Why your marketing isn't working

Has your marketing stopped converting? Maybe you had the perfect webinar that reliably converted new clients every time you delivered it. Or maybe you had a free tool that everyone wanted to download until they didn't. As a coach or consultant, it's inevitable that your marketing will eventually stop working. If you have a "rinse and repeat" marketing approach that is no longer working, this conversation is for you.

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Has your marketing stopped working?

Whether you launched your business 12 months ago or 20 years ago, it's inevitable that a well converting marketing strategy will eventually stop working. Sometimes it's due to something you can't control–like an advertising algorithm change on social media. But most times, it's because you've lost touch with your audience.

In order to build a sustainable coaching or consulting practice–one with reliable revenue growth, steady profits, and increasing influence, you need to stay relevant to your clients and true to your mission and values.

In prior newsletters I’ve talked about pricing and how to package your services. And, how it’s important that you add leverage into your business model.?Leverage comes through one to many offers, or going deeper with fewer clients through a services value ladder approach in your product portfolio.?

And you leverage your time by having a framework that you rinse and repeat from one client to the next–a framework that delivers the results you promise in your marketing and that your clients expect to get as a result of working with you.

But what doesn’t always work is a rinse and repeat approach to your marketing. If you are in a groove and have a high converting marketing system that is working, by all means, rinse and repeat and keep momentum going through those systems, and channels where people are engaging with your content.

But sometimes, you can get comfortable in the process and fall into a rut with your marketing. This is when you are doing the same things that used to convert like crazy but don’t convert for you any longer.

You can either be in a marketing groove or a marketing rut.

A marketing groove is when you have perfected a system of delivering predictable sales results through your marketing channels.

A marketing rut is when you find yourself habitually creating the same content and marketing through the same channels but your results are declining instead of increasing or holding steady.

If you are not constantly measuring your results and what’s working and what’s not, it’s easy to slip into a rut without knowing it until it’s too late and it takes a lot of effort to correct.

For example...

Maybe you have created a pattern of posting a new article to LinkedIn every week. And when you first started, lots of people were engaging in your content. But now, that engagement is dropping off. And that lack of engagement has impacted the numbers of people who are approaching you for opportunities to work together.

Or perhaps you have been using online workshops or webinars to connect with potential buyers. It could be a couple of years ago, your potential clients were signing up on a regular basis and your webinars and workshops were delivering consistent results. But now, you have seen a steady decline in sign ups, people showing up, and fewer still of those people are signing up for calls to explore working together.

If either of the last two examples are true for you, then you are in a marketing rut. You once had a groove that was predictable and working for you, and now that groove has turned into a rut.

Don't confuse a marketing rut with a new tactic that needs refining.

I want to distinguish this from a NEW marketing tactic that you are trying for the first time. It CAN be that you haven’t yet honed your skills at delivering this new marketing approach and you need to work out the kinks first. I have seen many entrepreneurs abandon a marketing approach saying, “it’s not working for me,” when they haven’t yet analyzed why or practiced finetuning their skills in delivery.

It’s important to understand if you are in a rut or a groove. And that requires that you constantly measure your results.

To develop a groove and avoid a marketing rut, here are 5 things you can focus on today to tune up the results you’re receiving from your marketing.?

1. Keep your ear tuned to the most current challenges your clients are facing. Tune up your content to produce solutions to their most pressing dilemmas.
2. Experiment with new approaches. Should you dip your toe into tiktok? Maybe. Should you try a live launch instead of a webinar, why not give it a try??
3. Increase your accessibility and visibility in your market. It’s no secret that video predominates on social media channels because it drives consistent engagement. Even if people aren’t reacting or commenting directly on your posts - they are watching from the sidelines and taking notice of your message.
4. Be consistent in your visibility and in your schedule. A groove requires consistency. Whether you publish your podcast every Tuesday, go live on LInkedIn every wednesday or have a regular show on IG. You are shaping the? avior of your audience by being consistent with your schedule. Your podcast may be the show they tune into for their morning walk.? Your LinkedIn show might be their go to for their Thursday lunch break. Your own habits in creating content create habits with your consumers.
5. Have opportunities for more immersive experiences for those who want to have a more intimate conversation. Many people struggle with building communities around their brands. We talked about that in Ep. 105 with Virginie Glaenzer - communities are the future of brands. But creating a community and keeping people engaged isn’t easy. It requires systems and consistent practices that keep people coming back for more.? will be speaking more about that in future podcast episodes.?

When you have a formula that works for you and works consistently, you are in a groove. But your groove can quickly become a rut that robs you of your time, without producing the results you want.?

Are you in a rut or a groove? Drop a comment and please share–what is the biggest insight you are taking away from this conversation?

NEW Training coming in September!

If you want to get out of a marketing rut and into a groove with the right products, the right pricing and the right messaging and marketing strategy, join me Sept 12 - 16 for a virtual retreat to work ON your business for only one hour a day over 5 days. Click here to learn more about Reliable Revenue Secrets. We will close registration after 50 people have signed up to keep it intimate and interactive.

#marketingadvice #marketingstrategy #salesconversion #womenentrepreneurs #lifeaftercorporate #businessanalytics

Other Life After Corporate Podcast Episodes You'll Enjoy:

104. Easy Lead Generation Strategies for High Ticket Coaches & Consultants with Laura Meyer

100. 10 Lessons from 10 Years in Business

98. The Quick Win Vs. The Long Game

**Life After Corporate Podcast is available on ALL major podcast players. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, Luminary, GoodPods, Overcast, etc.

Debra Boulanger is the CEO of The Great Do-Over, founder of The Launch Lab for women entrepreneurs and host of the?Life After Corporate podcast.?She helps smart, accomplished women leaders make the leap from corporate leader to entrepreneur and replace the paycheck they left behind.??