One of my group coaching members asked this question recently: When the $#&% hits the fan, what marketing is essential and what can we drop?

One week later, one of my relatives landed in the hospital and I became the only visitor for his entire two-week stay. And while it was a great feeling to be able to support him in that way, it was disheartening to watch my marketing fall by the wayside.

So now I'm asking you:

When life gets in the way (as it invariably does), how do you know what marketing should stay and what marketing should go? 

Happily, we can also apply this to positive life events – vacation, anyone? Yes, please!

The goal here is to be able to fully engage in both positive and negative life events without having our marketing suffer and without having to take it with us.

Wait - My marketing doesn’t have to go on vacation with me? Cool… more room for books!

So let’s talk about it… 

What can we do to set up our marketing so that we’re still supporting our businesses even if we temporarily step away from it?

At the same time, how can we support ourselves emotionally so that we aren’t worrying about our businesses and instead, can be mindfully present wherever we are?

This answer is NOT the same for every person. It depends on your business, what you already do for your marketing, and what you consider essential.

Our individual answers to, “What is the essential marketing for my business that supports life events?” is tucked into the acronym: SEA

Or as I like to think of it...

How to set up your marketing so you’re not lost at SEA when the storm hits:

Sustainable: What is the marketing that you truly need to do to sustain your business?

This bears repeating: This is not about sustaining your marketing. It's about sustaining your business!

This is the difference between your Instagram post and your weekly email. If the people on your email list are more likely to buy from you than those following you on Instagram, then your weekly email marketing sustains your business and is on the “life-event-marketing” list, while your Instagram could probably skip a week without much impact.

Efficient: What could you do ahead of time so that it’s in a repository, ready for you to grab at a moment’s notice? 

This might be that second blog post that you had in mind but haven't yet sent. Write it in an evergreen style so it's applicable no matter when you send it, and then set it up so it's ready to go.

Automatable: What can you schedule ahead of time? 

We’re talking about the possibility of you being away from your marketing for a week or more, so the ability to set it up ahead of time and walk away is key. This means you can be sitting on a beach sipping a margarita while your blog is posting or your email is winging its way to your prospect’s inbox.

There’s one big catch to all of this: If you want to be prepared for the unexpected life event (which will happen whether you want it to or not!) these are strategies and messages that should be in place before you need them. 

This is one of the benefits of already using tools like social media automation and email marketing schedulers. They're in place and you know how to use them, so it's just more of the same with a bit more urgency. Add some pre-written grab-and-go content and you're up and running.

As a spontaneous person who struggles to plan, this is a place where it’s worth getting it figured out. In addition to supporting your marketing when you have to step away, it also relieves some of the worry and stress of “what if X happens?” Because let’s just be honest… at some point, X is going to happen. Better to plan for it in a positive, strategic way than to just close our eyes, cross our fingers, and hope.