Overwhelmed By Marketing Options? Do This Instead…

Growing a business is hard. First, you need that light bulb moment. From there, it’s about finding a profitable market, defining your target audience, and reaching out to them. Whether you’re selling services, promoting products or gathering information, it’s an uphill battle. 

Without the right marketing strategy in place to support your growth, seeing a return on investment is nigh impossible. 

Which marketing streams are going to drive paying customers to your front door? Do you need one or should you throw them all into the mix? Today, with so much pressure from social media marketing, SEO, PPC, email and website design, it can be overwhelming.

If you’re feeling lost, join the club. It’s over-flowing with entrepreneurs who have a checklist as long as your arm. We’re all scrambling to get through our inboxes, send invoices, respond to employee requests and push things forward internally without thinking about marketing. 

In truth, I face the same struggles and I work in digital marketing. I understand the market and I still can’t seem to get through my checklist. There are so many marketing ideas buzzing around in my head. I have too much choice.

So, how do you move forward? To move forward, you need to take a step back. Analyse what marketing methods are working for you right now. Pick one area of growth and go to town on your marketing. It’s great to have a list of marketing channels that you want to use to promote your business. But, with too much going on up there, you will end up without a clear focus. 

Here are some tips to get you started: 

Focus on what you know 

Like most marketers - I want to do everything. In an ideal world, I’ll have multiple marketing channels to support my business. But I can’t do everything. In the past, I’ve tried to master everything at once. I spread myself too thin and end up underperforming in all areas. 

As a marketing agency, we have always specialised in SEO with a strong focus on dominating the search results for search terms across the UK. That’s personally what I’m good at. I got my SEO nailed on before moving onto the next marketing channel. 

Now, I’ve started to focus on video marketing, improving my confidence in front of the camera - it’s a learning curve! 

So, what is my point? Do what you are confident in before trying to conquer the entire internet! You’ll get there. It just takes time. 

Focus on what is working for you

Without data, all you have is guesswork. You may think you know your market inside and out. But trust me, people will surprise you.

I have spent the best part of 20 years following the best mentors in the business and taking advice based on what is working for everyone else. Some things worked, others crashed and burned. What works for one business won’t necessarily work for you. 

Don’t follow the crowd - trust your data!

If you haven't already, research the best marketing tools for the job. Above all, you should have a Google Analytics account.

It’s completely free and will give you vital insights into the performance of your website and the behaviour of your visitors. 

Focus on where your customers spend time

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’ll be surprised at how many marketers miss the mark. You probably have some data on where your customers spend their time. Use it. Create a customer persona and reach out to people with messages that hit on their pain points. 

Let’s say your primary marketing method is social media marketing. You are a service-led business with aspirations to connect with other like-minded business owners. Where should you focus your time and money? If you’re only using Instagram to drive conversions, then you’re missing out. Right here (on LinkedIn) is where you need to be. 

If you’re still unsure which channel to go for, then test it. Just go for it. There’s something to be said for the ready, fire, aim approach! 

Don’t be afraid to mix things up 

Let’s say you’ve spent an entire month blogging - you have done some killer keyword research and published a ton of content. It’s important to give search engines time to crawl, index and rank that content. However, if after some time and link building, you don’t see a traffic and rankings uplift, then perhaps it’s time to change tack.

Perhaps your audience doesn’t search on Google. They may spend time on Instagram and connect with brands on there. If so, don’t be afraid to mix things up. It doesn’t make you a failure. A big part of marketing success stems from trial and error - no one ever made millions in a week. It takes time and a whole lot of testing. 

As your business grows so will your marketing channels 

I’m not saying that you should have a multi-channel marketing strategy right away. It takes time to get there. You should build up to it overtime. 

Once you have a marketing channel humming along that is generating revenue, then it’s time to expand. Dip your toes into different areas of marketing (social media, SEO, paid search, sales funnels, etc), just be sure to take things one step at a time. 

If you don’t have the resources in house, why not hire a digital marketing agency to do it for you or teach you how? Shameless plug here... ?? I own a marketing agency with a 20-strong team who have skills in all areas of marketing. Feel free to message me directly to find out more. 

Once you have one process nailed on, automate it or outsource it, and tackle the next. Repeat this process over and over again and, eventually, you will have a multi-channel strategy that gets results.