You have a choice:  Urgent marketing or priority marketing

I had a great conversation today with a real estate agent about marketing and business, and she used the phrase "Tyranny of the Urgent."  I think that this phrase describes the way many of us run, and market our businesses.

"Tyranny of the Urgent" was an essay written in 1967 by Charles Hummel.  In this essay, Hummel makes a distinction between what is considered urgent...and what is considered priority.  It is a commentary, in part, about time management, and the choices we all make, as business owners, in growing our businesses.  As a cotton mill manager once told Hummel “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.”

Urgent marketing is reactive

• You create a blog because everyone else in the office has one.  Not a bad idea...but you're reacting.
• You run a newspaper ad...because the seller requests it.
• You put up a billboard on the same street as the office of your main competitors real estate office.  Yep, I've seen it done.
• You send out direct mail because it's the thing to do.

Read about proactive marketing and 6 specific things you can do to shift marketing priorities from urgent to important

Business is a series of interruptions...interrupted by more interruptions.

That's one of my favorite business quotes.  Let’s get out of the interruption trap.  We've all gone through the day, worked hard, then wondered what we really accomplished.  Work on the important stuff.  Business relationships.  Organizing your database.  Networking and referrals.  Blogging.  Don't say I don't have time for all that.  Remember, it’s not about time.  We all have the same about of time…24-hours per day, 7 days per week.  It's about the priorities.

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Chris Mitchell is the President and Founder of 25-8 Marketing, Inc, a full service advertising agency in Elk River, Minnesota. He plans and implements marketing programs for small to medium-sized businesses. Mitchell is a consultant, speaker and author and has worked with hundreds of companies. He has over 20 years of real-world advertising experience, and understands the marketing challenges of the small business owner.