There's a famous saying in time management attributed to Steven Covey about “putting the big rocks first”. In other words plan (and do) the big important things first and fit your less important tasks around them.

I've found the same is true in marketing.

In marketing, your big rocks are the big factors that have an impact across the board: your positioning in the marketplace, the value you're seen to offer to clients, your strategies for follow-up to nurture relationships.

Far too often we get obsessed by the tactics (and I have to say mea-culpa here – tactics are so interesting!)

We spend ages worrying about the subject lines for our emails. Obsessing over the elevator pitch we use to introduce ourselves. If we're technically minded we build big, complex marketing funnels to squeeze every last drop of profit from our campaigns.

But we often ignore the big rocks.

If we're seen as an authority in our field, we don't need super-optimised marketing.

If we have a lead magnet that's incredibly attractive to our ideal clients we'll get a steady stream of new contacts without having to spend every waking hour posting on social media.

If we have a systematic follow-up system we won't need to chase every shiny new marketing toy hoping for some kind of magical breakthrough.

Getting the big rocks right = big leaps in your impact. Focusing on the little rocks = incremental improvements.