My bookkeeper recently told me many of the small businesses that she’s seen fail have one thing in common they don’t prioritize marketing. This sounds incredibly obvious, but the fact that so many companies fall prey to “under-marketing” makes the issue worth looking at.

Under-marketing usually occurs when a business owner becomes too busy with new product development, processing current workflow, daily business management, and other tasks and doesn’t focus on marketing.

This pattern can do significant damage. Without ongoing marketing efforts, few growing companies can stay afloat. A lack of marketing can lead to lag time between projects, which ultimately impacts cash flow. Time spent on tasks other than marketing may improve the way a business operates or reduce its overhead, but without new business coming in the door, these improvements are meaningless.

Consistent marketing is a matter of discipline and planning. Fitting it into a busy schedule often means breaking marketing activities into manageable chunks. Use the following strategies to make sure you devote sufficient time to this critical business task.

-Chip away at it. Don’t let a week go by without some marketing activity. Send press releases, plan events, approach potential customers or take other steps to make sure your company is in a position to get noticed. The right amount of time to set aside each week will depend on your line of work and sales cycle.

-Set goals. If you’re a typical entrepreneur, you respond well to challenges. Marketing is one area where you can challenge yourself to enhance your skills and performance continuously. For instance, set a goal to steadily increase the number of cold calls you make each week or pick a date to finish a direct mail campaign you’ve been planning.

-Be realistic. The goals you set should be practical. Setting goals too high may make you vulnerable to accepting defeat before you even figure out the best tactics for your business.

For example, planning to set aside 20 hours each week for marketing is probably too aggressive, especially if your company is young and your attention is needed in many areas. A more reasonable goal would be to increase the number of outreach calls you make each week by a set amount or to begin sending out press releases twice each month.

-Squeeze it in. Don’t overestimate the amount of time each marketing activity takes. While it may take months to roll out a successful direct mail campaign, many marketing activities can be completed in a matter of minutes by dropping them in between your daily tasks.

For example, you can research potential customers online before morning meetings, spend 15 minutes contacting the most promising prospects after lunch, and then set aside a few minutes at the end of your day to call a local reporter to pitch a story idea related to your business.

-Get others involved. You may be able to streamline your marketing efforts by approaching existing clients and business partners for referrals who may need your product or service. Turning a warm lead, instead of a cold one, into a customer usually takes less time.

-Schedule it. All marketing tasks, big and small, are more likely to get accomplished if you put them in your calendar, especially if you’re disciplined about using this scheduled time to search for new business. Without putting it on your calendar, you may find that you are pushing it off week after week, without even realizing it.

Alice Bredin is author of the “Virtual Office Survival Handbook” (John Wiley & Sons) and a nationally syndicated columnist.