Anyone that follows me on twitter will know that I'm quite a keen gardener. Last summer I pretty much managed to grow all our vegetables throughout the summer, and I was looking forward to this year being no different. To add to that I've recently been very interested in growing my own cut flowers, and had enthusiastically gone out and dug up a few new bits of lawn to create a cutting garden. I had big dreams of trugs full of vegetables and armfuls of cut flowers to give to friends as presents.
I started out the year enthusiastically, but to be honest, with a new baby, a business to run, a book to write and everything else us working mums have to contend with, I haven't been out there as much as I should. My little gems have bolted, the beets aren't doing well and the whole garden looks a bit of a mess. And it suddenly dawned on me today that gardening is a lot like marketing.
Every week I just need to do a little bit to my garden to keep the whole thing looking beautiful and becoming productive. I need to keep on top of the weeds, but I also need to thin out, harvest and plant new seed.
As Stephen Covey states, nature is a perpetual cycle that you can't cheat. You've got to do little bits in stages or you get this feast and famine effect. So it seems ludicrous that although we recognise that in gardening you need to do little and often, we expect quick fixes when it comes to our marketing.
Marketing, just as with your garden, has a process that takes time to make work. You've got to generate leads, build relationships, look after the clients you have and make sure you harvest – ie. close the deal as well. It's really not rocket science, you just need to put in a small amount of effort on a regular basis and you really will reap the rewards.
