When there's no one egging you on to get your marketing done, it's hard to be disciplined about it. In my case, my ezine forces me to think about my marketing on a regular basis.

But an ezine is only one of many, many ways to create a marketing schedule for yourself. You could also implement monthly specials, a once-a-month teleseminar series related to your field or set up a blog. Setting aside time on a regular basis turns a chore into a habit that will be a major boost to your business!

7) List the 3 major reasons why you don't take the time to market as often as you should. What can you change to be able to accommodate more time for marketing? Is there work that you could outsource in order to be able to market yourself more regularly? Anything nonessential that you could outsource would allow you more time to bring in more business; conversely, hiring a small business marketing professional can take some of the burden off of you. Changing just 1 habit will make a big difference.

8) Assess your marketing results once a month. What works? What doesn't? What can you do better next time? Learning from your mistakes is the best addition to your marketing mix of all.

If you make marketing a part of your regular routine, you will gain confidence in your ability to generate new business -- and even better, you'll see your business start to grow!

 ---------------
Want more marketing tips like these? Published by Jennifer McCay, the free Avenues to Marketing Success Newsletter helps small business owners like you find more clients more easily without selling their souls. Sign up today at http://AvenueEast.com or read Jennifer's Small Business Marketing Blog at http://AvenueEast.com/blog/blog.html