The marketing activities that you really need to focus on

If you’re a Founder, serious about scaling your business right now, follow Emmie Faust for advice on business growth, inspiration and support.

Have you had a disappointing ad campaign?

Or struggled to see results from social media?

Maybe you have no idea what marketing content you should be putting out online.

I see so many start-ups and scale-ups wasting time and money on marketing activities, advertising and social media that’s not working. I'm talking serious amounts of money!

It’s because they don’t have a strategy or a plan, and they haven’t got the basics right.

If you’re starting up or scaling up a business, you might think you can outsource marketing to someone else - but that could be a costly mistake that generates poor results.

I understand why outsourcing seems so attractive.

For most of the founders I work with, marketing is not their expertise.

They are building businesses, they're startups, they're scaling businesses and their expertise is in creating this product or service.

They want to free up their time and energy and stay in their ‘zone of genius’.

So outsourcing marketing, leaving the ‘creative’ work to someone else, seems like a smart business decision.  

But this is based on a common misconception about marketing - that it’s about posting on social media or coming up with ad campaigns.

But foundational marketing is not creative. It's project management. All you're trying to do with marketing is to achieve your goals. 

At a business strategy level, you get clear on your goal.

And then marketing is the strategy that you use to achieve those goals.

And deciding what that strategy should be IS something within your zone of genius, it is something you should be doing, and understanding yourself. I'm not saying do that process on your own but be involved in that process.

That's why I work with my clients on this process (together) so that everyone understands what we are doing and why and we are all clear on the outcomes.

Only when you've got this foundational marketing right, can you successfully outsource the implementation of your marketing strategy to someone else.

And yes at this point together will find the right freelancers, consultants or agencies to help us implement this strategy.

It’s a view shared by marketing consultant and coach Janine Coombes. Janine is a bit of a legend on LinkedIn so you might have already seen her with her great videos and marketing advice.

I invited Janine to this week’s podcast to talk about the fundamental marketing activities every business owner should be undertaking, including:

• The basic marketing foundations you must get right 
• 4 ways you can get insight from your ideal customers
• The only thing you should assume when it comes to customer research
• How to dig down beyond surface-level problems to get inside your customers head
• How to use your customer research to make sales effortless
• How to find content ideas for your product-based business
• The 4Ps of your offer and which one to focus on first

You can listen to the episode here or on your favourite podcasting platform

We'd love to know what you think.

I have worked with Janine recently on my own messaging for a new accelerator program I am launching and I definitely rate her. It's always good to have an outside perspective too because doing this for yourself can be so hard.

You can connect here with Janine Coombes on LinkedIn

If you’re a startup Founder, serious about scaling but feeling overwhelmed about the road ahead right now, follow me on LinkedIn, subscribe to my newsletter for useful information and support (or DM me and get in touch)

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