Don’t waste your investment in your marketing!
Emma Mills, Marketing, Content and Website Specialist
Helping service-based businesses grow ?? Marketing, Copywriting, Branding & Strategy ?? Website Design, Build & Review ?? Mentoring & Training
It is so easy to invest in loads of ‘stuff’ as a small business owner; online courses, subscriptions to marketing tools, workshops, networking, branding, social ads, and more. Likewise investing your precious time in developing content to promote your services but seeing no engagement or sales inquiries from all that time spent.
All this means it is then too easy to lose momentum, or sometimes never make the most of anything you have invested in! What seems like a great deal cost-wise then gets no return because there’s too much else on your to-do list. Or, before you know it, the trial is up, the course is no longer available, the content is out of date or the membership is up for renewal and you’ve never made the most of it.
And I’ll admit – I have been guilty of this. I have wasted money, signing up for courses that I never completed and when I had the time, the course was out of date. Another regular investment was booking to attend networking events and being too busy to do so!
Do you lack time to make the most of your marketing?
I know all too well that everyday work takes priority for small business owners or solopreneurs as we all have to generate an income, especially in the current COVID-19 challenged times. Also, when your business is just you there is never enough time to fully implement something new, even harder to accomplish if it’s completely out of your comfort zone!
Do you lack clarity on how to make the most of your marketing?
There is all too often a lack of clarity for many around what marketing to invest in that will be sustainable for you to manage and give you a return too. There is so much choice and many are swayed by the dreaded FOMO so you jump on everything and then pay it lip service in terms of focus. After a while, you then wonder why it’s not generating any new clients or interest in your services. A case in point is social media – lots of channels to be active on and many feel they need to get a profile created on them all and then get totally overwhelmed because it takes so much time to manage, or is costly to outsource.
Does any of this sound familiar?
If it does, please read on……
This week I will step in and host the education section for my monthly networking meeting for another member, who is a social media trainer and highly experienced marketer too. Part of our networking membership is access to a monthly training video and as part of my prep for being her stand-in, I watched her edition with interest. I realised I was nodding at everything throughout the piece as it is exactly what I teach and encourage of my own clients on how to best use their precious time and budget when it comes to their marketing.
The overriding message from this education session, which is based on our own respective and extensive years of marketing for others and ourselves, is to choose just 1, a maximum of 2, social media platforms.
Yes, that’s right, no more than 2! This allows you time to consistently show up and engage, every single day, without it having to take up hours of your time. It allows you to invest in training to really master your chosen platforms as this will give you the knowledge and confidence to use them to their full potential and start to see traction on your investment.
It doesn’t have to be social media, of course, it does have to be the marketing channels that are going to get you noticed and build rapport with your target audience. I use social media as an example because it is a cost-effective way to market your service because if you manage it and don’t choose to advertise, it’s your time investment over any financial commitment. If you really don’t have the time or inclination but you do have the budget – then I highly recommend you outsource and get on with working on aspects of your business that you enjoy!
What you cannot do is ignore any investment in marketing at all.
However, a word of caution here. Make sure you have a defined strategy and plan first, or choose to outsource to someone who can work with you on these critical elements of your marketing. Either way, you need to be crystal clear on who your audience is, where they are and the messages you need to be using in your marketing content to resonate with them so they want to know more about your services and buy from you.
If you merrily outsource your social media without these in place, then you will be wasting your money!
Why? Because marketing using these channels is not about huge follower numbers or friends in the thousands or posting random unrelated content each day with no goal or consistency. Unfortunately, I see this style of content being published all too often on behalf of businesses. Your goal with social media (in fact any marketing) is to create interest and engagement from a specific audience who are best suited for the services and results you offer through consistent and targeted content and engagement.
If you would like some clarity on 1 or 2 marketing activities so your investment in marketing gets you a decent ROI (and your ideal clients wanting to sign up!) then take advantage of my free 30-minute review – book your spot today.
#smallbusinessmarketing #makemarketingmatter #idealclient #businessclarity