How much time does it take to do your own marketing?

Doing your own service business marketing can take 10 to 20 hours a week when you’re researching customer questions, planning content, editing videos, and writing captions for different platforms. That’s Protocol Text’s estimate for that workload, not a requirement for every business. The time you need depends on how much you publish and which tasks you handle yourself.

Count the work around making the content

Recording a video is only part of the job. Before you record, you have to think about the content you’re going to make and research what questions people are asking. Afterward, there’s editing, caption writing, and getting the content onto each channel.

If you run a home service business, those tasks have to fit around the work you already do. A short video can still come with a long list of decisions.

As the owner of Protocol Text puts it, without help, “you essentially have to become a marketer.” That’s where the 10 to 20 hours a week can come from: taking responsibility for the whole process rather than just sharing what you know.

What Protocol Text takes off your plate

Protocol Text is a marketing services business based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our approach is to reduce how much of the content process you have to manage yourself.

In the process described here, you sit down for two hours, and we edit the videos and distribute the content across ten different channels. You bring your knowledge of the work. We handle the video editing and distribution.

That two-hour session describes your content contribution. It isn’t a promise that every marketing task for your business will fit into two hours, and it doesn’t establish how often you’ll need a session. Ask about the schedule and any other responsibilities when you’re comparing options.

Compare the work you’ll still have to do

Before choosing software, outside help, or a fully DIY approach, write down who will handle each task:

• Researching the questions your customers ask.
• Choosing topics and preparing the content.
• Recording and editing videos.
• Writing captions for each platform.
• Publishing the content across the channels you use.

For anything assigned to you or your team, put time on the calendar. If there’s no room for it, that’s a gap to resolve before committing to the plan.

Decide how much marketing work you want to own

Doing it yourself may make sense if you want to learn the process and have time to keep doing it. Getting help may make sense if researching, editing, and publishing would keep pulling you away from running the business.

You don’t need to become a full-time marketer to contribute useful content. If you’re considering Protocol Text, ask us to walk through what happens during the two-hour session, what we handle afterward, and what still needs your attention.