Getting into the Marketing Flow

One of my biggest challenges since starting the zen kitchen almost a year and a half ago has been fitting in time to do all the marketing necessary to keep the business afloat (and, frankly, keep the workday a bit more interesting). While I actually managed to achieve all the goals I had set forth in my initial marketing plan (and in about the timeframe I had set forth too - without even looking at it again!), it's still a weekly challenge to get myself motivated to do all the things I've decided to do to market myself, evaluate what's working and what needs a shift, and do all that lovely strategic thinking that I'm just so GOOD at doing for the zen kitchen's clients.

So what's a gal to do? For me, the answer involved hiding out for a while and taking lots of long baths and meditating. It ALSO, however, involved revisiting my marketing plan and setting new goals for the next two quarters, as well as finally making good use of my paper planner (yes, I know, paper - but what can I say, I'm a journaler!) to keep me on track and note progress in the areas I've defined as my focus.

Some things you're likely to see from me over the next six months:

• More frequent blog posts (goal: 2-3 per week), and likely shorter ones;
• A more consistent schedule for my e-newsletter (which you can sign up for at the tzk website). I'm going for the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and might move to the 2nd Wednesday if that turns out to work better.
• A new, shorter format to the e-newsletter (right now it feels unmanageable, so I think I'm going to scale back on some of the more extraneous bits)
• A new website (finally), scaled-back on initial launch to include some basic info on why you should work with the zen kitchen (because you should, really!), but adding more features over the course of the next six months, including links to articles I've written and (eventually) some e-books.
• A new focus on ethically-driven businesses, and an unapologetic incorporation of food metaphors (after all, it is a kitchen, right?)

So hopefully, that'll take some of the overwhelm out of the whole marketing thang, and I'll be able to get this down. I'd love to hear about how you get into your own marketing flow. Drop me a comment and let me know what you're up to in your business (and I mean any kind of business).