Do you ever have to prompt your kids to eat something, wear something, do something or go somewhere?
They resist; you persist because you want the best for them.
You’re selling, but you’re able to do that because ultimately you believe it’s best for them because you love them. You are delivering value by showing something that’s good for them.
Your kids are like the general public at large and your business is the parent that is trying to show them something of value.
I’ve been marketing since about the mid 1980’s. But I didn’t know I was marketing.
My favorite course in college was marketing. We reviewed businesses that excelled because they applied business fundamentals that introduced their products and services to consumers.
Then when I joined my father’s insurance agency.
My first thought was “I don’t want him to be the best kept secret.”
My other thought was “this could take a while. People need to get to know me.”
My mantra became “there’s no immediate gratification in a long term strategy.”
I networked and joined business organizations to meet other business owners. I created events to engage the community.
I grew revenue 800%. He was able to retire when I bought him out and then I sold my shares to my sister six years later.
It was all from marketing.
This was inspired by a conversation with a few of the Board members of an IDS Chapter in CT who brought me in to do a presentation. I asked, “what do you want me to talk about?”
I wanted to do something different from what may be expected.
I didn’t want to beat a dead horse with the obvious platitudes about marketing.
Nor debate about which is better:
Facebook vs. Linkedin
Posting in the morning or afternoon
Writing a Blog or recording a Vlog.
You don’t need me to tell you to post on social media.
It’s been trending for the past decade or more. Being an early adopter has left the station.
They said, “We’re overwhelmed. Many of us are Solopreneurs and doing everything ourselves.”
FEELING OVERWHELMED
Do you ever feel overwhelmed with marketing? I have good news and bad news.
I believe being overwhelmed is an opportunity to learn how to grow in some capacity.
Your business could be at the precipice of growing to the next level.
Being overwhelmed, to me, is the difference between doing the things we want to do and doing the things we think we should be doing. It’s an internal conflict. It’s why we procrastinate and make excuses instead of delegating.
A side effect of being overwhelmed is complacency.
I don’t want to steal my therapist’s thunder, but most of the time, many of us, in general, have the same doubts and fears.
People aren’t paying attention to us as much as we think they are. They’re too worried about their own stuff.
I’ve listened to hours of marketing podcasts where professionals share how they got started and invariably it begins with some fear and doubt as they stumble to figure things out.
Is there anyone here that DOESN’T want to grow to the next level?
Anything I share with you today is nothing i’ve not been through already.
I’ve worried. I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’ve doubted. And I’ve succeeded.
Marketing is not an event. It’s a process.
And when it comes to process, we don’t seek perfection, we strive for progress.
Who has a purpose they are trying to accomplish?
Marketing is about understanding our purpose and the goals we set to achieve the fulfillment of our purpose along with the good we want to put out into the world.
Sometimes it feels like marketing it’s not always practical or executable.
It’s too much, we’re too busy. We can always find an excuse. I know I do.
If we’re following our purpose, it’s practical.
If we’ve not achieved all of our goals yet, we must make it executable.
i can talk to you about tactics and techniques, but it’s boring, and you know it already.
You can google everything and anything for FREE. You know more than you know.
It’s the motivation, inspiration and creativity that we seek sometimes.
I’ve been saying for years:
You have to start somewhere in order to celebrate progress.
It’s basic benchmarking.
Rachel Hollis said it better,
“You can’t get to great if you aren’t putting “good enough” out in the world.”
Rachel Hollis also wrote a book about the lies she told herself and how she overcame them.
I’m going to share the lies I told myself when I started social media in 2009:
- I have nothing to say.
- No one is listening to me.
- I don’t have an audience.
- There is so much noise, no one is finding my stuff.
This is ego hijacking our brains.
Because the truth is:
- I was most talkative in high school. So, Duh!
- I’ve been hired so people are listening.
- I’ve built an audience.
- I started with my inner circle & circle of influences to let them know what I’m doing out here in the world.
CONNECTION
Remember when we discussed purpose? There’s a reason I didn’t say passion or profit first.
Who doesn’t love financial gain? With profit, sometimes we let our money junk get in the way. Sometimes we charge too little or too much or we procrastinate because we don’t know what to charge or how to charge.
With passion, we keep ourselves mired in minutia because it’s an art or it’s too important and it has to be perfect and we don’t let go.
Purpose allows us to dig deep within ourselves to reveal and share our values. And values have impact.
Impact will tempt people to pause and perhaps notice you. And the more they notice you, the more likely they will remember you. When they remember you, they will buy from you when they need your products and/or services.
Your marketing strategy should include your story. People don’t want to feel alone. They want to connect.
We’re biologically wired to connect as humans.
Sharing your story, your struggle to make it in this business causes connection. People can relate.
No one cares what you post unless they know that you care. Thank you Theodore Roosevelt.
Let’s talk about the “Judgey Judge Judys” in the world. If anyone judges your content and proclaims it as a failure, thank them. It’s a gift. It’s called feedback. Feedback directs us on how to improve. It’s not about perfection, it’s about progress.
Y’all still with me?
CONTENT
Content is king; consistency is key.
It doesn’t have to be all business all the time. The best marketing is when people don’t pontificate all the time with all that they know.
No matter your industry, build in visuals. I don’t want to invite you to my pity party, but I used to post about insurance.
Now, with my new business, I post about Business Credit Financing. It’s not very exciting content.
Find the emotion. You’re bringing your product or service to life.
Here are some things you can do to stockpile content for your business.
- Photographically document your process, parts of the process, pieces of the process.
- Train your clients to know you’ll be wanting their feedback along the process. Ask how they are feeling and why they are feeling that way. Bring them into the process.
Why is this beneficial?
You want to know what they are feeling at all times because this provides relatable events with what other people are feeling. This provides direction on your how your content will reach people who may need you in the future.
Document and/or develop “case studies” to capture a keyword library for you to enrich your content though your clients’ experience.
- What is their Pain
- What are their Problems
- What are your Solutions
- What is their Satisfaction
Lewis Howes, renowned podcaster of the School of Greatness said “Create what you would want to listen to if you were stuck, starting out or striving.”
People are paying you for your perspective. They have a problem. You have a solution.
Your job is to find more problems so you can help them solve it.
You are doing a disservice by not sharing your solutions and your creativity.
In my previous business, I amassed 13,000 Twitter followers. When I first started using Twitter, I politely stalked my competition & strategic alliances to see what they were posting and how their content was relevant to a similar audience I was trying to develop.
Let’s go back to feeling and/or being overwhelmed.
Who feels that sometimes, somedays maybe they squander 30 minutes here and there?
Maybe you’re binge watching Netflix.
Maybe you’re aimlessly scrolling Facebook or Instagram.
Did you know that 30 minutes per day is 182.5 hours which is almost 23 days lost which is more than 3 weeks potentially squandered vs. being productive.
How will you start taking that time back?