Marketing can be a very challenging function for small businesses. It takes a lot of time and money to facilitate, which can deter businesses from making a determined effort. With all the numerous marketing options, time constraints, and limited budgets, it is fully understandable how businesses are struggling to execute effective marketing campaigns.
Marketing is essential for business growth, so typically the anxiety of failing campaigns becomes a very prominent thought for businesses. This type of negative thinking can lead to a belief that any attempt has a high possibility of failure, especially if the efforts are limited in placement and delivery. Truthfully, worry can be diminished when processes are streamlined. Once this happens, businesses become more resourceful and creative in their marketing, hence lowering headaches while building profit along the way.
Here are a few tips on how to combat common marketing frustrations:
Simplify Marketing Efforts
Stop making it more complicated than it is, and develop a simple, one-page marketing plan for a current service, event, or product. Make sure the goal, targets, and execution strategies are clearly and concisely defined. Most importantly, do not stress over too many details. The plan should be mapped out for easy execution and evaluation.  This will ensure measurement of progress and allow for any tweaks along the way.
Make the Time
Take the time necessary and try to not over think the process. Schedule at least two hours per week to work on promotional activities only. Segmenting a few hours for marketing provides more time to complete other business projects. Also, carve out 30 minutes a day to research and review new trends in your industry to share. This a simpler way of collecting and distributing information for your audience, to establish credibility and reliability as a good resource.
Budget for Marketing Activities
Marketing in a business is just as necessary as food for the body, and just like cooking on a budget, it takes creativity to produce a masterpiece. Develop a budget that is realistic in completing your marketing goal. Cut corners by using resources, such as Canva and Pixabay, which offer free options for developing marketing images for various uses. These easy-to-use resources can assist in creating incredible marketing pieces without breaking the bank.
Over complicating marketing efforts can confuse the process, which promotes actions that increase frustrations. For a growing business, this could be harmful in expanding. Thus, the development of a marketing plan, managing time, and creating a smart budget are critical for success. In order to do that, businesses should focus their efforts on simple, manageable, and affordable marketing to help magnify reach and encourage business growth without aggravation.
Sherron Washington, M.A. is a marketing strategist, author, speaker and  CEO of the P3 Solution, a full service marketing and communications that specializes in providing strategy, design and social media marketing solutions for businesses.  Follow her on Twitter @thep3solution