last week I talked about the importance of marketing even when you're busy with client work.

This week I'm going to share some examples of just how you can do that.

The first approach is the simplest, and perhaps the most effective. It's simply to block out a regular slot for marketing.

That slot could be half a day a week, or two morning sessions or whatever.

The key is that no client project should need you to work every hour of the day every day of the week.

It might seem like that at times. But no client really needs you there “24/7”. When you're agreeing and setting up your work if you focus on the value and outcomes they'll get rather than the hours you put in then your time becomes much more flexible downstream.

If you work on-site with clients, don't try to do your marketing from there. It's disrespectful and you'll be disturbed anyway. Spend a morning working from home, your office, your hotel room, a coffee shop. Anywhere that gets you away from the day-to-day environment.

Once you have your slot, the next step is to get off to a fast start.

One problem many of us have is that it takes us ages to “get on a roll” with our marketing.

Because its not second nature, when we sit down to focus on marketing we find we need to think from scratch about what to do with our time, what our priorities are.

Then when we do decide, we've got to get ready. Find those client contact details. Get out our notes on that presentation we were preparing. Search for those emails we were going to reply to.

By the time we get our act together we've lost half our marketing time.

So make sure you're well organised. Keep a special notebook for marketing ideas and plans so you always know where to look. Flag your potential client's contact details in your CRM or email system so you can find them easily.

When you plan your week, include your marketing activities so that when you sit down in doing mode you don't um and ah for ages trying to figure out what to focus on.

Once you've got your slot and you've got going, the third step is to make sure you don't waste your time.

No surprises here: switch off email. Switch off your phone. Switch off twitter and facebook. Switch off anything else that might distract you.

It's a feature of modern life that we seem to need stimulation and interruption every few minutes. It's like we can't bear to be alone with our own thoughts in silence.

But it's those silent moments where we're the most productive. Where ideas hit us. Where we get “in flow” and rattle off our presentation slides in 30 minutes.

Don't disturb the flow. Difficult as it may seem, you need to disconnect and block interruptions.

Even put a “do not disturb” sign on your door. Or put on some headphones to block outside noise (and avoid people disturbing you).

One final tip: fit your marketing to the time and resources you have available.

Back when I was an employed consultant I ended up running a project pretty much full time in Utrecht.

Unfortunately, Utrecht was nowhere near any of the clients I wanted to build relationships with – so face to face marketing was out.

And it was one of those projects that involved intense face to face client work almost all the day. It was incredibly tricky to slip away to make calls or work on marketing.

So I ended up doing my marketing late in the evenings in my hotel room.

Instead of kicking back watching TV or socialising, I made sure I spent an hour or so every night doing marketing I could work on in isolation but leverage later.

I wrote white papers. Created presentations. Emailed ex clients and contacts to keep in touch. Got busy on Linkedin.

You can't do “back office marketing” forever. But while I was stuck unable to do anything face to face I made sure I used the time I had productively.

There's always something you can do to further your marketing no matter how restricted you are for time and space. It just takes a little thought.

So think about how you're using your time. As I said last week, one of the biggest keys to keeping a full pipeline is to keep marketing when you're busy with client work.

Make sure you're one of the few that does it.