“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient,” Warren Buffett famously said.

A similar principle applies in marketing.

Marketing is all about playing the long game. There are no quick wins in marketing. Victory goes to the patient.

The reason small businesses do marketing is to build trust, credibility and brand recognition – but those things take time to build. That’s why you need to emulate Buffett and play the long game.

The bad news is that playing the long game can be tiring. The good news is that most of your rivals will be too lazy to do it.